Is Lifting Overhead Safe? It Depends.

May 25, 2023May 2, 2023 by Velocity Sports Performance

No gym, now is a good time to workout doors

As a physical therapist specializing in sports rehabilitation, I often encounter questions and concerns regarding the safety and effectiveness of overhead shoulder exercises.

Today, I want to address these concerns and shed light on the importance of incorporating these exercises into your fitness routine. So let’s dive in!

The Power of Overhead Shoulder Exercises

Overhead lifting exercises, such as shoulder presses, pull-ups, and barbell snatches, have gained popularity among fitness enthusiasts and athletes alike. And for good reason!

They are fantastic for building muscle and strength in your shoulders, contributing to overall athletic performance.

Think about it – whether you’re reaching for something on a high shelf, loading your gear onto a roof rack, or hanging a picture frame, these daily activities often mimic the motion of an overhead press.

By incorporating overhead shoulder exercises, you can enhance your functional movement patterns and perform these activities with ease.

And its part of our design. Human shoulder complexes are designed to be able to function in a really big range of motion. That includes overhead.

Understanding the “It Depends” Factor

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room: the notion that overhead exercises are inherently bad or should be avoided. They are not.

However, there’s more to it.

Whether overhead exercises are suitable for you depends on a variety of factors. I want to emphasize that I am not advocating for blindly performing these exercises despite pain or shoulder issues.

Therefore, to answer this question, we need to take a more pragmatic approach and consider the bigger picture.

Mobility Matters

First and foremost, you must have adequate overhead mobility. Can you fully raise your arm overhead without arching your back, shrugging, or experiencing any discomfort?

If not, it’s crucial to address any mobility limitations before attempting overhead exercises.

This lack of mobility may stem from various areas, including the shoulder joint, the scapula-thoracic joint, or the thoracic spine. While many people focus on the shoulder itself, often the scapular muscles and lats are bigger culprits.

Additionally, muscular imbalances can also contribute to limited overhead mobility.

Remember, if you can’t lift your arm overhead comfortably, it’s best to work on improving your mobility before diving into overhead presses.

Stability is Key

scapular control is essential for overhead lifting

Another critical factor is shoulder and spine stability. To handle the demands of overhead lifting, you need adequate stability in your shoulder girdle.

This stability is achieved through a strong foundation created by your upper back, scapular muscles, rotator cuff, and even your trunk and core.

Muscular imbalances and stability deficits are common issues that can impact the shoulder girdle, so it’s important to address these through appropriate exercises and training techniques.

Remember, the heavier the weight you lift, the more stability your shoulder girdle requires.

Mastering Load Management

In the pursuit of optimal shoulder health and performance, many enthusiasts overlook the importance of load management.

Intensity (weight)
volume (sets and repetitions)
frequency (how often)

Even with excellent mobility and stability, improper load management can lead to soreness and shoulder discomfort over time.

It’s crucial to find the right balance and avoid overwhelming your body’s capacity to recover. Remember, depending on your goals, you may not need to lift maximal loads to get the benefits.

Just like pitchers monitor their pitch counts to prevent overuse injuries, you must understand that pushing too hard or too frequently can hinder your long-term fitness and performance goals.

The Art of Exercise Modification and Scaling

When it comes to maintaining shoulder health in the long run, understanding exercise modification, regression, and scaling is paramount.

Understand, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Each individual may have unique limitations or restrictions that require adjustments. Fortunately, any functional movement pattern can be modified or scaled to achieve the same goal of building strength and improving fitness.

For example, if a barbell overhead press feels uncomfortable, consider using dumbbells or kettlebells instead to allow more freedom of movement. Additionally, the use of a landmine setup can be an excellent alternative when a full overhead position is not possible.

The key is to find overhead lifting variations or positions that work for you while minimizing stress on the shoulders.

Whether you’re dealing with mobility restrictions, recovering from an injury, or experiencing shoulder discomfort, modifying and scaling exercises can help you achieve success while reducing excessive tissue stress.

To ensure effective modifications, regressions, or scaling, it’s advisable to seek guidance from a knowledgeable healthcare professional or fitness expert who can tailor exercises to your specific needs.

Embracing a Mindset of Control

In conclusion, let’s revisit our initial question: Are overhead lifting exercises safe? The answer is a resounding yes.

However, we must acknowledge that individual circumstances and factors come into play. It’s essential to take ownership of our bodies and understand that the exercises themselves are not to blame.

Instead, poor mobility, stability, and training habits are the culprits behind potential issues. By addressing these areas and seeking professional guidance, you can take control of your body’s capabilities and unleash your full potential.

Remember, if you’re new to exercising or currently dealing with an injury, it’s always wise to consult a qualified healthcare provider who can offer personalized advice based on your unique situation.

So, embrace the benefits of overhead shoulder exercises, focus on improving mobility and stability, manage your training load wisely, and don’t hesitate to modify or scale exercises when needed.

With the right approach, you’ll be on your way to achieving optimal shoulder health, enhancing your athletic performance, and enjoying the benefits of a well-rounded fitness routine.

The Role of Scapular Control in Preventing Shoulder Injuries

May 25, 2023April 11, 2023 by Velocity Sports Performance

Expert Advice for Parents and Coaches of Young Athletes and Athletes

Shoulder injuries can be a common concern in sports that involve repetitive overhead movements.

However, by understanding the importance of scapular control, you can significantly reduce the risk of shoulder injuries. In this article, we will explore the role of scapular control and provide valuable tips to help prevent shoulder injuries.

Why Scapular Control Matters

The shoulder is a complex joint that allows for a wide range of motion. However, this mobility also makes it susceptible to injury, especially during sports that involve repetitive overhead movements like swimming, tennis, baseball, and volleyball.

The scapula, or shoulder blade, plays a crucial role in shoulder function and stability. It acts as a foundation for proper shoulder movement and helps distribute forces during athletic activities. Maintaining proper scapular control ensures that the shoulder joint operates smoothly and efficiently.

It is a foundation for proper movement and positions in overhead activities. If the shoulder blade is not rotating and elevating properly, there are consequences.

Overhead mechanics can be altered that impact performance and stress on the athlete’s body.

Compensations can occur in other body parts to get that arm overhead that contribute to impingement, tendonitis, and ligament strain.

scapular control is essential for overhead athletes

Weakness or dysfunction in the muscles that control the scapula can lead to imbalances and increased stress on the shoulder joint, increasing the risk of injury. This is why scapular control is essential for preventing shoulder injuries and optimizing athletic performance.

Understanding Scapular Control

Scapular control refers to the ability to move and stabilize the shoulder blade effectively. It involves the coordination of several muscles, including the trapezius, serratus anterior, and rhomboids. These muscles work together to control scapular movement, positioning, and stability during sports activities.

The trapezius muscle helps retract, rotate and elevate the scapula
Serratus anterior muscle plays a crucial role in protracting and stabilizing the scapula against the rib cage.
The rhomboids assist in retracting and stabilizing the scapula.
Levator scapulae helps to rotate and elevate the scapula.

When these muscles work harmoniously, the scapula moves smoothly, allowing for optimal shoulder function and reducing the risk of injury.

However, if there is a muscle imbalance, weakness, or poor coordination, scapular dyskinesis can occur, leading to abnormal scapular movement patterns and an increased risk of shoulder injuries.

Tips for Improving Scapular Control

Now that we understand the importance of scapular control, let’s explore some practical tips to help improve scapular control and prevent shoulder injuries:

Warm-Up and Stretching
- Begin every practice session or game with a proper warm-up routine to prepare the muscles for activity.Perform mobility exercises that target the shoulder, thoracic spine, and hips promoting flexibility and range of motion.Include exercises that activate the rotator cuff, scapular muscles, and the core.
Strengthening Exercises
- Engage in specific exercises that target the muscles responsible for scapular control.
- Include muscle that strengthen and integrate the scapular and shoulder muscles with the entire kinetic chain.

Technique Awareness
- Emphasize the importance of proper technique and form during sports activities.
- Sport coaches should provide guidance on sport specific mechanics so the athlete moves efficiently and safely.
Connected Training
- Incorporate exercises that challenge the demands of the specific sport through the kinetic chain.
- Engage in activities and exercises that challenge scapular control during whole body movements such as overhead kettlebell exercises and medicine ball throws.
Consult with Professionals
- If there are concerns about scapular control or the risk of shoulder injuries, seek guidance from sports medicine professionals or physical therapists.They can assess and provide personalized exercises and strategies to address any scapular control issues and reduce the risk of injury.

Strengthening Exercises

This article focuses on strengthening the scapular muscles and connecting them to the kinetic chain. So, while mobility work and other areas need strengthening for overall performance and health, we’ll keep this limited to a few key exercises.

Strengthening Scapular Muscles with Resistance Bands

Resistance bands are an effective tool for targeting the scapular muscles through exercises such as Ys, Ts, and Ws. Let’s explore how to perform these exercises using resistance bands:

Ts:
– Hold the band with an overhand grip, arms extended in front of you.
– Begin by squeezing your shoulder blades together and pulling the band outwards, creating a T shape with your arms.
– Maintain the contraction in your scapular muscles and control the band as you return to the starting position.
– Aim for 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions.

Ys & As (Diagonals):
– Hold the band with an overhand grip in front of body, one arm diagonally up and the other down.
– Begin by squeezing your shoulder blades together diagonally and pulling the band outwards and upwards with one hand, and outwards and downwards with the other.
– Maintain the contraction in your scapular muscles and control the band as you return to the starting position.
– Aim for 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions of each diagonal or alternate.

Ws:
– Hold the band with an overhand grip in front of body on one hand with the elbow at 90 degrees, the other arm other down.
– Begin by externally rotating the shoulder moving the top hand up and out.
– At the same time squeeze the scapula and move the upper back.
– Maintain the contraction in your scapular muscles and control the band as you return to the starting position.
– Aim for 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions of each diagonal or alternate.

Exercise Tips

When performing these exercises, keep the following tips in mind:

Focus on maintaining proper form throughout the movements.
Engage the scapular muscles by retracting and depressing the shoulder blades (…don’t let your shoulder come up by your ears).
Control the resistance band as you move through each exercise, avoiding jerky or rapid motions.
Perform the exercises in a slow and controlled manner to maximize their effectiveness.
Start with a lighter resistance band and gradually increase the intensity as your strength improves.

Incorporating Ys, Ts, and Ws exercises with resistance bands into your training routine can effectively target and strengthen the scapular muscles, promoting better shoulder mechanics and reducing the risk of shoulder injuries.

Strengthening the Serratus Anterior

The serratus anterior is a crucial muscle for scapular control and stability, playing a vital role in preventing shoulder injuries and optimizing athletic performance. Let’s explore some effective exercises that specifically target the serratus anterior:

Facing the Wall Slides with Thoracic Extension

This variation of wall slides not only strengthens the serratus anterior but also promotes thoracic (upper back) extension, further improving scapular control and mobility.

Stand facing a wall with your feet about shoulder-width apart.

Place your hands on the wall at shoulder height, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.Keeping your arms straight, slowly slide your hands up the wall while maintaining contact with your palms and fingers.

As you slide your hands up, focus on protracting your shoulder blades (bringing them away from the spine) and maintaining a gentle squeeze between your shoulder blades.

At the top of the movement, actively extend your upper back by arching slightly backward.

Return to the starting position by sliding your hands back down the wall, maintaining control throughout the movement.

Perform several repetitions of this exercise.

Scapular Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs)

Scapular Controlled Articular Rotations are excellent exercises for improving the mobility, stability, and strength of the serratus anterior and other scapular stabilizers.

Stand tall with your arms extended forward at shoulder height, palms facing down.

Slowly rotate your shoulders in a circular motion, focusing on maintaining control and feeling the activation in your serratus anterior.

Perform clockwise and counterclockwise rotations for several repetitions.

Straight Arm Pushups

Straight arm pushups, also known as scapular pushups, specifically target the serratus anterior and promote scapular stability.

Start in a high plank position with your hands directly under your shoulders, arms fully extended, and body in a straight line.

Slowly lower yourself toward the ground while maintaining a stable scapula and keeping your arms straight.

Push back up to the starting position, focusing on protracting your shoulder blades and feeling the engagement in your serratus anterior.

Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Incorporate these exercises into your training routine will effectively target and strengthen the serratus anterior muscle, enhancing scapular control, stability, and reducing the risk of shoulder injuries.

Remember to perform the exercises with proper form and start with an appropriate intensity that challenges the

Connected Exercises Using a Kettlebell

In addition to the previously mentioned tips and exercises, incorporating kettlebell exercises can further enhance scapular control and shoulder stability. These are the most challenging because they coordinate more dynamic movements across more of the kinetic chain.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE KINETIC CHAIN IN OVERHEAD ATHLETES HERE

Kettlebells provide a unique training stimulus because of the “off-balance” design. Because of this, they challenge stability in the entire body, including the scapular muscles.

Here are some connected exercises using a kettlebell that can benefit athletes:

Turkish Get-Ups (TGU)

The Turkish Get-Up is a full-body exercise that promotes scapular stability and control throughout the movement.

Start by lying on your back while holding the kettlebell with a straight arm.

Gradually transition to a standing position while keeping the kettlebell overhead and maintaining a stable scapula.

Reverse the movement back to the starting position.

Windmills

Windmills target the shoulder stabilizers and promote scapular control through rotational and lateral movements.

Start with the kettlebell in one hand, raised overhead.Keep the arm extended and slowly hinge at the hips, lowering the opposite hand toward the ground.

Maintain a stable scapula and a neutral spine throughout the movement.

Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.

Halo

The Halo exercise targets the muscles surrounding the shoulder girdle, including the scapular stabilizers.

Start by holding the kettlebell upside down by the horns in front of your chest.

Slowly move the kettlebell in a circular motion around your head, keeping the scapula stable and engaged.

Perform the movement in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions.

Bottoms-Up Presses

Bottoms-Up Presses challenge scapular control and shoulder stability by holding the kettlebell upside down.

Start with the kettlebell in a bottoms-up position, gripping the handle with your palm facing upward.

Press the kettlebell overhead while maintaining a stable scapula and controlling the kettlebell’s instability.

Lower the kettlebell under control and repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Incorporating these kettlebell exercises into your training routine can further improve scapular control, shoulder stability, and overall athletic performance.

However, it is crucial to ensure proper technique and start with an appropriate kettlebell weight that allows for proper form and control.

TL:DR Summary

Remember, scapular control plays a significant role in preventing shoulder injuries among young athletes.

You can improve this through;

Proper mechanics in sports (i.e. throwing, serving, hitting, and swimming strokes)
Strengthening the scapular stabilizing muscles
Build better function in the scapular muscles through kettlebell exercises that “connect” them to the torso and kinetic chain.

By implementing these tips and exercises, athletes can enhance their scapular control, reduce the risk of shoulder injuries, and optimize their performance on and off the field.

Athletes Guide To Improving Muscle Pliability

January 10, 2023 by Velocity Sports Performance

Guest Blog from Vive Recovery Centers

In the quest to improve movement quality & efficiency, as well as reduce the risk of injury, pliability has become a popular topic.

This guide will help you with ways to improve muscle pliability.

What Is Pliability?

Pliability describes the quality of muscle tissue. Function focuses on effective/efficient movement. It’s not just about how much muscle, how much range of motion, or how much force.

Pliability is an underlying tissue quality that improves those things.

Sports medicine and tissue professionals use the term to describe muscle tissue. Three components that they incorporate into the concept of pliability include;

Elasticity – has spring after yielding and while absorbing force
Smooth – layers of tissue glide freely, without adhesions
Supple – muscle may be dense but it is adaptable and unrestricted

Those are great descriptions of the qualities we want in the muscle of any active person or athlete. So improving muscle pliability is a worthwhile goal.

“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.” — Lao Tzu

Is Muscle Pliability the Same as Flexibility?

No. Muscle pliability is not the same as flexibility.

Flexibility is the ability of joints and tissues to move through a full range of motion. Its just a quantitative measure of passive motion.

Pliability, on the other hand, involves the tissue’s ability to move, and the quality it moves with.

You might be able to move through a specific range of motion, but you can still lack pliability. Without pliability, that motion could come unevenly, with added stress, or lack of elasticity to spring back well.

So how far you can move and stretch a muscle, doesn’t entirely reflect if it is pliable.

Why Is Improving Muscle Pliability Important?

Movement and muscle contraction transmit forces through connected chains into the tissue of your body.

These forces can be dissipated effectively across tissues and joints or overload them.

The forces can be used elastically like a new rubber band, or damage tissue like ones that are ragged and worn out.

The question of whether you can use that force effectively is answered by whether your muscles are adequately pliable.

The most important ability for an athlete is availability. Injuries are the greatest setback for anyone who wants to be fit, active, and do the things they love.

Pliability is key to your body remaining resilient when you go out and push it hard playing, training, and living.

Is Pliability Only a Muscle Quality?

No. In humans, you can’t anatomically or functionally separate the muscle from connective tissue completely.

Muscle is surrounded by layers of fascia and connects to bones through tendons. Fascia also is a tensional network transmitting forces through the body (Schleip ed. 2012). It’s interwoven with-in your muscles like a web helping to give it structure and affecting its elasticity.

So while people commonly refer to “muscle” pliability, in fact, its “tissue” pliability that includes muscles, tendons, and fascia.

Is Muscle Pliability Based on Science?

Muscle pliability is more than just a term used by professionals, its a valid physiological construct (Science Direct) although there can be some confusion in popular media. The elements making up pliability are measurable and based in science.

First of all, the elasticity (Uffmann 2004) and compliance (Simons 1998 ) of myofascial tissue can be measured.

Secondly, muscle tone (Gubler-Hanna 2007) and stiffness (Prune 2016) can be measured in several different ways.

Furthermore, MSK ultrasound imaging visually shows how much fascial layers are sliding and it can be measured (Soares 2021).

So, pliability is not be universally defined or used appropriately in some social media posts. However, these are real, measurable qualities of muscle, tendinous, and fascial tissue.

How Do You Improve Muscle Pliability?

Pliability is key for movement, and it has scientifically measurable qualities. Therefore, improving muscle pliability is important. So, what can you do to make it better?

Move

Movement is key to tissue pliability. “Motion is lotion” is a saying that emphasizes a scientific fact.

The contraction, relaxation, and stretching/sliding of muscles, tendons and fascia does in fact lubricate the joints and tissues. Forceful contractions positively influence the hydration and chemical composition of muscles.

Lack of movement causes both functional (Campbell 2019 ) and physiological (Williams 1984) changes to tissues. Furthermore, pliability gets worse when you don’t move enough (Cowman 2015).

Moving through a full range of motion helps prevent adhesions from developing in the fascia. Additionally, it helps to prevent the densification of tissues.

Here are few things to consider to move well;

Train with full motion: Training in multiple planes of motion (up/down, side/side, rotate, front/back) is a great step. Too many athletes start using the same motions again and again. That is to say, it’s also important to work through a full joint range of motion.
Different speeds of movement: Grinding out slow heavy lifts or steady hikes are great. However, sometimes you need to be moving faster, and bouncier. Muscles need to move in different ways to stay pliable.
Active mobility work: Mobility (both flexibility and stability) needs to be trained with specific intention, not just left to chance.

Hands-on Tissue Work

If you want to improve muscle pliability you can take a page from elite athletes and teams and focus on professional tissue work.

IASTM muscle recovery — *“Tooling” is one of several Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization techniques used for improving muscle pliability.*

We aren’t talking about a relaxing Swedish massage (although they can be great!)

The changes in tissue compliance and elasticity before and after tissue work (Jędrzejewski 2020, Costello 2016) are measurable.

Trained therapists use the skill of their hands along with specialized tools to get the results you need. These approaches can be highly targeted to specific tissues, structures, and myofascial chains.

Tissue work targets both physiological structures and nervous system function.

In short, for improving muscle pliability, skilled hands-on tissue work is the gold standard.

Hydration

Hydration is a crucial factor in muscle pliability. Muscles that aren’t hydrated begin to look and feel like beef jerky instead of Grade-A steak. Consequently, they can’t absorb the forces thrown their way.

Proper hydration is critical for just about every biological process, including performance, recovery, and overall health.

Did you know that muscles are ~75% water?!

Water is needed for lubricating the tissue of fascia and muscle as they slide freely.

Therefore, if you aren’t sufficiently hydrated, your muscles won’t perform, respond, or recover optimally.

Reduce Inflammation

Nutrition is also a crucial factor after hydration in ensuring muscle pliability. What we put inside of our bodies has a direct impact on our muscles and in particular, our bodies’ inflammatory responses to certain foods.

A good diet is important for improving muscle pliability because ongoing inflammation in your tissues can lead to the degeneration of those tissues (Howard 2020).

As a result, if you do this long enough, your tissues will lose elasticity. Firstly, this occurs by changing the extracellular matrix composition and fiber alignment.

Secondly, instead of aligned and sliding collagen fibers in your connective tissue, chronic inflammation can stimulate crosslinks that restrict motion

Stretching is Not Enough to Improve Muscle Pliability

Stretching is a piece of the puzzle to gain or maintain your muscle pliability, but it’s not enough on its own. Movement through a full range is more effective because it stretches the muscles along with contracting them which has a greater effect.

For one thing, stretching helps more with the neurological control of muscle tension, not the actual physical muscle pliability (Ylinen, 2009).

Additionally, stretching doesn’t create the same stimulus for changes to the extra-cellar matrix in your connective tissue that influence pliability.

Foam Rolling

Foam rolling has become one of the go to practices in the fitness world as a way to “release” muscle adhesions. However, in recent years its taken some criticism as the pressures applied aren’t enough to actually deform fascial tissue or adhesions.

While true, this criticism may be missing the bigger picture. Foam rolling can aid in an individual’s awareness of muscle pliability. It increases their neurological input to the brain. Accessing the nervous system can help “release” muscle tension and trigger points neurologically, not structurally.

So along with moving, and between tissue work sessions, use that foam roller to help maintain your tissue quality!

Start Improving Your Muscle Pliability Today

Muscle pliability is a term that describes optimal muscle qualities. Pliable tissue is elastic and yielding. Furthermore, it is unrestricted, smooth, and supple.

Pliability is about more than muscle. It includes complete myofascial chains of muscles, tendons, and fascia.

If you want to move better, stay healthy, and enjoy the things you love more, then focus on improving your pliability with these basic strategies.

Planning The Return To Sports After COVID-19 Restrictions in 2021

February 25, 2021February 21, 2021 by Velocity Sports Performance

There are 3 goals coaches need to achieve when planning the return to sports for any athlete

As teams and sports organizations start returning to full sports practices and competition, they need plans to prepare the athletes.

At Velocity, we’ve been working with everything from elite athletes and teams, to local clubs and high schools in devising effective strategies. We are helping them to achieve the same three goals whenever we return an athlete to sports after extended times away.

Three Goals of Planning the Return to Sports

Working in higher-level sports, we’ve learned a lot about planning athletes’ return back to their sports practice after long layoffs. Most of this comes from athletes that were injured and required extended time out of sport to rehab and recover. Sometimes it’s with athletes who took a sabbatical year or had a pregnancy during their career.

No matter the case, we do know that without the right preparation, an athlete going back into their regular sports practice and training routine will be at higher risk of injury.

The three driving outcomes we are working to achieve for our players is that they can return safely, successfully, and sustainably.

1. Returning To sport SAFELY

We want athletes to return to sports without a sudden influx of injuries. Injury defeats the entire purpose of reopening sports and eliminates the chance of success. After all, you can’t play well if you are on the sidelines hurt.

Velocity is working with teams to create phased-in training plans, athlete readiness screenings, and load monitoring. This means helping athletes and coaches plan how to balance the needs of the athletes body, with the likely scenario of getting back to seasons quickly.

The first step is to do some basic screening of fitness and readiness as athletes return. Finding out what shape they are in is important because coaches have never faced this many athletes out of training for so long.

athlete monitoring can help improve performance and reduce injury risk — Velocity has simple tools that can help coaches monitor their athletes’ responses when returning to sports after COVID-19 shutdowns.

Next, we are helping coaches plan a ramp-up of both technical skills and the right physical qualities for the sport will lower the chance of injuries.

Monitoring how the athletes are responding to the increased load is another strategy that lets you get an early warning if the training is too much or too little. This feedback to coaches can help them adjust training plans to get back into shape and competitive form as fast as possible.

Learn why tendons are at risk as full speed and space practice increases

2. Returning to sports SUCCESSFULLY.

Successfully means being able to perform at a high level. No coach wants to see their team come back out of shape and unable to play up to their abilities. Plans for preparing the right physical qualities and skills begin now.

That means even before you are back, organize your athletes to complete specific types of training. They need to be preparing specific body parts and tissues for the stress of practicing again.

This is always important in preseason, but especially now when athletes have detrained. Their bodies are not the same as when they left.

Returning To Sports After COVID-19 - athletes are different now

Velocity is working with some teams and clubs to provide pre-return training that specifically reduces the risks of injury and increases the physical qualities they need in their sport.

While many athletes are trying to stay fit and ready with various exercises at home, exercising isn’t training. Training has a specific purpose and goal. While keeping a general level of strength, fitness and mobility were reasonable goals during time at home, athletes need to prepare for sport again.

Whether it’s through remote coaching and managed digital platforms, or in person, serious teams are getting their athletes ready now.

return to sports guide for athletes and parents

Get this free guide

3. SUSTAINING the return to sports

Sustainable is a goal that often gets forgotten. We don’t just want the first weeks to be a success, but the entire season.

This means that we have to get the preparation and buildup right first, and then follow it with continued training, monitoring, and recovery. Remember, these athletes aren’t going to be the same. Some issues can creep in slowly.

Velocity is helping teams and clubs plan their monitoring and supplemental recovery and training strategies for in-season. We have athletes that enter and rate daily responses on phone-based apps so coaches can see if their teams handling the demand.

When the fatigue is building or specific aches and pains are increasing, you can help implement and specific recovery plans and give athletes guidance on how to recover at home.

Another important strategy for sustainability while planning your return to sports after COVID-19 is to continue with their physical training during the season. This doesn’t mean a large volume of grueling physical training. That leads to excessive fatigue and takes away from their technical sports skills.

Instead, we recommend a strategy we use in elite sports called micro-dosing. Small, frequent, and high-intensity bouts of training. This may be dedicating 6-15 minutes of practice time to work on speed or specific explosive qualities.

It can also mean targeted high intensity interval training sessions or specific mobility work. What matters is that you pinpoint the physical qualities that will keep your players healthy and in top form, and then have a plan to build and maintain them.

A Shortened Time Frame

There will likely be a shortened time frame as we return in many sports. We are proposing an approach to achieve the three return to sport goals as quickly as possible. We want to do it quickly because people want to be back in sports.

Some leagues will feel the pressure and schedules will start very fast.

Some coaches will be under pressure to win and see this as an opportunity to get ahead of other teams.

We acknowledge that in many cases, a prolonged and steady buildup may not be feasible. However, we don’t want the return to be so quick that it puts athletes at risk. Planning the return to sports after COVID-19 shutdowns starts with setting these three goals.

COACHES GUIDE:
PLANNING THE RETURN TO SPORTS

Improve Functional Strength To Prepare For The Return of Sports

June 3, 2020 by Velocity Sports Performance

Sports are returning after COVID-19 shutdowns, and athletes need to be preparing now, so they can get back and play at their best.

While at home or waiting for sports return, you can improve some basics that can help prevent injury and give you a foundation for improved performance.

With little to no equipment, you can work on your functional strength and stability to improve performance and reduce compensations.

When deciding what you need to be doing, you should target areas you’ve had trouble with or are more critical for your sport.

Maybe there is a part of your body where you have regularly had aches and pains? If so, you may have already been told by a professional what you should be working on. If not, get connected to a coach who will do a virtual or in-person assessment and give you a program.

3 Ways You Can Prepare For The Return of Sports

There are simple things you can do to improve your functional mobility and stability. These are important parts of the FOUNDATION phase when preparing for the return of sports to normal.

Return To Sport Pathway after COVID-19 — These 3 strategies are important ways to prepare for the return of sports after the COVID-19 shutdowns. They are all part of step 3 in Velocity’s return to sport process.

Below are three things we commonly assign to athletes when they are working on step 3. One of the great things is that these can all be done at home.

If you’ve already been coached on strength training, stretching and mobility, it will be easy to add these in. If you need help, get a coach either in person or remotely to help.

get a FREE trial or consultation on what you need to return to sports

SINGLE LIMB Exercises

While exercises that use two limbs at once (bilateral) are great for building strength and learning technique, they aren’t always the most sport-specific.

During most sports movements, you are moving off one leg, or the two legs are doing different things. Just think about cutting, throwing, crossing over, and all the other things you do. Same with the upper limbs.

The bottom line, a lot of sports movement is on one leg or one arm.

So, that means that doing some exercise with only one limb (uni-lateral) can be a great addition to your training. Some of the guidelines to start;

Do the same exercises you already know, just with a single limb.
You can use dumbbells, kettlebells, backpacks, or other items as your weight.
Start slow and focus on smooth, controlled movements.
As you have proper technique, go ahead and add weight. You can actually do a lot in these exercises when you’re ready.

Using dumbbells or kettlebells are great opportunities to work with just a single arm or single leg. Athletes will have to work more to stabilize joints when working unilaterally. Use movements that are slower at first and build reasonable control before adding weight or speed.

FLEXIBILITY

Working on the range of motion in your soft tissue structures can help eliminate restrictions that may be leading to movement compensations. It’s something you can clearly do at home without equipment and prepare for sports returning.

We are talking about the range of motion you can achieve that’s limited by your muscles, fascia, and connective tissue. This is what most people are thinking about when they imagine stretching.

They think about these structures kind of like a rubber band and make them more elastic. This isn’t the only piece for athletes (see mobility next), but it’s still essential.

To work on your tissue flexibility, you can combine self-myofascial release techniques with longer duration stretches and breathing. A standard sequence coaches prescribe for athletes would include;

Relax: use deep, diaphragmatic breathing to relax for 1-3 minutes before starting. Continue this breathing through the rest of the session.
Release: use a foam roller or lacrosse ball to find trigger points in muscles. Stay on over-active spots for 1-3 minutes while continuing relaxation breathing.
Stretch: Use long duration or band-assisted/active stretches to target specific muscle groups.

MOBILITY

A lot of athletes know that stretching could benefit them. However, flexibility is only the range of motion of tissues and joints. Your mobility is your body’s ability to control the range of motion and get into positions. That’s really important for athletes.

Mobility requires flexibility, along with the strength and stability to protect your joints.

We have athletes use exercises that work through active ranges of motion, such as Animal Flow, yoga, and Functional Range Conditioning. Coaches can help you select what’s right for you with some assessments, but here are some common tips to get the most benefit;

Breathe well during the movements and positions. Holding your breathe is cheating.
Move slow and smooth to start.
Get the movement right. in many of these movements you can look like you’re doing them, but if you’re not focused on the right muscles or patterns, you are losing benefits.
Pay attention. Just moving misses a lot of the benefit. Notice how your body is moving and how it’s connected to the ground.

Learn more about athletes’ needs for flexibility and mobility here.

Build Your Foundation To Come Back Stronger

While away from your regular training and practice routines, you can decide to turn this obstacle into an opportunity. Preparing for the return of sports is what serious athletes are doing.

The three tactics shared here are all part of the FOUNDATION phase in the return to sports process you can follow to be your best.

By working on some of the fundamentals, you can be ready to make faster gains when your training and sports return.

Athletes and parents guide for RETURNING TO SPORT after covid-19

Download this FREE guide and get to work

Injury Risk From Returning To Sports Too Fast

June 2, 2020 by Velocity Sports Performance

return to sports after covid injury risks

Detraining during lockdowns and a quick reopening will increase injury risk

The injury risk returning to sports after COVID-19 shutdowns is greater than most coaches realize.

Preventing injuries has to be one of the highest priorities for coaches, teams, and organizations as sports return. What’s the point of reopening, if our athletes are getting hurt and missing sport anyways?

The detraining they have gone through means the athlete’s returning aren’t the same ones who left. Their physical capacities will be different.

Few coaches have experienced anything on this scale before. It’s probably been at least 10 to 20 years since a high school or college athlete has taken a full two months or more fully off from sports. It just doesn’t happen anymore with year-round training and competition.

So how do we know if they will be at risk?

Return To Sport Lessons For Elite Sports

We know athletes’ have increased risks when returning after significant injury or surgery. And we aren’t talking about just reinjuring the same body part, but the increased risk of other injuries since they haven’t been training.

We also can look at data from years in pro sports with shorter seasons and lockouts. Consistently the number of injuries is much higher when the athletes return.

One of the risk factors in all these scenarios is the accumulation of fatigue. As athletes fatigue, their injury risks increase. The athletes coming off lockdown restrictions will fatigue faster. They aren’t in the same shape to train and have a lower ability to recover.

If athletes have been consistently trying to maintain at least 25% of their normal training volume, consider how detrained they are over just 8 weeks.

Even if you ramp up training over the weeks at 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% the gap will be large and increase their risk of injury.

Stress As A Stimulus

Another factor in the injury risk returning to sports is how quickly they ramp up training again.

Practice, training, and competitions are a stimulus and stress for the athlete’s body. We want some stimulus, so they adapt, putting some savings back in that bank account. This is the increase in their readiness. That’s the overall level of their abilities from training.

However, that same stimulus, when taken too far, overloads the athlete beyond their ability to adapt. This level of stress can lead to immediate fatigue, which increases injury risk. Remember, the athletes will likely have a diminished ability to recover as fast. Both with-in a single practice session and between sessions.

When the stress overload is too high, it also damages tissues. That damage may be a small injury that adds up to those chronic, overuse injuries. It could also manifest as acute muscle strains and tendon sprains.

The Acute To Chronic Workload Ratio In Return To Sports

In elite sports, a lot of research and effort have gone into understanding how changes in training workload influence injury risk. The general consensus is that if the volume of training drops too much, athletes detrain. Then their injury risk can go up. If it increases too fast, then injury risks increase

For those planning the return to sport, this is an essential concept.

Chronic Training Load

Consider two measures of the training workload. The first we call chronic workload. This is the average workload that has been happening over time. Often we look at the average of the last eight weeks, with some extra importance in the most recent weeks.

This should make intuitive sense for a coach. The work, an athlete, has been doing in training over several weeks is what they can tolerate. It’s what the athlete has adapted to. Some practices are intense and some less severe, but it’s the average accumulated workload that they have adapted to.

Think about what this means for athletes right now. They are getting drastically less workload. Even if they are putting in their best efforts, they are getting far less than the total they were getting from practice, training, and competition before.

The workload is also relatively specific to the type and intensity of the work. The workload from 60 minutes of high-intensity practice or games, is much different than 60 minutes of bodyweight training and modified conditioning programs.

So as each week of sports lockdown progresses, the athlete’s average for the last eight weeks is dropping. Their chronic workload number is going down.

Acute Training Load

On the other hand, acute training workload is what they are going through now. This is typically looked at as the last 5-7 days. Some days may be harder, others more relaxed, but the average is what the athlete’s bodies are working to recover from and adapt to.

The relationship to injury comes in when we see a significant gap in the acute and chronic training load. This relationship is called the acute to chronic workload ratio (ACWR).

ACWR – Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio

The average acute training load (last 5-7 days) divided by the average chronic training load (last 6-8 weeks).

CHRONIC Workload = 100 units

ACUTE Workload = 110 units (a 10% increase this week)

ACWR = 1.1

Any time there is an increase in the training load, we see the acute: chronic greater than 1. Although the exact number varies by sport and finer details of workload, we still know when that number gets too big we have a problem.

Coaches have been pushing athletes for decades to train more and train harder, so they adapt. A jump in the training load itself won’t automatically increase injury risk.

On the other hand, it’s not hard to understand that if you keep doubling the amount of training every week, at some point, they are going to break down.

This graph is from Tim Gabbett, The training—injury prevention paradox: should athletes be training smarter *and* harder?, British Journal of Sports medicine, 2016.

Wile the precise ratio may be debatable, the concept isn’t. Interestingly, lowering training too much also started to increase injury risk. With the lockdowns athletes have experience they may currently be far off the left side of this graph.

Recent research in pro sports has explored this ratio. A few years ago, there was a big push based on some excellent research that a ratio of around 1.5 increased injury risk.

The exact number is not what we are worried about per se because the athlete’s age and level and the sport have an impact. What does matter is the basic premise; increasing workload too quickly leads to elevated injury risk.

Coaches, if you return to practice without a plan, and follow your normal approach, you might be putting your athletes in harm’s way.

Athletes will have a greater injury risk returning to sports

This pandemic has affected sports and we are all looking forward to getting back quickly.

However, in doing so, we must recognize and plan for the unique situation we are in as coaches, and organizations.

So be proactive. If you’re not back to practice yet, get your athletes some help and programming that addresses their specific needs when they return. Get with a knowledgable sports performance professional who can help you put a plan together to ramp back up as quick as possible.

The vital point for sports coaches is that if you increase the training load too fast, the injury risk returning to sports goes up. Your athletes’ average load over the last 1-3 months is probably lower than you’ve ever seen on a broad scale.

Returning To Sports After COVID-19 Restrictions: High Performance or High Injury Rate

November 30, 2020June 1, 2020 by Velocity Sports Performance

HIGH PERFORMANCE OR HIGH INJURY RATE RETURNING TO SORTS

The return to sports after COVID-19 will be different than just flipping a switch and starting a season.

This stoppage of sports due to the pandemic is unprecedented. Restrictions vary across the country from a strict stay at home orders to the shutdown of schools and organized sports.

Right now, most athletes aren’t going to practice or being coached in person. Team practices aren’t occurring. Almost all gyms and school weight rooms are closed as well.

All of this limits what types of training an athlete can be doing.

While many athletes are trying to stay fit with at-home workouts, it’s not the same stimulus to the body or mind. For water sport athletes like swimmers and water polo players, it’s even harder to train appropriately.

Athletes Are Detraining After COVID-19

Athletes improve their fitness, speed, strength, and tissue resilience through their practice, training, and competition. All of those induce stress, too which the athletes adapt.

When there is reduced stress, the body also adapts, back to lower levels.

Because of all this, we can reasonably assume that an athlete’s training adaptations are deteriorating during this time. This process is what we call detraining.

How bad the detraining will be is based on the individual athlete’s genetics, training history, and what they are doing now.

Learn More: Athlete’s Tendons Are At Risk After COVID-19

Nonetheless, we know that even with the best intentions, athletes arent getting the same stimulus to adapt.

Using bodyweight, resistance bands, lightweights, and modified programs help reduce the detraining, but they just won’t cut it. They don’t have the same effect as practicing their sport and comprehensive performance training.

Detraining is a bit like withdrawing money from a bank account. Think of training and practice time as money that’s been invested. The longer the restrictions last, the more athletes are withdrawing from their savings.

Training is a stimulus that helps athletes adapt. Going without training, practices and competitions is leading to reduced capacities for most athletes.

Their accounts are starting to dwindle.

Some of the effects of detraining are on whole systems like the cardiac, aerobic, and neuromuscular systems. They each have different rates of detraining.

In other cases, we have to consider specific structures and abilities in athletes. So, what will be different in the athletes after COVID-19 lockdowns?

Reopening sports after COVID-19 lockdowns needs to consider the implications of detraining.

Athletes returning to sports after COVID-19 restrictions are different

Planning The Return To Sports

Plans for returning to sports after COVID-19 restrictions must consider the size of the detraining withdrawal that’s been made by athletes. The magnitude of the deconditioning will affect how quickly athletes are back to 100 percent.

It’s up to all of us in sports to make sure we work to return athletes to sport safely, successfully, and sustainably. understanding that they are in a different condition is the first step.

Tendon Injury Risk For Athletes After COVID-19 Time Off

June 2, 2020May 21, 2020 by Velocity Sports Performance

While COVID19 itself hasn’t shown any direct effects, the pandemic and our social distancing response probably will impact tendon injury risk for athletes. You need to understand what is happening with your tendons while you are away from sport and what they will endure when sports return.

As athletes return to sports practice and competition after lockdown, they will be susceptible to tendon injury as they undergo spikes in their training load. These acute increases in the volume of throwing, sprinting, jumping, and swinging can be a risk factor for tendon injury.

TENDONS NEED LOAD

Too much load and you get an injury, but too little and you get structural change. After just 2-4 weeks of unloading the tissues of tendons begin to lose their structure and ability to withstand big loads. That means athletes wont to be the same when sports return.

SHOCKS AND SPRINGS

Tendons improve athletic movement skills by transmitting muscle forces and by acting as springs. This means they need to be able to provide both elasticity and stiffness. To do this they need to be exposed to the right types of stimulus in training.

TOO MUCH, TOO FAST

Repetitive stress that overloads the tendon can create micro-injuries in the tissue that add up. These become overuse injuries. Runners and jumpers often experience this when they increase their volume too quickly. Throwers and volleyball players often experience this in the shoulder or elbows as well.

TENDONS ARE COMMON SPORTS INJURIES

Tendon injuries are common in sports. Tendon injuries you may have heard of include;

Achilles Tendon – Ankle
Patellar Tendon – Knee
Elbow Tendons – Tennis & Golfer’s elbow

These injuries can occur with either acute tears or chronic overuse. Tendon injury risk for athletes will be heightened as they haven’t been conditioned by normal sports practice.

PREPARING FOR THE RETURN TO SPORT AS WE REOPEN

Loading tendons enough to stimulate the structure and function is the key to being ready when sports return. At home, and before teams resume, proactive athletes can use isometrics, eccentrics and reactive plyometrics to train. These types of exercises are key ingredients to build resiliency and capacity in the tissue.

GRADUAL RETURN TO SPORTS

One of the biggest risk factors for tendons is how rapidly the volume of work increases. Muscles adapt faster than tendons and can overwhelm them. When an athlete has been doing very little and then starts full practice, the risk of injury to tendons is exponentially increased.

FREE DOWNLOAD

The Athletes and Parents Guide For Returning To Sports After COVID-19

Returning to Sports After COVID-19 Layoffs

June 2, 2020May 12, 2020 by Velocity Sports Performance

As we look to the future and reopening, returning to sports after COVID-19 is a challenge athletes and coaches need to be preparing for now.

Everyone who loves sports wants to see it return to normal.

Sport provides many benefits to our society. There is the encouragement of physical fitness and health. The joy of exercise and competition. The lessons it teaches us about life and ourselves. And the comradery and community it can provide.

However, if coaches and leaders don’t intelligently manage the return to sport process, the risks for injury will be increased.

Because of all those positives and financial incentives at some levels, there are a lot of people looking to get things back to normal ASAP. That’s understandable, but this isn’t normal.

The athletes that will be returning aren’t the same ones who left.

We Hit Pause on Sports

With the imposed stoppage of leagues and schools, athletes have not had the opportunity to practice, nor compete in most places.

The more dedicated athletes have found ways to carry on as best they can. From running outside to training at home, they are working to maintain their fitness.

Unfortunately, even if they are doing everything they can, they just can’t duplicate all the elements of their sport. Large spaces, high speed running and jumping, long throwing or hitting, high-intensity practice, hours upon hours of weekly practice. All of this is missing or severely limited.

With it being gone, the accompanying physical stresses on the body or lowered as well. There isn’t the same load on muscle, tendons, and the cardiovascular system. There isn’t the same cognitive demand on the brain and motor control system.

FREE ATHLETES & PARENTS GUIDE:
RETURNING TO SPORTS AFTER COVID-19

Some Rest Is Good

On the bright side of that rest is the opportunity to recover. Many athletes don’t have an offseason anymore, and this may be the first time off from their sport they’ve had in years.

That can allow some time to heal injuries. Overused muscles and tendons are getting rest from the constant stress. The time off gives them a mental and emotional break that just may have needed and can reinvigorate their motivation to play.

Some athletes have taken advantage of this window to not just rest but repair their bodies and eliminate problems. Rest is helpful to reduce pain, but proactively working to rehab those nagging injuries takes the athlete to a new level and helps protect them when sport returns.

Athletes Have Been Detraining

Without that stress, there is also a negative. Keep in mind “stress” in the general sense isn’t good or bad. When it is too much, things can break, but when it is too little, they become weaker and fragile.

For many young athletes, they don’t realize how much that constant practice has conditioned their bodies.

Every repetition puts small strains on the tissues. They help stimulate the body to keep them strong and functioning. When it is too much, things like tendons start to break down over time. But now, there is too little. Those tendons are not ready to withstand the same practice volume they did a two months ago.

The muscles don’t have the same strength or endurance. Those qualities normally protect them in practice day after day. Adequate levels of strength, power, and endurance keep them firing properly to move efficiently and react to the athlete’s environment.

The problem is they aren’t going to be at the same level for a lot of athletes. Even though many are trying to train at home, they aren’t exposing themselves to the same high-intensity loads they do at practice and in games.

Without the muscles’ same capacities, they will fatigue faster. Lower intensities than usual will challenge them. If practice plans and volumes are not managed with this in mind, the athletes will be at higher risk.

Sudden Retraining Increases Risks

We have evidence in the world of elite sport that a sudden increase in the training load on athletes is a factor in their risk of injury.

You see it’s not just the overall volume that matters, but how quickly it changes. Ramping up from no training to normal over several weeks is much different than returning to full practices in a week or two.

In elite sport the concept of acute to chronic workload has been accepted by professional teams and organizations worldwide. Basically, the concept is that if your acute workload is too high compared to your chronic workload, an athlete’s injury rish increases.

Chronic workload is how much you’ve been doing over the last few weeks. Acute workload is how much you are doing this week and today. When your acute workload jumps a lot above your chronic workload your chance of injury os higher.

Risk of injury returning to sport after covid 19

Unprecedented Return to Sport Process

For coaches, this is a big challenge. Most sport coaches have not had athletes this detrained in decades. The era of sport off-seasons ended a long time ago. Coaches are used to athletes who are doing too much, not too little.

They take for granted that the athletes have been having the number of foot contacts, the swings, the throws that they need to be ready for practice. Even the best intention coach hasn’t experienced bringing back all their athletes from near zero.

LEARN MORE: Why Returning To Sports Now Isn’t As Simple As Flipping The Switch

In fact, our closet parallel to this unprecedented situation is athletes return from major injury or surgery. While athletes in lockdown haven’t had the trauma of surgery, they do have the detraining. Safely returning athletes to sport is an area of great focus in elite sports. Now it’s going to be important for everyone.

Have a Plan To Prepare

Athletes that want to be successful aren’t sitting back and doing nothing right now. They are training as best they can. Those that had nagging injuries are hopefully getting help to repair them and remove the root causes.

Knowing that there are a lot of unknowns in how sport will return, it’s in an athlete’s best interest to prepare now and to prepare for the worst.

The worst being a return to sport period that’s too short, increases volume too fast, and has too much intensity too soon.

That scenario could happen, and that’s outside of an athlete’s control. So, what can they do to be proactive?

Stamina

“Fatigue makes cowards of us all,” is a quote from Vince Lombardi that still rings true. Not only that, but our coordination goes down, and injury risk goes up when we are fatigued.

Although an athlete might not be able to train their stamina exactly as they would need it in their sport, they can stay close. That’s good because stamina starts dropping off between 3 and 30 days, depending on the energy system.

By working on maintaining or improving different energy systems, it’s going to be a lot easier to regain their sports-specific stamina when sport returns after COVID-19.

When we say different energy systems, we are talking about stamina for different durations and intensities of work. A good aerobic capacity is what people think about often as stamina. It is an essential part of many sports, and helps in an athlete’s day-to-day, or even drill to drill recovery.

Don’t stop there, however. Athletes need to be able to produce repeat short 1-6 second, high-intensity efforts. An athlete also needs to be capable of sustaining efforts right above that anaerobic threshold for anywhere from 30 sec to 4 minutes in a lot of sports.

The key is to make sure you have a good base of stamina as you get ready to return to sport. Get a plan, get a heart rate monitor, and get to work now.

Muscle

Muscle strength will last for several weeks, even if it may not be at its very peak. If you’ve been training for some time, it lasts a little longer and will come back quicker.

Still, after months of not doing any heavy lifting, you may be losing strength. Athletes often stimulate or maintain strength by the high-intensity things they do in sport. Full speed sprinting and repeated full effort jumping is typical in many sports practices and help maintain strength through a type of ballistic and plyometric training.

Without that sport practice, you are probably losing maximum strength more than you know. Even worse, since you lose the neurological ability for speed in just a few days, that explosive strength is dropping off rapidly when you don’t use it.

So, an athlete that wants to be ready is going to hit both ends of that strength & speed spectrum. Using dumbbells, kettlebells, or even bands can help maintain that muscle’s ability to produce high forces.

Doing explosive jumping exercises will help maintain that explosive strength.

Tendon

Tendons connect muscles to bones to transmit the muscle’s force and create movement. They can also act like springs in many athletic movements, from running to jumping.

They lose their trained capabilities and structure between 2 – 4 weeks according to the research. They are also one of the first areas to flare up with increases in training volume. Add to that a slower readapting rate than muscle. That means you better use it, and not lose it if you can.

The achilles and patellar tendons are areas of concern for a lot of athletes. There are some things they can do to protect them. Lower body isometrics (holding a position for 30sec – 1:00min) with bodyweight or added resistance are an excellent first line of defense.

One of the best tools to keep them springy is a jump rope. Basic jump roping is a good start, and double-unders take this up a level in maintaining those tendons.

LEARN MORE: Athlete’s Tendon Risk Infographic

Speed

Maximal speed abilities include actions like; jumping, sprinting, throwing a ball, swinging a bat or racket, or hitting a volleyball. They all require coordination of high-speed muscle contraction, and they drop off in just a few days.

This will be one of the hardest things to maintain at home and/or on your own. If you can get out and sprint, it’s a fantastic way to stimulate these abilities for every athlete. Yes, even the upper body athlete will benefit from the neuromuscular stimulus. Think of sprinting as a high-intensity plyometric exercise.

Sprinting and plyometrics are great if you have a place. Don’t do this on the concrete or your patio. The grass is a much better surface if you can get out in a park.

Returning to Sport After COVID-19

If you want the best chance to return to sport after COVID 19 without injury and playing near your best, take action now. If you’re not sure how to achieve some of these things, find a performance coach who can help guide your training plan, so you’ll be ready.

Hopefully, coaches will get advice as well so they can create an intelligent return to sports plans that manage the volume and load on athletes.

This sports stoppage is unprecedented. We all need to step back and evaluate how we will train as sport returns. This isn’t just business as usual.

Winning Battles In Hockey With Better Training

November 30, 2020February 1, 2020 by Velocity Sports Performance

Winning Battles Is Essential To Winning Hockey Games

For every goal scoring play in a hockey game, there were two or three plays that came just before that made it possible. Often these plays take the form of battles along the wall or in the corners. These are the puck battles that every player has to be ready for.

Players that help their team score goals – or stop them – are the type of players coaches want on their teams. Winning 1-on-1 puck battles is one way to stand out in the eyes of these coaches, and helps the team.

As the level of play rises, it takes extraordinary skating skills, speed, puck control, and hockey sense to battle and compete 1-v-1 effectively.

Along with skill work on the ice, developing players can improve their ability to win puck battles by improving strength. Unfortunately, while any strength training will help some for a complete novice, it has to become more specific as the level of play increases.

So, how do players do the right type of strength training to battle harder?

Build The Core

Puck battles often look like a wrestling match on skates. Opposing players are battling to gain leverage and position so they can control the puck.

Any player that wants to be successful, as well as avoid injuries, needs a strong core.

We aren’t talking six-pack abs and sit-ups. The core strength a hockey player needs helps them to resist movement. Resist movement is what allows a player to transmit forces from the powerful lower body into an opponent. It’s what helps them resist being moved out of position by the other player.

Here are two exercises hockey players can use to build strength and resist movement.

Develop A Strong Foundation

While many players watch a puck battle and see the work in the upper body pushing and pulling, they need to realize the biggest forces are being generated by the lower body. To keep body position and gain leverage, the legs need to be really strong and powerful.

These three strength exercises build lower body strength and power that helps winning battles in hockey.

Should Young Hockey Players Lift Weights?

Increase Rotational Power To Win Battles

While trying to gain leverage, or resist an opposing player, large rotational forces are created during puck battles. That means a hockey player needs both the ability to generate and resist rotational forces.

But where do rotational forces occur?

The hips and thoracic (upper back/chest) spine are where rotation should occur. The large muscles of the hip generate torque to rotate, and a solid core transmits them to the upper body to battle with the opponent.

These exercises build rotational power hockey players can use.

Bulletproof Your Shoulders To Survive The Boards

Crashing into the boards while battling for the puck can add wear and tear to the shoulders of any hockey player. To build the durability for contact in the shoulders, hockey players need to develop their strength and stability.

While traditional strengthening like bench press, shoulder press, and side raises are useful, hockey players need functional strength. This means strength that ties together the glenohumeral joint, scapular stability, and thoracic mobility.

The Turkish getup ties together shoulder and core stability and is a staple for athletes. Additionally, a routine of basic stability exercises can be added to any program to promote more stability.

Coaches Want Players Who Battle Hard To Win The Puck

Developing players and their parents may be most impressed by scoring goals, but hockey teams must win battles to score. Coaches are impressed by players that battle hard in all three zones.

Building the right strength will help improve the confidence and resilience hockey players need. Battle harder and win the puck with improved strength.

Learn More: Five Exercises to Help You Battle In The Corners