WOW: Week of Workouts 4/3/18

WOW: Victory Lap (aka Whatever Doesn't Kill You...)

In complete contrast to last week's WOW that was focused on injury prevention, we present three workouts designed to push your limits.

As you go through these three workouts, you'll either feel like you are celebrating a well deserved victory lap from the hard work you've put in over the last 8-weeks OR the whole experience may feel like a punch in the face as you careen from one exercise to the next.

Victory Lap

Let's start off the week with a nice, even, full body burn.

Here is week 8 of the 8-week conditioning program. If you haven't started but want to give it a go, please head on back to Week 1 to get going!

Thank you to our intern Ashley for her hard work on putting together these great workouts over the past 8-weeks. 

WOW: Week of Workouts 3/27/18

WOW: Prehab and Injury Prevention

As an athlete, injuries are the ultimate enemy.  Staying healthy is what allows us to play our sport and being strong is what helps us thrive. In this week of workouts, we focus on injury prevention for three of the most prevalent and devastating injuries to all sports:  knee, shoulder, and low back. 

These workouts are great to be added into your current programs since they are just a little extra focus on the muscle groups directly affecting these main injury points. Also, for those who are more likely to hurt those areas due to injury history or sport, adding this prehab in once or twice a week can give you an edge.

Below we have divided the week up into 3 days: knee, shoulder, and low back. 

Let's start off the week with a nice, even, full body burn.

Here is week 7 of the 8-week conditioning program. If you haven't started but want to give it a go, please head on back to Week 1 to get going!

As always, please reach out if you need a form check.

Running Sports: Groin Prehab

After experiencing, for the first time in my career, an athlete with a repeated groin injury. ***I understand groin injuries to be common, but honestly I'd not ever encountered many!*** I became obsessed with understanding the mechanisms for why this happened. As with most things with the body (biomechanically speaking), once you understand where one piece of the puzzle fits, the rest of the pieces fall into place.

In the old days of physical therapy, athletic training, and strength/conditioning, an injured muscle = a weak muscle. Identify the injured/weak muscle and strengthen it. Period.

Lots going on!

Once the pain went away, the advice from trainers and PT's was usually to keep stretching "the area is tight (oh, and weak, so keep strengthening too)." And the athlete would get sent back to S&C for continued strengthening of the weakened area and return to sport performance training. 

Unfortunately, more often that I'd like to count, the injury returned. Time and time again. The outlook for injured athletes, always seemed bleak. It always seemed this would be a nagging issue, no matter the severity.

Fortunately, we know better now - the olden days of working on strengthening injured muscles and looking no where else for dysfunction is over! Just kidding, this is still how most PT's and AT's approach injury.

Back to my injured athlete, after taking a look at her stride, I noticed a very significant hip drop. And a hip drop, boys and girls, is a prerequisite for a groin strain.

Now I knew where to get started. Getting the hips even in striding motions would be the solution. But, wait, there was something else needing attention first! In a previous post, I've called it Priority #1, check it out to understand how the zone of apposition must be corrected before moving into a prehab/rehab protocol.

Once the breathing patterns and rib positioning were improved, we were able to move on to working on preventing another strain.

Below I've got a couple samples of some of the drills we used. But no matter the actual drill, the theme here, and non-negotiable, was hip evenness. That was the main goal. Everything we did must come with even hips. Hips not even after cueing? Okay, that's fine, let's adjust the range of motion. So, as you look at the videos, please remember hip stability, control, and evenness are the top priority for an athlete when groin strain prehab/rehab are on the menu!

Beginner progression

The Single Leg Stance Series is a good option for someone who is recently out of their rehab protocol or can be easily used for a very specific warm-up to improve hip proprioception and and understanding of the relationship your foot has with the ground. 

Performance Injury Prevention

For a healthy athlete, this Groin Series gets a lot accomplished in just 3 movements. This series would NOT be appropriate for someone who is still in a weakened state. Rather, save this for when you've worked back to full health and strength and are looking to keep another groin injury at bay.

Groin injuries don't seem to get a lot of attention, but I think they should. Try a full speed deceleration, change of direction, or even acceleration the next time you've got one!

WOW: Week of Workouts 3/20/18

WOW: Suspension Strap Training

Suspension straps (aka TRX - the brand) are a great way to squeeze in an excellent workout virtually anywhere. Suspension straps are great for travel or if you have a limited amount of floor space.

Below we have divided the week up into 3 days: lower body, upper body, and core. Dare I say that the core workout will be one of the hardest things you've ever done.

The videos are worth watching as we've dug up some variations for this post that we'd never seen or tried before this (the front squat is pretty awesome and great for those with lower body restrictions but who have good core strength).

Say, you'd like to do this workout but aren't ready to pay for the real deal? Then try making your own suspension trainers. Former coach Steve Reed famously made the first YouTube video that showed how to do just that. Check out this oldie but goodie of a video:

Let's start off the week with a nice, even, full body burn.

Here is week 6 of the 8-week conditioning program. If you haven't started but want to give it a go, please head on back to Week 1 to get going!

Enjoy the week and this first beautiful day of spring. If you consider an impending snow storm a good way to start spring.

WOW: Week of Workouts 3/13/18

WOW: HIIT Training

A HIIT program (aka high intensity interval training) is a punishing training method in which you will be performing exercises at maximal effort for a short period of time with a short rest period right after it.

HIIT still seems new and shiny, but has been around awhile: circuit training, anyone? This is just a variation of a circuit that falls on the side of spectrum where you enter the workout a little frightened and inevitably get "the look" after your heart rate tops out and stays close to maximum (not the same as the leisurely machine circuits popularized in the 80s and 90s).

All of the exercises should be done with a moderate to low weight to perform as many reps as possible in this short period of time. These workouts will be under 20 minutes long so they are ideal for someone who is on the run!

Let's start off the week with a nice, even, full body burn.

Onto week 5 of the 8-week conditioning program. If you haven't started but want to give it a go, please head on back to Week 1 to get going!

Another week in the books! Keep on the look out for next week's suspension strap ONLY Week of Workouts (WOW)!

WOW: Week of Workouts 3/6/18

WOW: Mobility Flows, Functional Strength, & Conditioning

Have you ever tried High Intensity Interval Training? It's extremely popular for improving strength, fitness, and leaving participants in a pool of their own sweat at the end. Scroll down as 3 days of HIIT are on tap for this week's WOW.

Got tight hips? How about t-spine mobility? Is it bad? Do you also need to activate your core and stabilize your shoulders? YES?!? Fantastic!

Choose one of these two mobility and activation series a try before your next workout (especially good before a squat session) or you can use them as a stand-alone exercise/stretch. ***I'm sorry my voice is so weirdly quiet on the voiceovers... it was early, my kids were still sleeping... apparently, this is how I speak under those conditions.

WOW: Functional Training

Admittedly, "functional" training is very buzz-wordy right now. But, when you strip away the sensationalism, you are left with a very purposeful approach to training that can vastly improve your day-to-day life. From shoveling snow to carrying groceries to moving around boxes or even an impromptu foot race with your kids or friends, functional training can get you ready for whatever life has in store.

Here is week 4 of the 8-week conditioning program. If you are interested it giving this a try, head on back to Week 1 to get started!

Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions or need a form check!