Laurens Fitness

How To Strengthen Hip Flexors

Lauren — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:34:16 +0000

So instead of making my own videos, thanks to the large amount of stuff available on you tube, I have done the research for you and found some very good videos on how to strengthen hip flexors.

The hip flexors are a problematic area. They can be tight and/ or weak. Weakness in the hip flexor can cause a posterior tilt. Not only does this severely impair your performance, it can end up causing injuries through huge muscle imbalances. When we talk about hip flexor weakness we are mostly talking about the Iliopsoas group of muscles. I have found three videos that I like, and explain and give a few good exercises for the hip flexors. Remember that these exercises aren’t for everyone and if there is any pain (especially in the lower back as the hip flexors attach to the lower back) during them, you should stop.

The first video will talk a little more about hip flexor weakness and problems that can arise, and then will go through some good starting rehabilitation exercise. These are great for people starting out and show good progressions.

The second video is a popular exercise used to help strengthen the hip flexor muscles. Mike Boyle is a well known strength coach and he uses this with a lot of his athletes. Strong hip flexors mean stronger athletic movements and are very important in running and kicking. These are a must if you have any deficiencies at all.

The third video shows some higher level hip flexor exercises that include the other hip flexors. These are suggested to be used later on. Isolate to start to ensure that you recruit the iliopsoas muscles, otherwise you may just overcompensate with your other hip flexors.

Conditioning for Volleyball

Lauren — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:16:41 +0000

Volleyball is a popular sport throughout the world, and is played in many more countries than you can probably imagine. I play professionally and have seen the best and the worst of Volleyball conditioning all over the globe, and I can tell you that the level of strength and conditioning performed can vary greatly.

We’ll take a look at the basic important fitness components of Volleyball that you should start working at to help improve your game. Obviously it is a very multi dimensional sport that requires a lot of different components and technical abilities, however these few basic things are essential to

Strength

Strength is an important part of Volleyball conditioning and one that needs to be done in order to enhance your performance . Strength training for volleyballs essential because without it the other fitness components have no foundation. All over the world at professional and International levels strength training is used o increase the athletic ability of the players. Classic exercises like the Squat, deadliest and Leg press are all used to build up huge lower body power and enhance vertical jump and speed across the court. These large exercises are often supplemented by various single leg varieties to help reduce injury and give a different stimulus, stabilisation strength work, and other parts of the lower body to ensure good biomechanics and balance. Glute, calves, hamstrings etc. Strength/ power exercises such as the Clean and jerk and the Snatch are very popular for Volleyball because they have a great influence on the vertical jump. They are usually performed within the strength program once the player has a base level of strength. Upper body strength is important especially in spikers, and typically in a basic program there will be some sort of bench and pull exercises. The shoulder is used heavily in volleyball and it is not uncommon to see volleyballers at all levels doing strength work on the rotator cuff. A stronger rotator cuff and a more stable shoulder blade will more often than not lead to a reduce incidence of shoulder injuries. No program is the same and a there are a lot of differences between gender and levels when it comes to looking at programs, however the basic principle stands, get strong and improve your athletic performance.

Power

When you watch a volleyball game you see power. Big hits, big blocks, huge jumps. You need to be able to create power and a lot of it for that matter. Before power comes strength, so in any program it is important that a lot of time is spent building up the strength needed in order to create a good power program safely and effectively. As I mentioned above, power cleans and snatches are traditionally used to build the power, and they have a great influence on vertical jump. Plyometrics are often always incorporated, which are exercises that work the stretch shortening cycle in your muscles and give you a greater reactivity. These type of exercises (like box jumps for example) are very effective and will often always result in a great vertical jump… however they have to be managed properly. I once went through a phase of plyometrics for about a month, extreme box jumps, way too high and way too often. I built my jump up for almost 10cm more in about one month, but I subsequently broke down. Training loads need to be managed and in such a high power impact sport, power training needs to be periodized and loaded well. You can’t be elite without it, but in a good program it will fit in with the other types of training you will be doing.

Me after too much load too little rest...Number 10!

Speed

Speed across the court is essential for all positions. However speed is not necessary simple just running fast. In Volleyball there is a lot of change in direction, and many players are limited by their inability to change direction. It is very important to learn to take off, run quick over 10 m and change direction like a pro. You will greatly enhance your ability to arrive to a ball, which is a hugh component of every skill in Volleyball.

These are just the basics of Volleyball Conditioning, and strength training programs for Volleyball are often more complex as trainers try to cover rehabilitation, strength, recovery, power and ensure their players are up and ready for every week. We will talk more about the specifics of each component and look at some injuries that commonly arise in Volleyball.

Stiff Leg Deadlifts

Lauren — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:55:52 +0000

The hamstrings may be the forgotten muscle in the body, but not only do they help you run faster and jump higher, popping hamstrings leading up to a good bum simply look pretty good. So whatever your motive, you should be working them out, and the stiff leg deadliest is a great exercise for it.

Here you can see a video showing correct technique.

The deadlift is a great exercise that hammers the hamstrings, and why it works so well is fact that it challenges the hamstrings eccentrically as well as concentrically. Eccentrically which is essentially lengthening the muscle under load, is the opposite to concentric, and we are stronger eccentrically. During the lengthening phase of a lift, less fibres are recruited, which means there is more strain on each individual fibre. Damage occurs, repair occurs, adaptation occurs and you get more muscle. Voila.

This is a variation, the single leg stiff leg deadliest. Add some weight to it and you will have a very sore hamstring the next day.

Volleyball Warm Up Stretches

Lauren — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:34:56 +0000

Reading Laurens Fitness and many other conditioning blogs you have probably come across a couple of articles that pretty much tell you not to do static stretching pre event or training. I like to incorporate some static stretching into my dynamic movement warm up, but I tend to get it done early, to make sure my last stimulus is a more explosive one.

Volleyball is a sport of power. If you are not an explosive machine, you are limiting yourself in your ability to succeed at a high level in this sport. There are a lot of studies, and a lot of trainers will suggest that static stretching will just about ruin your career. When you hit the court in volleyball, you want to be able to jump… as high as possible. The vertical jump is without a doubt the most important component of physical conditioning, and your warm up should be tailored to get off the ground.

One stretch that can help you significantly is a static hip flexor stretch. As I said above, although static stretching in many cases is thought to be counteractive to explosively, this stretch will help you get another couple of centimetres off the ground, especially if your hip flexors are tight.

A lot of people have really tight hip flexors, and as we have spoken about before, tight hip flexors basically work to switch off the butt muscle. It’s called reciprocal inhibition, and it is a real phenomenon. Activate the glutes, loosen the hip flexors, and vice versa. Not only will stretching your hips flexors help to activate your glutes (which are the most important muscle when talking about a vertical jump)…but it will reduce the friction caused at the hip when jumping, and will help to basically relax them and get them out the way.

Be aware that this is really probably the only static stretch you should do prior to jumping, and you really need to stretch it out like your life depended on it. hold it for 30 seconds plus and rip it, do it twice over and really ensure that you get a good stretch on the fascia as well. The picture below shows you how to stretch your hip flexors.

If you don’t believe me, try it out. All you volleyballers out there trying to get your jump on will find this little tip get you up just that little bit higher. Good luck.

A big shout out to my sponsor workout tips for this post!

Barefoot Training – Things to Consider Before You Throw Your Trainers to the Wind

Lauren — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:40:46 +0000

Many professional trainers and fitness experts have been weighing in on the new phenomenon – barefoot running. Certainly athletic gear brands have been embracing the trend with shoes such as Adidas Adipure Barefoot Trainer and the Vibram Five Fingers. These types of funky footwear are not only turning heads at shopping centres and on the streets but are transforming the way we’re training for all types of sports and athletic events.

Should you embrace the barefoot sensation?

The thinking behind barefoot training

Barefoot running is certainly nothing new and many of the most popular running events, including the Olympics have seen barefoot competitors take home the title.

The more recent surge in the popularity of barefoot training is attributed to a recent publication, Born to Run, released by journalist Chris MacDougall in 2009. In his book, MacDougall recounts how he managed to overcome certain debilitating injuries by utilising barefoot running techniques from primitive Indian tribes in Mexico.

The thinking behind the approach is that removing the cushioning of the shod foot significantly alters the human running gait, which increases the level of involvement of the muscles around the feet and creates a more intense workout. Some supporters also claim that athletic shoes provide unnecessary support and that our bodies were naturally built and born to run.

Criticism has arisen around some of the risks associated with barefoot training especially training on certain surfaces, such as concrete or asphalt which can be quite hard on the joints. Sceptics also point out that our modern society has been developed in a way that demands shoes.

If you are keen to try barefoot running (even if it’s just to satisfy your curiosity about the shoes) here are some important considerations before you try barefoot running:

Professional Advice –it’s important to get professional and/or medical advice before starting a new training or fitness program. Be sure to disclose any health problems and past injuries to get the most appropriate advice.
Terrain – consider where you’ll be running. It may be worthwhile to start with softer surfaces such as along the beach and to start off by working a few barefoot running sessions into your normal routine.
Hygiene – it goes without saying that you should be mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow gym members. Bring a training mat or invest in minimal shoes like the Vibram Five Fingers if you will be training barefoot indoors.

Personal trainers, what do you think about barefoot running? Have you incorporated it into your training routine?

Author Bio: Paige writes on fitness and wellbeing as well as personal training courses for aspiring trainers.

Hip Stability Exercises

Lauren — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:03:08 +0000

The hip is a joint that needs to be both mobile and stable at the same time. For those that have stability issues in the hip, you will get a lot from watching this series of videos I found. The first step to getting stable hips, is getting strong glutes…and a lot of us have problems simply activating the glutes. We cn do as many great strength exercises as we want, but until we get that butt engaged, you are going to stress the wrong muscles. These videos contain great information and explains some even better hip stability exercises. These three videos are very basic and are starting right from scratch and exactly what you need if you have inverted glutes

Once you have mastered these exercises, keep them in your routine, but add some more challenging work. Activation comes first, we need to isolate the muscle in order for it to get going, but you pretty soon need to move into some more functional movement for the bum. Check out these bum exercises, a post a wrote a while ago that explains and shows you some of the best exercises to get strong glutes. Glute activation is very important for getting stable and strong hips…but we must always remember to progress.

Essential Shoulder Soft Tissue Work

Lauren — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:55:56 +0000

With just a tennis ball, a foam roller and a few well thought out stretches you can keep your shoulder pain and injury free.

The shoulder is a very mobile joint, one nor built for stability. Saying that, even a small biomechanical imbalance can mean an injury. Shoulder injuries are both common and painful. Overuse problems such as tendinitis can sneak up on you and are relatively hard to get rid of without rest or constant treatment. Luckily there are usually a number of easily fixable underlying problems. Some of which we will be addressing here

Self soft tissue work is probably the beat recovery you can do on your own. Considering not all of us have large wallets, getting professional help all the time is difficult… But you can get almost the same benefits whenever you want with some very cheap tools.

The parts we will look at working on today are jut some typical problematic areas. These are usually tight or issues on a lot of people and cause problems. Be aware that this might not be you, but there is a fair bet that these will give you some relief.

PECS

The pec muscles, minor and major are responsible for shoulder flexion, adduction and also contributes to internal rotation. Whether it be too much bench press in relation to back work ( common mistake) or simple sitting at the desk too much or walking with terrible posture… A lot of us have some sort of tightness in the pecs. This means that your shoulder are rounded, and your already small and squished in Glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) becomes even smaller and with less space for tendons to move through. Pec releases and stretches will go a long way to loosening and opening up your shoulders.

Excerpt taken from Tennis Ball series…Yes, I look a little like a dead fish, but it’s the most effective way to get at these babies. You will find the best response comes from the upper pecs, where the muscle starts to get smaller and go into your shoulder. It’s a big muscle, so play around. Lay on the ground with the ball underneath you. Roll around a little until you find tight and tender spots, then hold. This is a pretty painful one, but very necessary in almost everyone.

Pec Stretch

LATS

Instead of going through everything again I will direct you to a post I wrote not long ago on the lats…. The why and how.

Latissimus Dorsi Soft Tissue Work

INFRASPINATUS AND TERES MINOR

Maybe it’s just me, and highly likely given my volleyball profession, but this muscle causes me a lot of problems. Get it with a tennis ball. Again head to this Tennis Ball post and scroll down to Rotator Cuff…detailed explanations on how to hit it there.

There are many other spots you can work, but I find if you hit the pecs and lats constantly, you will be going a long way to keeping your shoulder pain and injury free

Latissimus Dorsi Soft Tissue Work: Help Shoulder Pain

Lauren — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:37:01 +0000

If you have shoulder pain you have probably been treating around the around. Traps, rhomboids, deltoids etc etc…one of the biggest culprits and often overlooked is a malfunctioning latissimus dorsi. This one I know from experience. After suffering from should pain for nearly two years (common for a volleyballer but not necessary) a friend of mine proceeded to stick his large thumbs into my lat dorsi. This breakthrough, although making me scream and nearly backhand him to the face, instantly referred pain up to my shoulder, and instantly I could feel relief. Naturally, I want to share this relief with you.

Here is a picture of the lat dorsi.

As you can see it is huge, attaches on various places… Vertebre, pelvis, ribs, scapula and humerus to be exact, which means that it can cause a whole lot more problems than just in the shoulder, but I digress. The movements it performs are extension of the humerus, adduction of the humerus in two planes, and perhaps most importantly internal rotation of the humerus.

Lat dorsi too tight or malfunctioning…means too much internal rotation, which means imbalances, which means many possible shoulder pathologies ouch as impingement. Not only that, the lats have a significant effect on the movement and stability of the scapula. I won’t go into too much detail here as I want to get to the good stuff, the soft tissue work, but the scapula plays an imperative role in shoulder function and stability. Without a nice functioning scap, you’re screwed. On top of all this, simple trigger points in the lat dorsi can refer pain to the front of the shoulder, so you want them out.

I will go into this large muscle more in the future and delve into why it can cause a whole lot of problems, and why a strong and well functioning lat dorsi can actually improve performance in many measures, but for now, we will move onto the soft tissue work, and how to save your shoulder from a lot of pain.

This video explains how to do self myofascial release on the foam roller for your latissimus dorsi. Be aware, and I am not joking, that if you have not done this before… it bloody hurts. It’s a large muscle that does a lot of work and is on most people generally very tight and full of trigger points.

This video shows you how to perform a release on the lats with a lacrosse ball. As you may have seen in my tennis ball series, a lacrosse ball isn’t always necessary. Anything that size is great to get the trigger points…but remember if you think the foam roller hurt, this will at the start be almost unbearable. Helps prevent and cure shoulder pain though, so toughen up.

Heres to a healthy shoulder

Hip Flexor Foam Roller

Lauren — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:49:06 +0000

We have spoken a lot about the hip flexor muscles on Lauren’s Fitness and how they can affect the way your body functions. The muscles consist of the Rec Fem, the Illiacus and the Psoas. Tight hip flexors can result in a lot of problems, most notably back pain. The best way you can loosen the hip flexors is through soft tissue work. There are a lot of stretches that you can do that will help a lot, but the fact is that the hip flexors are made up largely of fascia. Fascia is the sheath of connective tissue that covers the muscles and it often needs something more than just stretching to release it.

Soft tissue work is the best thing for the hip flexors, and combined with stretches it is very effective. If you can get a professional to release them you will get the best results. Not all of us have the opportunity to get a massage as often as we would like or need, so it is important to be able to do your own soft tissue work at home. There are a couple of methods that you can do at home, and they are using a foam roller and also a tennis ball/ massage ball.

Everyone should invest in a foam roller. It’s the easiest method to do your own soft tissue work at home. Check out this foam roller on amazon, comes in different lengths.

Now…as I explained above the Rec Fem, which is a muscle that actually crosses the hip and the knee is part of the hip flexors, and is the first one that you can do work on by yourself with the foam roller. Here are two videos showing you how to do it.

Remember at first that it can be very painful, especially if you have never had anyone do any work on you before. Points that hurt more, stay on them, eventually the pain will start to fade away. These points that you hit may be trigger points, you can hit them even harder later with a tennis ball. Ensure that you do this often, at the start a couple of times a day. The fact is that tight hip flexors are often a result of our lifestyle. A lot of us work sitting down and our hip flexor muscles are in a shortened position all the time, so we need to do regular soft tissue work to counter act the fact that we are tightening the hips daily.

Try to work up as high as you can, you will hit the lower part of the psoas as well. Combine this with the tennis ball work and stretching regularly and you will be well on your way to releasing your hip flexors and reducing your pain.

Rectus Femoris Muscle: Self Release

Lauren — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:03:18 +0000

The rectus femoris muscle is one that causes a lot of issues, especially in the knee. It is a hip flexor and a knee extensor. Check out this video on how to release your rec fem yourself with a foam roller, specifically the thera roll and a massage or tennis ball.

My favourite foam roller, hurts…but very effective. I use the small grey one, the hardest one. Purple is medium strength, blue the mildest.