Katie Brighton-Jones on why women shouldn’t do fasted training, her tips for anyone looking to take up running and why getting the right running shoe makes all the difference.
Watch the full chat with Katie Brighton-Jones below:
Cheltenham fitness pro and triathlon coach Katie Brighton-Jones has been a familiar in face in gyms around Gloucestershire for well over a decade. You may well have seen her running around the town too. She’s an indomitable triathlon competitor and trains menopausal women to compete in epic events like Ironman. But she says an important part of that process is making sure her female clients aren’t following training protocols that were designed for men.
“We’re learning more and more now, but we know that loads of studies that our training was based on, doing our personal training qualifications and other things over the years, were based on men. And now we realise that, actually, if you apply those things to women and especially menopausal women, it just doesn’t work,” Brighton-Jones explained.
“For example, years ago I used to do fasted training and that was seen to be the thing to do. If you fasted and then you trained, it would encourage you to burn more fat and fatty acids and that would have a positive effect. And it does… for men. For women, it is detrimental and it’s negative and it has a big impact on our cortisol levels and our lean tissue.”
Go for natural surfaces
Male or female, Brighton-Jones is an advocate for running as a good form of exercise to boost health markers. But she says seeking out softer more natural surfaces is safer that slogging out a jog down the road.
“Really it (running) is one of the most natural things we can do as bipods, it’s completely cross-patterning. It’s how we’re meant to move so really it’s a natural movement.
“Maybe not pounding the pavements because you know back then (in our ancestral past) we wouldn’t have had pavements, but certainly trail running is more forgiving and from a mental health point of view as well, it’s a great exercise.”
If you’re thinking of taking up running, Brighton-Jones would certainly approve then. But she’d urge you to pace yourself:
“You need to make sure you’re ready and it’s managed well so that you don’t end up injured. And it’s always a love-hate thing. Sometimes I hate it because it’s really hard and I get to the top of the hill and it’s nearly killed me! But I look out and I think ‘you know, I’m so lucky to be up here and I’m so lucky to be able to run’ and I’m grateful for that.”
Selecting the right shoe
Brighton-Jones says becoming a good runner isn’t about having all the gear, but buying a quality pair of running shoes is important. And as part of the process of selecting the right shoe for you it’s worth going to a specialist running store.
“Everybody’s feet are completely different. Some people need more support for pronation or supination. The trainer industry is massive. We’ve got a trainer shop in Cheltenham, Up and Running on the lower high street and the guys down there are really good.
“They’ll have a look at your gait and give you a few different trainers to try, whether you’ve got wider, flatter feet or if you’ve got a high arch. You can shop around. But I do think it’s worth investing in, yes.”
Heading for the hills…and the treadmills
If you are heading for the hills in search of softer ground, but would also like to do laps around the local park and sometimes trundle on the treadmill, it’s worth knowing that hybrid shoes are available.
“Instead of just a hard off-road trail shoe, you can get an on-road/off-road, which is a little bit more forgiving. You can get the Gore-tex ones, all singing all dancing.
“If you’re going to go and do Mont Blanc, then get yourself a serious pair of trail shoes. Maybe that’s not needed for a lap around Pittville Park, which might be more for the podcast audience!”
Well, Pittville Park in a hybrid shoe will definitely suffice for the host of this Sport and Life chat!
