Hamstring injuries

I was visiting a friend over the weekend who injured his hamstring a couple of months ago and is still having discomfort.

He asked me for some help and this is what I discussed with him. 

Hamstring injuries are tough: they are a main leg stabilizer and decelerate your hip and knee. When they are injured they heal weaker and shorter. Treatment is dual phase, increase the extensibility to restore normal motion and increase strength. My favorite exercises combine these things. 

Airplanes or single leg Romanian dead lifts. Hinging off the hip with the knee in one position puts stress on the hamstring to eccentrically strengthen it. 

Single leg drops help to improve the flexibility of the hamstring. 

Russian hamstrings are a very tough exercise and excellent for increasing the strength in the hamstrings. Once again the focus is on eccentric strengthening. 

Baseball presentation yesterday

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to work with a youth baseball team for speed and agility. The coaches asked me to show them some skills that they could incorporate into practice and during the off season.

Since the kids were younger pre teens or early teenagers my goal was to show some basics and not overwork them.

Our focus was on a warm up and speed drills, full speed sprint work and base stealing techniques for shuffling and transitioning to a sprint. We also did some shuffles and runs into a fielding position in order to prepare for the season. 

The kids worked hard and were pretty tired by the end. 30 min sessions over 2 hours is a lot to stay focused on and theywere struggling by the end. 

It was a good workout and prepared them for when they get outside in a couple weeks. 

Achieving fitness success

In order to effectively meet your fitness goals you need to decide what those goals are. If there are several goals then rank them in order of personal importance so you know what to focus on.

Once you have decided what your goal, or goals, are then you can create a system to achieve them. In general, the human body is very good at adapting. When you apply a stress to your body it responds. Ideally, this stress will result in changes that make it easier to withstand that stress again. This is how strength and fitness is achieved. 

If you follow a structured workout that is meant to achieve specific results then your body will undergo stress. Recovering from that stress allows your body the chance to adapt. 

Following this process of progressive overload and adequate recovery will lead to long term, consistent results. 

When injuries occur, it is attributed to your body not adapting properly. This may due to too much stress, not enough recovery, or both.

Remember, long term gains are made over time. Your workout is only as good as your ability to recover and adapt. 

Youth strength training

             When should young athletes start to strength train? Is it safe? These questions are asked of us all the time and it can be a challenge to convince parents of the safety of training since they have grown up believing that it can inhibit growth or affect the growth plates.

            It is safe for young athletes to start a resistance training program prior to puberty without risk of inhibiting growth or sustaining an injury. The American Academy of Pediatrics has published a policy statement outlining their position. The greatest risk of injury in young participants is poor coaching, and I would add unrealistic expectations.

            While a lot of us do not work directly with young athletes, we do see injuries and compensations that have originated from when they were younger. The goal of resistance training with young athletes should focus on the development of neuromuscular control, coordination, balance and movement. With this population, it is vital to lay a foundation that they can build off of as they grow and develop over the years. Programs should start with body weight exercises to develop movement and kinesthetic awareness and progress over time to include the introduction of typical strength training exercises once they have demonstrated movement proficiency. 

            Instruction should focus on teaching basic movements such as squats, lunges, lateral lunges, planks, pushups, pull-ups or rows, landing mechanics, and deceleration and change of direction drills. These key movements form the base of their sporting movements, as well as their future strength and conditioning protocols.

            Every athlete is different and has different needs, so they will progress at a different rate. Working with them to maximize their movement quality and efficiency will pay dividends for them later on. 

What do you do when you work with young athletes? What do you start doing with them? What recommendations do you give to parents of young athletes?

Resources:

American Academy of Pediatrics. Strength Training by Children and Adolescents. Policy Statement. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/121/4/835.full

IYCA. Kids Fitness Programs, should they really lift weights? http://iyca.org/kids-fitness-programs-should-kids-really-lift-weights/?inf_contact_key=5741d93b459a43e2580d5eda2335479261206ebaa7255ec5b8e680dff0b0c96f

Staying safe on the snow

I wrote this post for the Board of Certification Blog at  http://www.bocatc.org/blog/

With the Winter Olympics under way and a President’s Week break starting soon there will be a lot of people out skiing and snowboarding over the next few weeks.

While sliding down the mountain is an exhilarating experience, it can also end very badly, speaking from experience.

Here are some ways to make sure that your ski vacation is both fun filled and safe.

1.      Control-Ski within your abilities and skill set and always be able to stop quickly if the situation calls for it.

2.      Awareness-Look around before you start your run and continue to practice defensive skiing during your run to avoid a collision.

3.      Hydration-You may not always feel thirsty when you are schussing down the mountain, but exercise in the winter weather can quickly cause you to become dehydrated. Prepare to take breaks or a carry a hydration pack for the day.

4.      Fatigue-Injuries occur after lunch when your stomach is full and your muscles are fatigued from the morning. If you go back out in the afternoon, take it easy on some cruisers first so you do not overdo it, or quit early.

5.      Equipment-Make sure that your gear is properly fit and adjusted to your body. Wear layers so it is easy to peel off as the day progresses and your body warms up.

The snow and mountains are a great way to exercise in the winter and enjoy the outdoors. When you are out channeling your inner Olympian remember to stay safe, pay attention and have fun!

For some other good tips on staying safe in the snow visit http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/skiing-and-snowboarding-injury-prevention.aspx

Hip Mobility

             If your athletes are anything like mine, a lot of them have movement deficiencies with squatting, stepping, lunging and changing direction. Then, when they get injured and you are assessing them you notice how tight their hips are. When you ask them to squat or demonstrate a dynamic movement, they have difficulty.

            Sitting for most of the day and then participating in a sport that asks the body to perform a similar task (predominantly sagittal plane) is contributing to our athletes having tight hips that restrict their performance. They are not going to be able to generate full force on their lifts, changing direction, landing or pivot easily due to their restrictions. Helping them to open their hips and improve their mobility will improve their on-field performance and long term health of their hips.

            Starting with some foam rolling and massage is a good start for breaking adhesions and fascial restrictions that are limiting their motion. Static stretching can be indicated for those areas that are extra tight and can involve Thomas stretching, kneeling lunge stretching with or without elevating the rear foot, and quadriceps and hip flexor stretching.

            Activating their core musculature with static holds and low skill stability exercises teach them how to maintain their posture while their hips move in different directions. This is necessary for higher technical lifts and movements they will encounter in their sport. Examples include bridges, side leg raises, leg swings, bird dogs, fire hydrants, single leg Romanian deadlifts , spidermans, and other exercises.

            Progressively teaching and reinforcing more technical exercises that stress their body will help to develop long term mobility in their hips. Training them to move in multiple planes will be effective in terms of gaining increased movement potential and carry over to sport. Exercises that can accomplish this are lateral lunges and squats, reverse lunges with rotation or an overhead reach, drop step lunges and squats, and lateral step ups.

            Attacking the limitations in hip mobility can improve functional movement, improve quickness and deceleration, and decrease risk of injury. 

            What exercises have you found to be effective in terms of improving hip mobility? Do you have progressions you use with your athletes?

Resources:

http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1298.cfm

http://movement-as-medicine.com/4-hip-mobility-drills-to-improve-your-squat/

Event observations

I worked a Track and Field event yesterday and have made some observations on the organization of it thanks to my Graduate work.

The timeliness, preparation and ability of the staff was very good. Everyone knew what their job was and kept the meet moving to prevent backups and lost time.

 

The organizers were not as easy to find. I was there for 7 hours in the training room and did not see a single event manager. 

There was also a problem with the spectators. Due to the venue their was limited space around the track and that is where a lot of the spectators gathered. This made it very difficult to navigate through the facility and in the event of an emergency it would be catastrophic. A better option would be to close the perimeter off to spectators and have a loading area for coaches and teams on the infield or another side location once they entered the facility. Fans should be moved to the above seating or had another area set up that did not interfere with flow. 

From my perspective, there was not enough supplies for the event and that is something that I should have noticed beforehand. I also did not have a way to track the athletes that I saw and in the future need to have a way to document who was seen, for what, and what recommendations were given. 

Overall, it is a very successful event and the number of teams make it hard to stay on time and anticipate everything. Making notes on an ongoing basis will consistently help make it even better.