James's advice on injury and exercise

As a rather annoying coincidence, just as you're feeling good and starting to reap the benefits of exercise and a healthier lifestyle, something happens that sets you back... Darn it!

As is often the case, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to your injury. There will almost certainly be no warning – it just seems that at a certain point in your training, bits start hurting and not working as well as they had earlier on.

Fear not... it happens to the best of us. I can remember training really hard for a run I wanted to take part in. I was working intensely – so much so that, come the end of most days, I found it hard to walk. It turned out that the problem was more in the nature than a cry for help from my muscles than anything too serious.

If you think about it logically, the reason for the discomfort is quite clear. Any change in your routine is going to have an effect. When trying to lose weight, we strive for a ‘negative energy balance’ – we aim to eat less but do more. This equation also applies to our bodies when you step up the pace, whether it’s your joints, your muscles, your energy level or anything else.

In a weight-loss programme, levels of intensity and strain increase rapidly to begin with (due to the lack of activity previously), so strict attention to form is essential as you don't want to pick up any bad habits that will stay with you.

Often a joint or other area of your body will start to experience discomfort when you begin your exercise regime or when you increase the demands on your body. This discomfort is usually due to you not having used your body in this way before. You are challenging it and it’s letting you know about it.

My advice is to stay with it, while bearing in mind that an initial rest period if you experience a minor injury is no bad thing. In fact I think it is quite good to shock your body with a change of routine on a regular basis, so turning off the heat then turning it back on again may well work in your favour.

Remember, though, that it’s important to listen to what your body is saying. You may need to seek advice from someone with an X-ray machine if the pain continues. Although 75% of our ‘niggles’ turn out to be something quite harmless, 25% can be symptoms of something more serious.

A word from James...

When I first met Natasha late last year, and she told me about her weight-loss plan, I was immediately interested. Here was someone who didn't want a quick fix and wasn't interested in following the latest fad diet. Instead this was someone who wanted to do it the only way I'd recommend. Slowly but surely.

When we actually started our sessions early this year, she didn't try and con me about her abilities. She was very honest and told me straight that she was hard pushed to run for a bus without collapsing or, at best, being very out of breath. Everyone has to start somewhere and Natasha's first and hardest step had already been taken: deciding to do something about the shape she was in.

The initial tests I asked her to do (steps and squats) proved hard work. In fact, half-way through the step test, Natasha had had enough. However, she persisted and managed to complete the three-minute routine.

Over the past few weeks, I've got her to increase her workload bit by bit, moving through basic exercises (lunges, high knees, split squats), upping the intensity in terms of frequency, time, speed and numbers of repetitions – and I'm pleased to say that, thus far, I haven't needed a resuscitation kit.

In terms of increasing Natasha's aerobic fitness, we first started with walking, then fast walking, then added short bursts of jogging. Once she'd become a dab hand at that, the ratio of jogging to walking increased. Walks became shorter, jogs longer and faster, with less rest before the next activity (bench steps, for example, that she now takes in her stride).

The important thing to remember when you're getting fit is progression. Often clients ask me: 'Shouldn't I be getting better at this by now?' If I'm doing my job as a trainer properly, adjusting each session, the answer is no. There are many tools that trainers use to gauge a client's progress and the fact that Natasha asked me this question the other day was a clear indication that not only was she getting fitter and stronger, she'd not noticed me turning up the heat on our sessions. (Well, not unless I really go for it – then she knows all about it!)

My aim (and it's a highly achievable one) is that by the end of March Natasha will be able to run a comfortable lap of the park where we train, just over half a mile.

At this rate, given the traffic levels on our streets, she'll be beating the bus home any day now!