At FLO we prided ourselves on keep our athletes injury free and for the most part we do a good job in doing so, but lets be serious can you truly prevent an injury? The correct answer is no, but there are many things that can be done in order to properly prepare the body to take on all the different types of physical stressors and forces that are associated in sport. All tissues within the body, whether it be bone, muscle, ligament, fascia, cartilage, and skin are all highly susceptible to these five forces, compression, tension, shearing, and bending. No matter what you do in your programming for your athletes, if you do not teach their bodies how to properly tolerate or absorb these forces, they will all lead to injury.
The reverse lunge alone is great exercise to get those glutes firing, but what happens when your athlete cannot maintain a proper up right posture while the descent portion of the reverse lunge? Do you give them a whole new exercise? Or do you just stay away from that exercise and address the bad posture and build them up until they could do the exercise probably? To be honest, if you were to choose either of these choices, you would not be wrong for doing so. There are multiple reasons why the safety route is always the best route. With that being said, how about if I tell you that there is away in which you could still allow your athlete to do the reverse lunge, but in a safe manner while still addressing that bad forward body posture. Want to know how?
Well, look no further; the Louie Reverse Lunge is your answer. There are some materials needed in order to execute the Louie lunge properly, a 2” by 5’ PVC pipe, dowel stick, or broom stick, and a wall. Have the athlete stand in front of the wall as close as possible. Then have them bend their elbows into 90 degrees of flexion and slightly extend their shoulder just enough to slide the PVC pipe across the thoracic spine. Ask the athlete to flex their shoulders forward (move their hands forward); this will secure them into an up right posture or into what we call the brace sequence which was discussed in our last blog, “The Kettlebell Goblet Squat with Pauses”. It will also, secure the PVC pipe to the body. Have them reposition themselves so that their fingertips are touching the wall. Another important cue for the athlete to remember is to stare straight ahead at all times. Now they are ready to begin to lunge from this position.
Upper left picture: illustrates the proper positioning of the PVC pipe. Upper right picture: back view of the starting position. Lower left picture: side view of the stating position: Notice how the athlete has his fingers extend and finger tips are touching the wall before descending into a reverse lunge. Lower right picture: side view of the Louie Lunge.
There are many benefits from the Louie lunge, for instance the wall serves the athlete as a visual cue, while the PVC pipe gives the body a sensory feedback to keep that brace sequence or up right posture needed in order to execute the reverse lunge. The best part of this exercise is that the athlete needs to eccentrically load the hamstring at the bottom of the lunge in order to get back up to the starting position. You could have the athlete start on one side first and once finished with all of the reps on that side switch legs and have them start a reverse lunge on the other leg; this would be our first variation. Once, the athlete is moving well, we have the athlete alternate between each time he returns to start position. Below you will find a video on the second variation. Louie Lunge Video
Take a look at our e-book “The Five Levels of FLO”, where we speak in depth about our assessment, training philosophy, and exclusive look into our exercise library. It can be purchased in our website www.flofitnesbh.com under the “The Five Level of FLO book” tab. You can also email us at flofitness@gmail.com or johnny.flofitness@gmail.com for any questions.
Until next time folks!!
-Johnny Rodriguez, ATC
Injury Prevention Coordinator
FLO Fitness LLC
Comments
Post a Comment