Plyometrics have been a part of most athletic development programs for
many years. It’s become quite commonplace for coaches to implement these
sort of hops, jumps, and triple jump variations during the speed and
acceleration development periods of their programs. These sorts of drills
have been proven time and again to improve both starting strength and
elastic strength in athletes.
In most of the beginning literature from the Soviets, the thought was
that an athlete must be able to squat two and a half times his own body
weight to be able to perform plyometrics. However, in most athletic
programs, this simply won’t work. Most athletes today won’t have the time to
develop this type of strength. Honestly, this would limit most athletes from
being able to perform this type of exercise. For example, Hossein Rezzazadeh
weighs 360 lbs and can clean and jerk 580 lbs and squat 860 lbs (raw I might
add). Yet, by these rules, he can’t do plyometrics.
Sorry, Mr. Rezzazadeh, I know you can clean and jerk a house, but you
can’t do box jumps.
Given this, I don’t think an old way of measuring strength is applicable
to today’s athlete. Rather than just looking at squatting strength, let’s
look at relative and functional strength. By relative strength, I mean the
ratio of an athlete’s strength to his body weight, and by functional
strength, I mean the athlete’s ability to “stick” a landing without a valgus
of the knees (adduction of the knee relative to the hip and ankle) and a
collapse of the core (excessive forward lean).
Valgus knees
Excessive forward lean (core collapse)
In my opinion, many strength coaches tend to put the carriage before the
horse. That is, they’re in such a great hurry to get their athletes
“stronger” that they neglect any type of progression or injury prevention in
their periodization scheme. Most all athletic injuries occur during
deceleration and in the transverse plane. That means most athletes are
trying to simultaneously stop and turn at the same time when they’re
injured. This is most common in females due to the natural angle of their
hips.
Let’s break this down a little bit and discuss the excessive forward lean
and torso vertical stability and torso rotational stability. Then we’ll look
at the valgus knee issue.
Excessive forward lean
In training the core (anything between the hips and the chest), it’s
important to remember that the primary responsibility of these muscle groups
is lumbar spine stability, not mobility. This is key when addressing the
excessive forward lean. Most times, the excessive forward lean is due to
having a weak core. If the athlete’s core isn’t strong enough to absorb the
force of the landing, the core will collapse, causing him to buckle forward.
To prevent this from happening, you must first focus on the isometric
strengthening of the core musculature (pelvic floor, transverse abdominus,
diaphragm, internal and external obliques, erector spinae, and rectus
abdominus).
Here are some exercises to incorporate into your program:
Front bridge
Pull the naval in toward the spine and squeeze the glutes.
Side bridge
Keep the hips even with the shoulders.
Side bridge with glute activation
Press the knee firmly into the ground.
Bent knee bridge
Press through the heels and make sure the hips are all the way through.
Hold each of these for 6–30 seconds, depending on the athlete’s strength
level.
Valgus knees
Like stated earlier, valgus knees are the adduction of the knees in
relation to the hip and ankle. This is a very dangerous position that can
lead to many knee injuries as well as several other hip and low back
problems throughout the kinetic chain. For most athletes, this is just a
simple matter of relearning the motor pattern. If this is the case, the
easiest way to do this is to perform a drill that I call “landing
mechanics.” (Very creative, I know.) This is a drill that I incorporate at
the end of my dynamic warm up.
Frontal landing x 5
Starting position
Landing position
Have the athlete start on a bench or plyometric box that is about knee
height and fall into a good landing position.
If you’ve done the following drills for a couple weeks and the athlete is
still exhibiting the same valgus knees, this may be a sign that there are
bigger problems and the athlete may need some extra attention. A little
corrective exercise training may be in order.
First off, let’s look at the problem. The knees are moving inward. Let’s
take the Janda approach and look at which muscles are locked long (weak) and
which opposing muscles are locked short (tight). I think Gray Cook put it
best when he said, “The knee is a slave to the hip and the ankle. For
dysfunction in the knee, look either a foot north or a foot south and you’ll
find your problem.”
Possible tight areas
· IT band
· Tensor fasciae latae
· Peroneal complex
· Outer head of the gastrocnemeus
Possible weak areas:
· Gluteal complex
· Vastus medialis (VMO)
· Hip adductors
Corrective exercise training for the valgus knees
Now that we’ve identified which muscles are tight and which are weak,
let’s look at how to fix the situation. First, we’ll start with lengthening
the short muscles by foam rolling:
IT band
Start with the roller at the greater trochanter and work your way toward
the lesser trochanter. Hold each tender spot for thirty seconds.
Peroneal complex
Roll from the head of the fibula to the lateral malleolus. Hold each
tender spot for thirty seconds.
Then we’ll static stretch the:
Calves
Be sure that the arch of the back foot doesn’t collapse.
Hip flexors
Squeeze the glutes and keep the shoulders back.
Following the foam rolling and static stretching, implement a
comprehensive dynamic warm up. Then, you’ll be able to incorporate the above
mentioned isometric core exercises as well as the following:
Lateral tube walks
Begin with a mini band just above the knees and the feet just a little
wider than hip width. Then while maintaining core stability, step out just
wider than shoulder width. Then step back to starting stance. Do this 10
times to the right and 10 times to the left.
Hip thrusts
Begin with one leg bent just past 90 degrees at the knee and the other
pointed straight up. Press the heel of the foot into the ground, squeeze the
glute, and press the hips up as high as possible. Repeat 10 times on each
leg.
Athletes get injured for three reasons—they either aren’t strong enough,
aren’t flexible enough, or they make contact with another player or an
object. If the athlete gets hit by a car, you can’t help that but you may be
able to fix the other two! By spending a little time working on preventative
maintenance, coaches can greatly reduce the risk of injury to their
athletes.
Sources
- Janda V. Muscles and cervicogenic pain syndromes. In: Grant R (1988)
Physical therapy of the cervical and thoracic spine. New York: Churchill
Livingstone, 153–66.
- Meyer GD, et. Al (2005) Neuromuscular Training Improves Performance
and Movement Biomechanics. J Strength Cond Res 19:51–60.
- Rodger Robb. Kids Jump Down. Accessed at:
http://www.Sbcoachescollege.com.
Jason Nunn is a personal trainer and sports performance coach in
Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the owner of Nunn’s Performance Training, LLC.
He works with clients of all levels from weekend warriors to division I
athletes. Check out
http://www.nunnstronger.com for more information.
