#movement prep

The kettlebell has long been regarded as the gym in your hand. The cast-iron device packs a big punch in a small heavy footprint, suitable for dozen of exercises from mobility to power. In fact, they’re so practical, they’re sold out everywhere these days. See why the majority my own and client strength and conditioning is done with a kettlebell. Check out some of my favorite programming exercises used to introduce kettlebells to new clients. Starting from the ground to standing, mobility to strength to power. All you need is a mat and a bell to get a full body workout in an efficient and effective way.

Interested in learning more about how you can incorporate kettlebells into your own training? Lets’ chat!

Movement Prep

Strength

Power

Du läufst bereits etwa 45 Minuten in einem moderatem Tempo? Sehr schön!

Bevor du wieder zu neuen Ufern aufbrichst, ist es sinnvoll, die Leistung zu stabilisieren. Veranschlage dafür am besten einen Zeitraum von 2 – 3 Wochen. Das ist wichtig. Viel zu oft, wird gelaufen, was das Zeug hält (……und irgendwann hält es dann halt nicht mehr…..).

Also: Leistung stabilisieren und den bisherigen Erfolg…

It's one of the most overused and under cared for parts of the body. It's something we torture yet like to paint the nails of. It's something that we dress up for running, playing, walking and dancing.

Our feet are among the most complex parts of the human anatomy and play a part in so many of our daily movements. Yet the are often ignored in fitness programming due to ignorance and the pursuit of fashion. Now I am old and wise enough to know that people won't stop wearing high heels or coming to the gym in plimsoles so here's the solution to get you think about those tootsies a little more:

Step 1: Stand up nice and tall then slowly bend forward at the hips and let your arms droop towards your feet. Don't try to touch the toes, just hang and be cool.

Step 2: Use any flat surface as a marker and assess how low the hands hang naturally in that relaxed position. Remember to keep the hands loose, no reaching. Note where the hands sit, are they level or is one set of fingers a little lower than the other?

Step 3: Slowly stand up and get yourself a hard ball, a tennis ball will be too soft so be brave and go for a golf, hockey or cricket ball. Ideally go online and buy a ball specifically designed to do this specialist job of myofascial release. Press your foot onto the ball and roll across every part of the sole, the more pressure you apply the more tender it'll feel. Focus on the points which give you most discomfort for 3-4 minutes on the left foot only.

Step 4: Repeat steps 1 and 2 then note where the hands hang.

You should observe a couple of things, firstly a gentle hot/burning sensation in your left foot which is natural so don't worry. Secondly and more importantly you should see that the left hand hangs slightly lower than the right. This illustrates the importance of the foot in overall human function but in this instance mobility and flexibility in particular. By releasing tension from the sole of the left foot you have begun to relax or release the superficial back line of connective tissue (includes calves, hamstrings, glutes, back and neck muscles) in the left hand side of your body. From this we can start to improve flexibility from your big toe to your forehead and much more in between.

Repeating this process daily opens up your capacity to deadlift, jump, run, squat and lunge more effectively. Of course lots of addition work must be done but unlocking the foot, ankle, knee and hip is key to improving your range of motion and strength across that range; releasing the foot can also help running become more comfortable and improve flexibility for sports performance.

Postural Dysfunction Corrective Chart

Good afternoon everyone.  Today I wanted to share with you a few ideas for assisting athletes with postural dysfunctions, specifically lumbo-pelvic-hip complex  (LPHC), upper body (UB), and lower leg/foot-ankle (LLG) dysfunction. These issues can significantly impair movement, athletic performance and significantly increase an athlete’s risk of sustaining injury. Most athletes present with…

Re-blogged from CorePerformance

Overview

Movement prep, as the term suggests, prepares your body for movement. It’s a series of innovative and dynamic movements that increase your core temperature, prepare your nervous system for physical activity and strengthen your body.

Dave Cruz

How Movement Prep Works

As opposed to a traditional warm-up, movement prep actually makes you stronger and helps yield long-term flexibility gains. You’ll actively elongate your muscles in a series of movements, which can improve balance, mobility and stability. Think of it as warming up with a purpose.

You’ll do approximately 5 to 10 repetitions of each exercise in your movement prep routine. Not only will it feel like part of your workout (as opposed to a boring precursor to the real thing), at first it might feel like a workout itself. 

Don’t worry: Your body will quickly condition itself to the exercises, and when you’re done, you’ll feel warmed up, rather than worn down. And you’ll be better prepared for whatever follows, whether it’s a workout, a game or just the normal actions of everyday life.

Benefits of Movement Prep

Movement prep helps you dial in both physically and mentally for your workout. It increases your heart rate, core temperature, and blood flow to working muscles. Another benefit: Nearly everyone, including professional athletes, has at least one muscle group that’s completely shut off. This can cause other areas of the body to compensate, which ultimately leads to injury.

An example of this would be the small muscles of the hips, the gluteus medius, which if not activated will lead to lower-back problems, knee pain, and groin strain. It’s as if someone flipped the circuit breaker, cutting off power to these little muscles. With movement prep, it takes only a day or two to reactivate these inactive areas. These exercises, which require no equipment, enable your body to recall those movements that perhaps haven’t been used since childhood.

By strengthening muscles in this new range of motion, you stabilize all the tiny muscles around your joints that help hold the joints together. That will improve posture and performance and decrease potential for injury.

A Wake-Up Call for Dormant Muscles

We spend most of our time sitting on our butt (glutes), which causes the muscles opposite of them—the hip flexors—to become tight and inactive. The neuromuscular relationship of these opposing muscle groups is known as reciprocal inhibition, which is a fancy way of saying that when one muscle group contracts, the other relaxes. Movement prep is reciprocal inhibition at work. 

Your movement prep routine wakes these muscles up—and not just for your workout. They’ll remain switched on for the rest of the day.

Here’s why that’s important: Let’s say you’re walking on a winter day, and your foot slips on some ice. How well your body reacts to that slip on the ice depends on your proprioception, the system of pressure sensors in the joints, muscles, and tendons that your body uses to maintain balance. Movement prep, in switching on your body’s small muscles, also tunes your sense of proprioception. It prepares your body for random chaotic movement by fine-tuning its nerves and feedback mechanism.

Better Than Old School Stretching

There’s tremendous value in traditional stretch-and-hold, or “static” stretching if executed properly and done after a workout. However, static stretching routines performed before exercise can increaseflexibility only for a short time. There is little scientific evidence that such routines can improve exercise performance, reduce delayed-onset muscular soreness or prevent injuries.

A difference between traditional static stretching and movement prep is that the goal of the former is to relax muscles, to allow you to get into a stretched position and hold it. In movement prep, you’re going to contract your muscles, which is to say you’ll be activating them by squeezing them. This improves the long-term mobility and flexibility of muscles. Rather than have them stretch and go back to where they were—as is the case with traditional stretching—movement prep helps your body remember those ranges of motion.