try the deadlifts from the vid, trains anti rotation of the core which is it's job...i like them way better
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I've just started lifting recently to try and gain some mass for footy since I'm 6ft and a measly 74kgs (was 70 before I started bulk eating)
cptkirk, can you give me some examples of single leg exercises for performance? I am training for footy next season but at the moment I'm not doing any single leg exercises and would like to add in one or two.
Thinking of step ups or lunges at the moment but might give the single leg deadlifts a try. Would that be as an alternative to conventional deads or in addition to it?
I've also seen you mention reverse lunges here often - why those over 'forward' lunges?
What do you think would be the best single leg exercises for power/strength (particularly from a football perspective
jesus hitchy!!!
get a kfc variety bucket into you for goodness sakes
split squats
reverse lunges
step ups
walking lunges
dynamic lunges (foward)
pistol squats
bulgarian split squats
single leg deadlifts
and there's plenty of variations you can add to them (deficits, bb, 1 db, overhead etc)
i'll go a top 2:
1a - pistols squats (unassisted, most functional movement you can get almost, uses all the stabilising muscles in every plane of motion)
1b - single leg deadlift (unassisted, trains the anti rotation function of the core as well, uses all the stabilisng muscles in every plane of motion)
forward lunges are simply harder as you need to decelerate your body then accelerate it back to the starting position
You keep mentioning "working" stabilising muscles. I wouldn't say working more, recruiting. These stabilising muscles will not be undergoing the same workout the the prime movers will be. The load on the stabiliser muscles is not sufficient enough to ellicit hypertophy and the other muscular and metabolic adaptations that occur along with it. The movement patterns will get stronger due to neural adaptations however. Once the nervous system learns to coordinate the movements that are being performed in the exercise efficiently that's where strength is added to the stabilisers.
I'm not 100% sure how well these adaptations carry over to a football match. There's a whole bunch of motor control patterns involved in this but how will the stabilisers react to unexpected movements? During an exercise you tell your muscles when to fire and hence the nervous system can anticipate when to fire. The nervous system won't be able to anticipate during a game not to mention all the other functions that it will already be carrying out. What you're left with then is muscles with little muscular adaptations only trained to be strong in certain movement patterns.
Considering it's pre-season I would just aim to get strength into the muscles. No need to start specific training at this point in time. There will be some exceptions to what I wrote above of course. However, the actual muscles need to get strong, and working them only as stabilisers will not do that (not that i'm assuming that these are the only exercises that you would prescribe for the core).
if they're being recruiting they're working aren't they?
of couse the pime movers are at the mercy of the stabilises, that's the point...strengthen your weaknesses
you're telling me that 70kg lunges aren't get me, 75kgs in total bodyweight, bigger? goodness...some can't even squat that much
they carry over because football is played on 1 leg at a time, if your standing still you're not getting the footy...running is a unilatreal movement
the stabilises are the muscles keeping you injury free not the prime movers, that;s why there's abductor strains and op injuries...then once the stabilisers are shut off and dormant, the prime movers do all the work leading to quad tears and hamstring tears from lack of glute strength
remember that frenmantle bloke who looks 12 yrs old in the last round or whenever, he did his acl 50m off the ball turning to jog the other way...a claxssic example of dormant glutes (how that happened at a world class level sports team is beyond me) not being able to keep his knee out of internal rotation and snap, won't play till 2011.
you can't prepare the nervous system for every movement if that's what your saying but you can prepare the muscles byt strengthening them
i'm not sure what the fuss is about single leg training with you guys. even ronnie coleman did walking lunges and i've never said not to do deads and squats but you also need single leg work too...it's not sport specific at all...the prime movers still get a hell of a workout anyway as you'd do max effort first then single leg
core??? not sure where that came into it...you do know i'm talking lower body stabilisers don't you? not core stuff
1 - all muscles undergo adaptation if they are subjected to a stimulis they otherwise can't perform...if a muscle/s need to stabilise 10kgs they will do so, if they need to stabilise 100kgs they will do so
2 - the stabiliser muscles being weak or getting fatigued easily are the one's that shut down a movement...for squats it's usually the core, for shoulder presses core and rotator cuffs and for bench press it's upper back and rotator cuffs to name a few...if the stabiliser muscles for each lift can't even stabilise the load then how can it even lift it? it can't and the body knows this so it automatically shuts down the prime movers to avoid any potential injury
3 - side to side discrepancies are where injuries come from...if you load differently through each side which everyone does (some more then others) then doing nothing but bilateral exercises reinforces this imbalannce increasing injury potential greatly...single leg movements are essential to evening this up as best as you can...if you have 1 sided lower back, hip and knee pain then a side to side discrepancy in the lower extremity is present 100% of the time
4 - getting back to point, when the stabilisers can't perform up to the task the prime movers work overtime leading to overuse, fatigue and injury...that is where soft tissue injuries come from and it is why most tears and sprains can be avoided...not all knees can some of them are simply freak accidents
5 - if there is an oveuse injury which most of them are in football (no one injures their glutes do they?) then you will always have an underperforming synergist or antogonist...as most football injuries quads and hams then the glutes are definately not up to par
1. I think we have different definitions of stabilsers. A muscle that is only stabilising will NOT undergo chronic adaptations. There will be no hypertrophy, no added sarcomere's in-parallel, no increase in pennation angle and no chronic increase in muscle glycogen stores.
2. What are you trying to say here? That the reason I can't get out my last rep whilst squatting is because my core is the limiting factor, for the shoulder press my core and rotator cuff is the limiting factor and for the bench press my upper back and rotator cuff is failing? The reason I can't get my last rep up during a bench press is because my triceps aren't strong enough as an example. For some people sure, they'll lose techique before the prime movers fail, but it isn't the same for everyone.
3. Doesn't this point come back to technique? Bilateral exercises performed correctly will correct imbalances. I've had right patellofemoral syndrome due to weak quadriceps in the past. When squatting unilaterally on my right leg it was apparent that I over compensated with hip rotation. I was told to do bilateral exercise to allow the right quadricep to catch up strengthwise to the left. If I can't do a unilateral bodyweight exercise with correct form how is the quaddie going to cope with extra weightbearing as well?
4. I listed the etiology of the injuries you mentioned previously. Again, you're just making a blanket statement that apparently is the cause of every injury.
5. Nope, there's no blanket cause of overuse injuries either.
2. It definitely could be your limiting factor. If you had ridiculously strong gluts, hammys and quads (eg from leg pressing) but never squatted. If you had a crack at squatting, I guarantee your core would be the limiting factor.
An off topic (hopefully) simple question about calf raises - is it better to do these on a stepper where the heel hangs over the edge, or does it make no difference if these are done from the floor?
An off topic (hopefully) simple question about calf raises - is it better to do these on a stepper where the heel hangs over the edge, or does it make no difference if these are done from the floor?