Wednesday, January 7, 2009
BSF Manual
I can honestly say that this is one of the best resource manuals I've ever seen, and definitely the best for building an endurance athlete. Bott and Keller go into great depth from muscle balance to injury prevention to periodization and program design. The reference material alone is enough to want to buy the manual, but "in the trenches" information compliments the research in just the right manner.
Here is a sneak preview of what this manual includes: BSF Manual.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Happy New Year
1. Femoral Anterior Glide Syndrome 2. Janda's Lower Crossed Syndrome
(Diagnosis & Treatment of Movement Impaired Syndromes - Sahrmann) (picture courtesy of Jon-Eric-Kawamoto - http://www.jkconditioning.com/)
Why do you think most Functional Assessment Screens have some variation of a hurdle test or leg drive? Very simply, the practitioner can see how the client/patient steps up or over something. Generally, you will see the femur externally rotate allowing the abductors such as tensor facia lata (TFL/ITB) and anterior gluteus medius to take over rather than having the psoas and iliacus "pull" the leg straight up and over.
Here are a couple of screens or exercises that you can take your clients through to see how well they integrate their hip flexors: step-ups, stability ball plank to knee pull-in, and single-leg deadlift to knee drive (see http://www.humanmotion.ca/ for exercise videos). In each of these, try to get the person to actively drive straight up with the knee without trying to meet the knee by flexing the trunk. To further test length of hip flexors as well as hip muscle imbalance, try a modified Thomas Test. Very broadly, if the extended leg doesn't extend down to the table, psoas and iliacus is likely tight and will inhibit glute function = ant. pelvic tilt. If knee falls out laterally, TFL/ITB are likely tight and dominant. Rectus femoris is tight if the knee is less than 80 degree to horizontal (Sahrmann, 2001). Images courtesy http://www.jkconditioning.com/.