Build Untearable Hamstrings

Question I received today:

"...your blog is truly terrific, I play footy in the US and last season I pulled my hammy 2 - 3 times. After the season I took it real easy and allowed it months to heal and when it was time to start off season lifting/training I could feel a knot almost in my right hammy. I went to see a doctor and got x-rayed but there was no calcification then a physical therapist told me that basically I have overly tight hamstrings and also gave me some stretches and lifts for building flexibility and strength. I has got a lot better but I still feel like there's a knot there when I flex my hammy. Is there any recommendations for exercises for my training to assist in not having a repeat of last year?"

Trevor

The dreaded hamstring is an all to common injury, but one that is avoidable with a bit of postural knowledge.

The first thing to look at are your hips and whether your backside sits higher then your front side. If they do then your stuck in excessive anterior pelvic tilt (APT).

This is caused by tight hip flexors, quads and ITB's and leads to a quad dominant movement pattern so as well loading the hams a lot from lack of glute activation, it puts excessive stress your knees from anterior loading.

Now most people think that there hamstrings are tight but if your are in APT, than your hamstrings are actually stretched from the back of the hips sitting higher then they should be, putting your hamstrings in a constant state of "stretch", which presents as neural tightness.

When your glute activation is non-existent, then your hamstrings are forced to work overtime as they are now doing the jobs of the powerful glute muscles, a job they are not too equipped to do for very long, if at all.

Moving onto the training aspect most players train for hamstrings for knee flexion with leg curl variations which is the hamstrings second function. It's main function is actually hip extension where your leg goes back behind the mid line of the body such as sprinting, kicking and jumping for a mark. The extension of the leg in the action, with simultaneous ankle, knee and hip extension is called triple extension which is detailed in the Aussie Rules Training Off Season Manual.

Triple Extension

So now that we know the benefits of complete hip extension into triple extension, we can now determine which exercises will strengthen the muscles that are weak (glutes) and taking the stress off the hamstrings.

Here's 2 more video's from the Aussie Rules Training Of Season Manual.

Glute Activation

Hip Dominant Movement Pattern Exercises

So now you have the tools to avoid any hamstring troubles if you haven't had them before, and to rehab yourself if you have done them before.

Thanks Trev

Damian Chalis

I accidently deleted your email for the report, can you resend mate? Thanks

Don't Forget The Archie Sale

To celebrate the birth of my little boy, the Aussie Rules Training Off Season Training Manual has been slashed to $47 for the month of February, down from $77!!

Get in on this offer as its a short month and it'll be gone before you know it.

Monthly Running Program Part 2

Earlier this week I posted a monthly running program geared for Aussie Rules Football.

I received an email from a reader in that I had left something out which was right.

On week 3 for short distance I left out 10 x 30m on week 3 which now has the weekly volume matching up with the program.

He also asked a scheduling question and I also realised that I didn't address it. Each day is to be done on it's own and also with a days rest between them at least.

Thanks for the email Matt.

Looking forward to the NAB Cup this weekend too?

What's everyone's thoughts on the new set up for this year?

Monthly Running Program

I was bored on the tram the other and whipped this up, a monthly template for your running for football.

Now granted everyone is training and this is more of an off season running plan so this won't come in handy until October/November this year.

The template is broken up into long, medium and short distance sprints, there is no 10km runs here, and Collingwood's Fitness Director David Buttifant agrees.

It progresses up in volume over 3 weeks then drops it back on the 4th week and off you go again. I believe if more players took planed deloading periods during their training they would actually see greater results and less injuries as the year goes on. AFL players do it so why don't you?

Short Distance (SD) is anything 0 - 40m with a focus on starting speed and acceleration.

Medium Distance (MD) is anything 40 - 200m focusing on reaching then maintaining top speed.

Long Distance is anything 1km and above focusing on aerobic endurance.

To calculate the rest period we're going to use a work:rest ratio. For those unfamiliar with them it refers to timing your set then using a predetermined equation as your rest period. So if we opt for a 1:3 work:rest (w:r) ratio, then if your 1st set takes 3:30mins, then you'll rest 10.30mins between sets.

That might seem like a lot of rest but we're after quality here, not a lot of shit running volume.

For SD use a full rest which still won't be very long anyway as the sets will only take 5 - 7secs or so.

For MD use an almost full rest, about 80 - 90% rest but no shorter.

Week 1

SD 10 x 20m / MD 3 x 200m / LD 1 x 2km, 2 x 1km (between the 2km and 1km sets use a 1:2 w:r ratio and also sue a 1:2 w:r ratio between the 1km sets)

Week 2

SD 10 x 20m, 5 x 30m / MD 4 x 200m / LD 1 x 2km, 3 x 1km (1:2 w:r ratio between 2km and 1km sets then 1:3 w:r ratio for the 1km sets)

Week 3

SD 10 x 20m , 10 x 30 / MD x 5 x 200m / LD 2 x 2km, 3 x 1km (use a 1:3 w;r ratio for the 2km sets and a 1:2 w:r ratio for the 1km sets)

Week 4

SD 5 x 30m / MD 3 x 150m / LD 1 x 2km

The weekly volume looks like this:

Week 1

SD - 200M / MD - 600M / LD - 4km = 4.8kms

Week 2

SD - 350m / MD - 800M / LD - 5kms = 6.15kms

Week 3

SD - 500M / MD - 1000M / LD - 7kms = 8.5kms

Week 4

SD - 150m / MD - 450m / LD - 2kms = 2.6kms

Give it a go.

By the way the Aussie Rules Training Off Season Manual that was on offer for posting a comment last month was won by carltonblue. Congratulations!!

The Archie Sale!

He brings me smiles each and every day, and now he can make you smile for at least 1 day because the Archie Sale is on for the month of Feb.

The Aussie Rules Training Off Season Training Manual has now been slashed to $47.

So all orders completed by the end of Feb will get the deal.

With the nightmare pregnancy that is still going (wife hasn't made it out of hospital yet and he's 3 weeks old and she was in 3 weeks pre!), this is almost a once in a lifetime chance as we won't be diving back in for another anytime quick.

Order you copy NOW!!

David Buttifant Seminar Recap

Last Sunday I attended a Centrality based seminar by Collingwood's Director of Sports Science, David Buttifant and Anthony Rocca, titled "How to Win You Own Personal Premiership."

I wasn't sure what the seminar was going to entail but I was going to attend regardless although I was hoping for something more training based in hind-site.

The event overview was:

David

How to Plan Your Way to Success

How to Succeed Where Others Fail

Anthony

Overcoming and Thriving Through Adversity

David

How to Recover From Injuries Like an AFL Footballer

Panel Discussion

Instead of going into too much detail I'll just dot point my notes:

• failing to plan is planing to fail
• train slow, be slow
• it's a lot harder to increase an endurance dominant player's explosiveness then to increase an endurance dominant player's explosiveness
• The best players have an excellent explosive profile
• Collingwood don't do any long distance running except for their 2km time trial instead opting for game simulated training like 4 v 5, 3 v 3, 2 v 3 games
• players average 12 - 16kms/game
• the point of training is to minimise the distance covered, thus training stress but reaping the optimal training effect
• a daily set up at this time of the year consists of 15 - 30mins core work for the younger players and whoever needs it, 45 - 90mins of weights breaking players into groups depending on goals and abilities, refuel with supplements, miscellaneous conditioning such as sprinting technique, boxing etc and lastly range of motion wok and restoration
• when planning your training progress intensity from easy to hard and progress skills simple to complex
• power is tested every 2 - 6 weeks on a smith machine which is hooked up to some contraption - i missed what is was
• range of motion is tested weekly
• skin folds are tested every 2 weeks for those who come back a little heavier then they should
• uses the Sandwich Approach to feedback which a positive comment followed by a negative followed by a positive comment
• recovery methods they use include ice bath with mobilisation, whole body vibration, massage, sleep, proprioception, body flow, autogenics and supplementation
• ice baths increase growth hormone and thus protein synthesis
• vibration training decreases potentiation where glute activation increase potentiation so vibration may be best served for power endurance while it also increases somastatin and decreases myostatin which in turn decreases growth hormone
• mostly uses trigger point massage which provides its greatest benefits when performed 48 - 72hrs game
• advocates mediation which decreases hear rate, cortisol and ventilation and actually does 2 x 10min sessions/day himself
• doses creatine for 10g max
• pre weights have 5 - 15g protein to decrease muscle degradation during training
• supplements zinc and magnesium
• protein is set at 1.5 - 1.8g per kg of body weight/day
• has the team do weights the day after a game
• in a shocker to me, he has only included glute activation for the team recently which means he could have maybe saved Nathan Buckley if he had done it earlier as the team physio had been bugging him about it for a while
• according to teams GPS readings, the top 4 teams do less work then the bottom 4 teams but get better results
• uses a daily recovery index which tracks sleep, energy, mental state, range of motion, soreness and recovery with each being marked out of ten and if you average a 6 or under on any given day then you need to reassess
• allows 50g of fat/day max
• measures creatine kinase which increases with training load and finds that the younger players average a higher reading and questions the training loads of some of the under age teams which is why they deload the younger players more often

Overall I still enjoyed the seminar and David also mentioned that Centrality and himself were maybe going to some more specific seminars in the future too.