Injury Prevention

04 Sep 2017
Sticky Post By Posted in Conall Hoey Therapy, Health and wellness, Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, Strength and Conditoning Permalink

Glute Activation

Glute Activation is a trendy topic right now and with good reason. Because most of us sit at a desk all day hunched over a computer screen, our glutes are inactive and probably not firing properly when we move and workout. This inactivity could potentially lead to lower back pain, hip pain, and even knee and ankle pain.

Glute activation exercises should be included in your warm up to get your butt ready and activated for the bigger exercises you plan to do in your workout so that your low back doesn’t try and take over.They can also be included in your actual workout to make sure your glutes continue to work.

 

Glute Bridge – The glute bridge is a versatile move that can be used for activation as well as developing great glute strength. It is a great move to strengthen your glutes and open up your hips. You can do it with just your own bodyweight or even add weight! A great variation of the glute bridge for activation is the mini band glute bridge shown below. Just make sure that as you do the glute bridge, you don’t hyperextend your low back to get your hips up higher. You want your glutes to really have to work to raise your hips up.

 

Hip Clamshell Exercise in Hip Flexion

EMG studies have shown that the clamshell produces a good amount of gluteus medius and gluteus maximus activity, especially if technique is excellent.  Notice in the video below that I really emphasize placing your hand along your iliac crest.  This helps to cue to body to not rotate and incorporate the low back, which is likely the most common fault during this exercise, especially in those that have really weak glutes.  Also, by placing your hand on your hip like this, you can put your thumb on your glutes to feel and facilitate the contraction.  It really helps with your technique.

 

 Band Monster Walks and Side Shuffle – Mini Bands are a great tool to activate your glutes from every angle. Two of my favorite moves are the Monster Walks and Side Shuffle since they hit everything. If you even just include these two moves in your warm up, you are good to go in terms of glute activation!

The key with both of these moves is to keep your feet apart and the band tight. To make it easier, put the band around your knees. To make it harder, put the band around your feet. Do not let your knees cave in as you walk or your glutes won’t be forced to work.

4,Single Leg Standing (Hip external Rotation)

5,Mini Band Stepovers

6.Railway line Tip Toe

 

Add these activation exercises before you begin your Leg strength session or take to the field for your chosen sport.

I also use them between sets of my main lifts in the gym to fill the time and keep my muscles firing and kill the time sitting down.

Stay Strong

Conall

11 May 2016
Sticky Post By Posted in Conall Hoey Therapy, Health and wellness, Injury Prevention, Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation, Strength and Conditoning Permalink

The Stubborn Hamstring II

Sticky Post By On May 11, 2016

Hamstring injuries are one of the most common injuries sustained in sports, especially those which involve sprinting, accelerating and deceleration! Gaelic Football is Ireland’s national sport. It can be described as a high intensity, high-velocity, multidirectional, contact field game requiring speed, strength and agility (Mc Intyre, 2005).

connollykilkenny (1)

The movements required in Gaelic football are very similar to that of other field based sports. There is therefore a close correlation between Gaelic, football and AFL injury incidences and injury pattern.

The work by Ekstrand J (2009) (Football), Murphy et al (2012) (Gaelic Football) and Orchard M.J (2014) (AFL) supports this. These studies show that Hamstring strains and tears are the most prevalent and common injury accounted for.

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/45/7/553.abstract

(UEFA)

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/36/1/39.full

(AFL)

Murphy et al (2012) conducted a four year prospective study, on the incidence and rate of injury in Gaelic games. It is the largest study to date in the GAA. Murphy noted that over a four year period on 851 inter county footballers, 1014 injuries occurred in 587 participants. The resulting rate of players sustaining an injury over a four year period was 69 %, nearly three quarters of the participants in the study. (Murphy et al, 2012).

The Key Points from his study are as follows;

•Muscle injury was the most common type of injury in Gaelic Games accounting for 42.6% of all injuries

•The average time lost for injury was 19.7 days

•The Hamstring was the most prevalent injury recorded over the four year period accounting for 24 % of all injuries

Murphy et al(2012)

Murphy et al(2012)

From the research based above on Football, Gaelic and AFL, we gather that there is most definitely a need to focus specifically on strengthening the Hamstring muscle group.

As a physiotherapist and S&C coach , we can do this by implementing strategies and exercises into our gym programmes ,warm ups and rehabilitation.
In trying to reduce the number of initial and recurrent hamstring strains in football, prevention of initial injury is paramount.

06 May 2016
Sticky Post By Posted in Conall Hoey Therapy, Health and wellness, Injury Prevention, Motivation, Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation, Strength and Conditoning Permalink

It all Started with a Hamstring

I remember the day that Michael Owen, my childhood hero,stumbled as if he was shot in his stride, as if it were yesterday.It was April 12th 1999, Owen was gliding past defenders in the red Liverpool shirt as he often done so majestically in his career as a footballer. All of a sudden he hopped,skipped and jumped clutching his right leg, and to everyone watching his face said it all! Owen tore a hamstring for the first time playing for Liverpool at Leeds when aged just 19. Owen’s blistering pace was lost in full throttle that day, an injury that would go down in his own words “to compromise his career”.

Owen’s hamstring tear was the first injury I had ever witnessed in sport, it grabbed my attention for a little more than a minute as a ten year old kid. Little did i know at the time, I would be following the career path in preventing and managing such injuries. When i look back , it is certainly plausible the deep concern I had for my childhood hero, and how he could back in action for Liverpool as soon as possible sparked such interest.

micheal owen ham

Hamstring injuries are common and have a high re­-injury rate so prevention is very important. There are multiple things that can place players at increased risk and these can be modified. Players at risk should be specifically targeted but all players need to dedicate themselves to injury prevention strategies. Pelvic control, strength and flexibility are just as important as hamstring strength, endurance and flexibility.

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