Ciaran Pender Injury Clinic

Ciaran Pender Injury Clinic Ciaran Pender Injury Clinic offers a range of treatments including injury assessment and rehabilitation, sports massage and pitchside match cover.

18/09/2026

Avoid the hamstring re-tear sniper by doing these 3 things

1. Load it enough as it can tolerate it through the early to mid stages - hamstring curls, RDL’s/Nordics/Razers, plyometrics

2. Build moderate speed capacity in those same stages by getting speed on low intensity runs to about 60% - an example would be 2x8 30m runs @60% intensity once able to tolerate it, usually around the 2 week mark.

3. Constantly and progressively increase that speed work - vary the distance, add change of direction and decelerations, conditioning runs - but most importantly work to build lots of reps and that top speed that hamstrings need.

Once you can do repeated sprints and top speed over varying conditions, that’s when we return to play.

Not once the pain is gone.

The re-Injury risk you’re not thinking aboutStaying on top of conditioning throughout a rehab isn’t optional. It’s a big...
11/09/2026

The re-Injury risk you’re not thinking about

Staying on top of conditioning throughout a rehab isn’t optional.

It’s a big part of what determines whether you get reinjured on return.

Keep conditioning going through the rehab process and your body stays used to tolerating load under fatigue.

Let it drop completely, and you’re asking a de-conditioned system to handle full speed, under fatigue, on day one back.

That’s exactly the scenario that re-injury risk sky rockets.

A common example: Hamstring Rehab

Take a typical 6-8 week hamstring rehab.

If all that happens is basic rehab work (hamstring bridges, bodyweight RDLs) plus a week of 50% jogging before return

We have a recipe for disaster.

The system has de-conditioned to fatigue, and the hamstring hasn’t been loaded anywhere near the speeds it’ll need on full return.

Here’s how I rehab my clients with hamstrings

Weeks 1-3: hard bike, row, and ski conditioning, layered with progressively higher-load rehab for the hamstring and lower limb - think 90/90 ham bridges, kickstand RDL, weighted curls, low level plyometrics early on.

Week 4: jogging returns at 50-70% across both short and long distances. Conditioning steps up to 400m x 4-8, holding a consistent time. Rehab kicks up a notch in terms of weights, intensity and volume.

Weeks 5-8: rehab ramps further (razor curls, hamstring-biased plyometrics) while runs push to 90-100% effort on sprint work, and the conditioning runs get faster and less taxing on the body.

As I always say, rehab doesn’t have to complicated.

It just needs to be stupidly effective

Ciaran Pender | Rehab & Performance

06/09/2026

The marathon is 7 weeks out

Manage your volume well now

Listen to your bodies signals

And allow for rest and recovery early on when the signs start showing of bone stress

And you will get to that start line in much better shape than trying to plough through pain.

And do some strength work.

It’s one of the lowest hanging fruits you can work on as a runner, especially training for a marathon

01/09/2026

Function > Pain

It can be hard to think like this when in the depths of that back pain.

All you want is for it to go away.

Especially if you’ve been here before.

It’s so frustrating when injury comes.

That’s why I like to reframe this with my clients.

Injuries take time to heal.

No matter what we do.

So if we can improve our function in daily life, the gym or at work in the meantime

It’s a far better use of our brain and willpower.

Doing nothing will work, and it’ll stop the pain for a while.

But you will have lost function in the meantime.

Especially if you’ve are active in sports, the gym or on the road running/cycling.

So finding a level of function that doesn’t make the pain worse is so important.

Obviously we want a level of pain free somewhere in our plan for an injury.

But where possible let’s try to reframe that into function based planning, than pain 0 planning.

Cos when it comes to pain there’s only one winner, and that’s time.

You’ll never beat the big 3 when it comes to performance and rehab.All these other things can help manage painBut they’l...
31/08/2026

You’ll never beat the big 3 when it comes to performance and rehab.

All these other things can help manage pain

But they’ll never move the needle towards actual improvement in function and strength

Look after the big 3 of food, sleep and proper training load, then you can spend your time and money on the others if you feel they are still worth it.

Sometimes people think injuries can be magically wished away with a needle, a crack and a good dose of hopium.Sometimes ...
28/08/2026

Sometimes people think injuries can be magically wished away with a needle, a crack and a good dose of hopium.

Sometimes those things happen and pain does go away

But likely that is due to the natural healing already being done, or most of the way done.

You will always get better eventually.

And doing rehab, strength training and conditioning will help get you to the front of the line in terms of the timelines.

And more importantly keep you healthy when you get back to what you love.

But not respecting the natural healing timelines will get you nowhere.

And relying on the ‘magic hands’ of someone else will get you absolutely nowhere long run.

And leave you, me and everyone frustrated.

So take a step back, accept your injury needs time to heal, and train around the injury where possible to stay active.

Do the rehab, do the strength work and push those limits.

You will be far better off in the long run.

Tendons like load. Tendons like isometric load.Tendons like consistency. Do these 3 things and tendons will get better.A...
25/08/2026

Tendons like load.

Tendons like isometric load.

Tendons like consistency.

Do these 3 things and tendons will get better.

A lot of tendon pain patients i assess just can’t tolerate any load because their muscle isn’t strong enough.

It’s not always the case but it often is.

Building that muscle mass is the lowest hanging fruit we have by a mile.

ps It may not wake more then 3 months for full resolution but as least it will be better than it was.

You + Plan = goodYou + no plan = badThe overarching point to this post is it doesn’t really matter what goes wrong or wh...
23/08/2026

You + Plan = good

You + no plan = bad

The overarching point to this post is it doesn’t really matter what goes wrong or what you’ve done in the past

It’s that if you get a plan in place,

Follow it,

And progressively modify and upgrade it,

You will be in a far better position to recover from injury and perform at your best.

If you need a hand getting a plan in place around injury

DM me on here and we can have a chat around your circumstances.

10/08/2026

Better beliefs = better outcomes

To summarise this video - you need to surround yourself with people or systems that will allow you to work towards a positive outcome in terms of injury.

Not just tell you that you will never get back to your previous levels.

Or worse again just tell you to rest and hope for the best.

Cos that instills so much confidence doesn’t it.

It’s the part of the job I get the biggest buzz from.

Working with people to hit their end goals, despite the set backs that will inevitably happen along the way.

If you feel you need guidance like this

DM me and we can see what can be done to help your situation!

16/04/2026

When it comes to rehabbing an injury, there are basically two roads you can take.

The first is the safe one.

Modify training heavily, pull back from whatever’s aggravating it, protect the area and let it settle.

It’s steady, it’s predictable, and for a lot of people it’s the right call.

The downside?
It usually means a significant chunk of time away from doing what you actually want to be doing.

The second road is riskier. But it works just as well for a lot of people.

You train into the pain.

Not recklessly, but deliberately.

You find where the pain starts, you work up to it, maybe into it, and you monitor what happens.

Not just during the session, but in the 24 hours after.

That second window is the one that matters most.

If your pain doesn’t get any worse during training and settles back to baseline the next day, you’re generally good to keep going.

If that trend holds over time, the pain starts to go.

And that’s where we are really get proper results in terms of full return to performance pain free

But more importantly it sticks, and doesn’t come back.

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