Matt Hank

This video shows dynamic flexibility exercises that can be incorporated into any workout or training routine.  These exercises are great because it takes the muscle through the full range of motion in all three planes of motion.  It’s not adequate to simply reach for your toes and pull on your leg to stretch your quad before you do any physical activity.  In fact, those type of stretches I just mentioned may be counter-productive before you do physical activity.  From athletes to weekend warriors, everyone needs to incorporate these movements into their routine.

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After a doctor has diagnosed the injured knee (with an MRI or manual tests for ligament structure) and determined there is no structural damage, it is time to find out why there pain in the knee. The thing about this knee pain is that the knee itself is not the problem. It’s easy for doctors to say “Oh there is no structural damage, just have your son/daughter do some exercises to strength the knee like leg extension or hamstring work.” This is just trying to mask the symptoms instead of resolving the problem. In fact, those recommendations are terrible because you may be putting more stress on the injured knee – place shear forces on your knee by doing leg extensions or partial leg extensions and isolate your hamstring muscle by doing knee flexion exercises. First off, your hamstrings primary role in functional movements is not concentric knee flexion so don’t waste your time doing hamstring curls. You are training the body to do something that it would not normally do in a baseball game or volleyball match. Instead, let us start to look above and below the knee for what is causing the problem. Most times chronic knee pain is the result of dysfunction of the ankle or hip joint. We need to make sure the ankle and hip have the proper amount of mobility and stability. The pain may also be coming from the core, back or even the shoulder. That’s right - shoulder girdle dysfunction can cause lower body injuries. Once we have determined the weakness within the kinetic chain, then it is appropriate to design a program to alleviate this knee pain.

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This is a great strength and mobility exercise.  My intention with this exercise is to address the hip and shoulder in all three planes of motion.  The hip and shoulder/Thoracic Spine require a fair amount of mobility in sport and daily activities.  Also, these two areas of the body need to work together to produce powerful movements such as throwing a ball or spiking a volleyball.  Finally, this illustrates the importance of core strength because the powerful core musculature is connecting the shoulder and hip together.

The first sequence of repetitions attacks the sagital plane (forward and backward motion).  I am getting complete extension and flexion from the shoulder and the hips.  The second sequence of repetitions is addressing the frontal plane (side to side motion).  This plane of motion is addressed less frequently in many strength programs compared to the sagital plane.  Within this movement there is abd- and adduction occuring through the hip and shoulder joints.  The final sequence of repetitions targets the transverse plane of motion.  This plane is also rarely considered when designing a strength training program.  In this video my shoulder and hip go through full range of internal and external rotation.  The key element to this sequence of exercises is that the hip and shoulder are working together to produce this movement in all three planes of motion.

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I get the question from parents all the time “What age should my child begin training?” Usually they mean sports performance training with me. My answer is they have already begun sports performance (weight training, speed, and agility) training at a young age. Every youth team sport and many individual sports involve running, jumping, hitting, kicking, or throwing. If they are doing these activities, they already begun performance training. Here is the problem: parents are willing to invest money to have their kids practice with specialized coaches such as soccer goalkeeper specialists, basketball shooting coaches, pitching/hitting coaches, and many other specialized coaches. At a young age you teaching your child one skill, when they really need to train their overall athletic development. On the other hand, I teach young athletes a variety of skills that apply to virtually every sport. If the training is age appropriate and progressed systematically, there should be absolutely no reason for your child to not participate in a sports performance program. They will develop many skills such as improved coordination (footwork and foot speed) and body awareness (how to move in all three planes of motion effectively, how to change direction efficiently, improved flexibility, and relative strength). Every type of athlete, young and old needs to develop and refine these skills on a continuous basis or they will either A) never develop these skills or B) loss their ability to perform these skills correctly and efficiently. A and B will both lead to inquires in the long run.

Parents: If you invest your money into a specialized coach, you had better also invest your money into a quality sports performance coach who works on the develop of athletic ability otherwise you’ll be paying to have your child rehab from sports injuries in the future. ASAP Baseball Academy is taking the right approach and combining specialized training with athletic development training, check it out www.asapbaseballacademy.com. This is how the development of young athletes should take place.

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Tight hip flexors can attribute to glute inhibition – meaning when the hips are tight the antagonist muscle group (the opposing muscle group in this case the glutes) are not at the optimal length to be able to contract properly. Tight hip flexors also can cause lower back dysfunction because if the hips are not able to move in their intended full range of motion the lower back can tend to take the extra workload causing strain on this overworked area. Shown below are a series of hip flexor stretches that can help lengthen the muscle and thus restore proper function to the hips.

Sit ups, V-ups, bicycles, and leg lifts are great exercises if it was 1985, but it is not - so stay current on core training. Lets be honest most people do not have a healthy enough diet to have wash board abs anyways so get that fantasy out of your head. So let’s stop doing isolated supine flexion exercises and start taking a functional approach to engage the entire core musculature. Remember when we are talking about core strengthening exercises we are talking about exercises/drills that engage the muscles from the shoulders down to the knees. This is the understanding we need to have of the core, especially when we consider the myofasacial (muscle and connective tissue) linkages throughout the torso. Virtually every vertical (standing) exercise we perform engages the core musculature because we have to balance and stabilize or transmit forces across the body. Exercises that are great at developing core strength are medicine ball exercises such as slams, tosses, and shot put throws. (I do acknowledge that virtually any exercise performed vertically engages the core to a certain extent, however I am choosing to focus this post on medicine ball drills). These exercises are functional because they are performed in an upright position on both feet or one foot at a time and in multiple planes of motion. I love to do medicine ball exercises with all my clients, from competitive athletes to weekend warriors. With medicine balls, you can use different weighted balls which will change the velocity of the movement. Also, many medicine ball exercises can be performed continuously (rapid fire) such as lateral medicine ball throws against a wall or they can be performed one time for maximal effort such as lateral medicine ball throws for distance with a partner. Try these out!

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