Tag: warm-up

Integrated Mobility Work

Many movements in sports rely on diagonal myofascial “slings” that create a connection between one hip and the opposite shoulder.

Influencing mobility at individual joints is extremely important, but including “integrated” mobility work along these diagonal slings can address limitations that may not appear at the single-joint level.

This video is of a “1/2 Kneel Hip Flexor w/ Opposite Pec Mob” that taps into emphasizes the fascial connection through the front of the down-side hip, the obliques, and opposite pec.

A few notes:

✅ Set up by pushing the down side knee into the ground, rolling the tailbone under and shifting the hip forward to feel a deep stretch through the hip flexors.

✅ Grab the pole with the bottom hand palm down and the top hand palm up. Use the bottom hand to push the top back at ~45° angle above horizontal until you feel a big stretch through your pec.

✅ Each rep, attempt to push slightly further back to increase length/tension across the entire pathway. You can “take up slack” by sinking the hips further forward, and/or adding rotation through the t-spine.

Typically performed for 6-10 reps per side OR for 3-6 reps of alternating periods of 10s of holding a stretch, and 10s of pushing against the stretch (1-2mins of total tension).

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For more information on how to assess movement and integrate specific strategies to improve mobility and movement quality in training, check out Optimizing Movement. Don’t have a DVD player? Send me a note through the contact page after you checkout here Optimizing Movement and I’ll get you a digital copy of the videos!

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Lateral Line Mobility

I was fortunate to come across Thomas Myers book Anatomy Trains (@anatomytrainsofficial) early in my career (great recommendation from @michael_boyle1959), and it continues to influence how I view movement.

In the book, Myers breaks down the anatomy of 7 important fascial pathways. The lateral line extends from the foot through the peroneals, IT Band, hip abductors, lateral obliques, lateral intercostals up through the splenius capitis and SCM to the lateral aspect of the cranium.

This video shows a “Lateral Wall Lean w/ Triceps Stretch” that emphasizes stretching the lateral line from the ground up. While the triceps aren’t included in Myers lateral line, actively flexing the elbow adds tension along the pathway.

A few notes:

✅ Slide the inside leg under the outside leg and roll the ankle so the outside of the foot is on the ground

✅ Sink the hips toward the wall to feel a stretch through the lateral hip, obliques, and rib cage.

✅ Think of reach your elbow slightly up the wall to increase the tension through the lateral line and through your lat.

✅ Keep this position while you bend your elbow to reach down your back.

✅ Every few reps, see if you can reach your leg further or sink your hips closer to the wall to “take up the slack”

This quickly becomes a favorite with the athletes that try it, in part because it’s addressing areas typically overlooked with more common mobility routines.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For more information on how to assess movement and integrate specific strategies to improve mobility and movement quality in training, check out Optimizing Movement. Don’t have a DVD player? Send me a note through the contact page after you checkout here Optimizing Movement and I’ll get you a digital copy of the videos!

Enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Sports Performance and Hockey Training Newsletter!

A Great Core Exercise

Over the Summer I was fortunate to spend some time at Cressey Performance. They had a lot of their baseball guys doing dynamic variations of medicine ball exercises I had seen previously. By dynamic I mean adding some movement (such as a skip or reverse lunge) ahead of the throw. I was thinking of how to incorporate a lateral movement pattern into an explosive throw and came up with this one.
The idea is that you decelerate a lateral movement (as you would in any stopping or cutting movement), and then transition into an explosive hip movement, transferring the force through your core and into your upper body.

I’m becoming more attached to incorporating exercises like this before a training session as they’re effective at stimulating the nervous system and reinforcing proper movement and force transfer.
This if the first time Christen has ever performed this exercise, so you can see she’s a little inconsistent from rep to rep, but she does a pretty good job. In the future I’d coach her to transition from the “drop” to an explosive leg drive a bit quicker. Give it a shot yourself. Let me know what you think.

[quicktime] http://www.kevinneeld.com/videos/Eagle-Lateral%20Lunge%20to%20MB%20Shotput%201.mov[/quicktime]

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