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RIIL Coaches Corner (May 2007)
Training and Nutrition Tips for Coaches
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Welcome, to Coaches Corner. Our goal is to provide coaches with effective, easy to implement training and nutritional advice that will help their athletes and team perform better. The Coaches Corner page will be updated, monthly, allowing access to the information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It's almost summertime. If you are a coach or director concerned with helping your team perform better and prevent injuries for the upcoming season, look no further. The NEST has various summer strength and conditioning programs for athletes looking to run faster, jump higher, and compete with more confidence. Each program is, specifically, designed for your team and is customized for your, particular, sport.
Most importantly, you can rest, assured, knowing there is a program available for any team wanting to take advantage of our expertise and state-of-the-art training center. Let us now what your budget is and we will customize a plan that works for your team. Listen to what these RI High School coaches have to say about our program and how the NEST was able to help them compete, successfully.
Now, is the perfect opportunity to affiliate your team with our staff. We are the official exercise services provider for the Providence Bruins, Brown University, and look forward to establshing a relationship with you and your team, this summer.. If you are interested, please contact, Mike at mmacchioni@aol.com. |
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Exercise of the Month:
The Deadbug
Description:
The Deadbug is one of the few abdominal exercises we do lying on the ground. In general, an athlete must find ways to train the abdominals and core musculature in an upright position if he or she is looking to perform better on the field, ice, or court. Most of the abdominal exercises that are performed while lying on the ground do not work the abdominals in a functional way. They may burn, but they don’t have much carryover to the actions performed during practice or competition. The biggest limiting factor of floor exercises is their inability to work the abdominals throughout a full range of motion.
In the upright position, your body has the ability to arch backwards, approximately 30 degrees. Like wise, it can flex forward about 30 degrees. When performing exercises lying on the ground, you restrict about half of the movement because you cannot arch backwards. How effective is any exercise performed through half of its full range of motion? How fast would you be if you restricted your running stride to half it’s normal length? Not very!
Furthermore, your muscles develop tension in much the same way as a rubber band. The more you pre-stretch the rubber band, the more elastic (potential) energy develops, and the harder the force, once released. If you stretch the elastic band, fully, it will react explosively. If you don’t apply a pre-stretch, the band cannot generate any potential (stored) energy. Therefore, it will not have much force to release. Your abdominals operate in, much, the same way. Pre-stretch them through their full range of motion and they will produce a great deal of force. Limit the pre-stretch by lying on the ground and the abdominals, simply, cannot produce their optimum power output.
If you understand this concept, you will agree that upright abdominal training is where 75% of your training should be performed. That being said, the Deadbug is one of the few effective abdominal exercises that can be performed on the ground. It is effective because it is, primarily, a stabilization exercise. By that I mean, there are certain times when your abdominal muscles work as assistive muscles. Take for instance running or jumping. When your leg muscles work to apply force into the ground, the abdominal muscles squeeze and hold your core area tight while the legs go to work. Their job is to hold the spine stabile while the other muscles do their job. As such, they are not required to perform throughout their entire range of motion. The deadbug trains the abdominals to be strong, specifically, during motions where the core stays contracted while the extremities (arms and legs) go to work.
Execution: |
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1. Lay on your back with your right arm fully extended and raised overhead. Your right leg is flexed at the knee and hip pulled towards your chest. Your left arm should be straight and pointed towards your feet. The left leg is, totally, straight and extended. Think about having long arms and legs and you will feel a slight arch in your low back (you should be able to slip your hand under the arch in your low back).
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2. Begin by performing a ‘crunch’. Your shoulders will come off the ground so you are looking at your feet. At the same time, your left leg will remain straight and raise up, off of the ground, several inches. During this time, you will press the arch out of your low back by pressing it into the ground. The abdominals will get extremely tight as they stabilize your spine.
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3. Keeping the tension on your abdominals, ‘switch’ the arms and legs, simultaneously. Try to keep the arms and legs as long as you can throughout the motion. You should wind up with your left hand above your head and your left knee and hip flexed. Your right arm is now by your side and your right leg is completely straight. At this point, the shoulders are still off the ground and your right leg is several inches in the air and completely straight. The abdominals are still tense and the low back is pressed into the ground.
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4. Finish the movement by relaxing. Let the shoulders touch the ground and let your leg rest on the ground. The tensions will come off of the abdominals as the low back begins to arch. The greater the arch, the greater the pre-stretch, and the greater potential energy build up for the next repetition.
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| The slower you execute the exercise, the more tension you will develop. Pace your self by reciting, ‘Crunch, hold it. Switch, hold it. Relax... Crunch, hold it. Switch, hold it. Relax’.
Progressions: Add 2.5 pound plates in hands / Add light ankle weights / Add both
Previous Coaches Corner Articles:
February 2007
March 2007
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