HOW: Start by lying face down with your arms by your side. Tuck your chin slightly and lift your head off the ground while still looking down. Then lift just your upper back off the ground – not your lower back. While keeping your upper back off the ground, squeeze your shoulder blades to now lift your elbows and hands off the ground. Keeping your thumbs pointed towards the sky, then reach both hands overhead, attempting to bring your arms up towards your ears. Move slow and controlled with this exercise.

 

FEEL: You should feel the muscles in your upper back and the back of your shoulder blades and shoulder working with this exercise.

 

COMPENSATIONS: Avoid arching the low back, only lift your upper back. Try your hardest not to let your chest lower as you go through your reps on this exercise. Do not shrug the shoulder blades as you bring your arms overhead.

HOW: Starting in a standing position balanced on one leg, hop laterally towards the other leg, stick the landing and simultaneously perform a skater squat. Repeat in the other direction. FEEL: You should feel your glutes, especially on the outside of your hips working a lot with this exercise. You will also feel your quads and adductors working as well. COMPENSATION: Do not lose balance or give up form for distance. Find a distance that is appropriate for you to perform the exercise with optimal form.

HOW:  Begin in a plank position on your hands and feet with a band wrapped around the back of your head. Spread your shoulder blades by pushing your chest away from the floor. In this position perform a chin tuck, try creating a double chin. While maintaining a chin tuck perform scapula push-ups by moving the scapula out and in slow and controlled.

 

FEEL:  You will feel your neck and shoulder muscles working with this exercise. You can alter the amount of resistance placed from the band by slackening or tightening it.

 

COMPENSATION:  Avoid arching your neck as you perform this, you should keep your chin tucked (not rounded) for the entirety of this exercise.

HOW: Get set up first by placing a barbell around thigh height on a rack. You can also perform this exercise on a box, bench, or any other object around that height. Grab a dowel or PVC pipe with your palms face UP just a little bit wider than shoulder distance apart. Then get down on both knees and place the end of your triceps, just before your elbows, onto the barbell or box. Scoot your knees back so you are comfortable. Arch your upper back and drive your elbows hard into the barbell to feel the stretch. When you arch your back, think of tucking a tail between your legs. You can intensify the stretch by placing your hands even further apart to begin with.

 

FEEL: You should feel a huge stretch under your arm pits and even into your shoulders and sometimes your triceps region.

 

COMPENSATION: The key is to arch your back with this stretch. Do not just simply drive your chest to the floor.

Test Description: The Side Plank Endurance Test is a reliable tool developed and used to evaluate core, trunk, and hip muscle strength and endurance while minimizing load on the lumbar spine. Please watch the video to get a visual demonstration of how to perform the test. Below you will find a description of how to do so.

Test Instructions: Get set-up laying on your side with your elbow positioned under your shoulder and your forearm flat supported on the ground perpendicular to your body. Have your feet stacked, then lift your hips up and off the ground and push them forward. There should be a straight line from your feet to your shoulders. Hold this position as long as you can with good form. Perform on the other side, write down your scores below.

Some rules to remember with this assessment. The test ends if and when (1) your max hip height cannot be sustained, (2) you’re sagging through your shoulder, (3) you’re excessively rotating your body. Be sure to reference the resource video, “compensations with the side plank endurance test” after performing this assessment on both sides to improve your re-assessment performance.

Norms/References: Norm = 30s

Prehab Goal = 60s each side

Reference

McGill, Stuart M., Aaron Childs, and Craig Liebenson. “Endurance times for low back stabilization exercises: clinical targets for testing and training from a normal database.” Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation 80.8 (1999): 941-944.

HOW: Sit against a wall with your knees up towards your chest, now perform a wall angel. Your goal should be to try to keep your elbows and hands against the wall the entire time. If you are not able to, that is completely normal and it means you have some mobility to gain!

 

FEEL: You should feel a stretch in the mid back or shoulder region.

 

COMPENSATION: Do not let your back arch. Try to keep your elbows and hands against the wall as you raise your hands up for as long as you can.

HOW: Start by lying on your back. Bend your opposite knee. The first step is let your foot turn out, this will put your hip in the desired position. Next, you must perform a very strong quadricep set by squeezing your thigh as hard as you can. Keeping this constant squeeze, tighten your core muscles and then lift your leg up into the air. Try to trace an invisible “J” in the air, keeping your toes pointing outwards the entire time. Think of making your leg as long and as straight as you can while lifting it. Then slowly lower back down to starting position and repeat.

 

FEEL: You should feel an entire contraction of the front thigh muscles and your leg working hard, especially the inside part of your thigh.

 

COMPENSATION: You should not be feeling these exercises exclusively in the front of your hip. If you only feel the muscles in the front of your hip working, it means you are not squeezing your thigh hard enough or you’re are not squeezing the quads when you are lifting your leg. Maintaining the thigh squeeze is the most important part of this exercise!

Check out this video focused on a handful of simple movements every runner can make time for before a run. Prepping the body doesn’t take much prior to a run. However, where runners RUN into issues sometimes is when they try a run after sitting at a desk for 6 hours straight over and over again.

This is especially true if we are talking an issue with a tendon, whether it be the hip flexor tendon, patellar tendon, or Achilles, these tendons like to be WARMED UP🔥 prior to activity. These issues also need other attention, but we will focus on the warm-up for now.

Follow along as I show you ⤵️

✅ Why a warm-up is important

✅ Priming muscles specific to running

✅ Dynamic warm-up and activation drills for the lower body prior to running

HOW: Begin in a half kneeling position with a kettlebell in an overhead position. With control lower yourself to the side that is free and tap the floor. At first you don’t have to go all the way down, as you feel comfortable lower yourself as far as you can towards the floor.

 

FEEL: The shoulder holding the kettlebell will be working throughout this exercise. The lower you reach towards the floor the more core activation you will get.

 

COMPENSATION: Avoid bending the elbow on the arm holding the kettlebell, keep that arm locked out.

Follow along in the video as Mike walks you through a groin flow. There is no required sets, reps, or amount of time to spend on each portion of the groin flow. Rather, listen to your body and spend as much time as you feel you need on each portion of the groin flow. Some days, you may need more or less time than others on each portion.

HOW: Get set-up seated and assume a slump position by letting your upper body round and slump forward. While maintaining this position, kick your leg straight and point your foot down as you simultaneously look up with your head and neck. Reverse the motion back to starting position and repeat.

 

FEEL: You may feel a stretch and a pull from your low back all the way to your foot on the side you’re kicking, if you get significant numbness and tingling or pins and needles or you already have these symptoms and they get exacerbated, back off and don’t kick as far.

 

COMPENSATION: Maintain the slump position, keep both leg and head movements happening at the same time, don’t move too fast. Do not point your foot up, that is a different nerve exercise.

HOW: Begin on your side with your shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles stacked over each other. Place the resistance band just slightly above your knees. In this side lying position keep both feet slightly off of the floor then open your top knee up towards the ceiling as high as you can. Make sure this motion is driven from the knee.

 

FEEL: You should feel the outer hip, particularly the glute muscles with this exercise.

 

COMPENSATION: Avoid rotating your entire trunk with this exercise. Make sure the shoulder that is facing the ceiling stay in front of the shoulder that is against the floor.

HOW: Get down on your knees and sit onto your heels if able. Think of tucking your tail between your legs and squeeze your glutes hard. Doing this should naturally begin to thrust your hips forward, but if it hasn’t, slowly begin to thrust the air in front of you.

 

FEEL: You should feel a stretch in the front of both of your thighs. You’ll also feel your glutes working hard to perform this motion.

 

COMPENSATION: If the ground is uncomfortable to use a pad under your knees.

HOW: Get set-up next to a wall or doorway and place your hand on the wall down by your pocket with your palm against the wall, there should be some space between you and the wall. Focus on keeping your shoulder and shoulder blade in a good position by keeping it back, then perform the pec stretch by leaning your body forward and maybe rotating your chest away from your hand.

 

FEEL: You should feel a stretch in your pec region below your collar bone and the front of your shoulder. You shouldn’t feel any numbness or tingling or pins and needles in your arm/hand, if you do back off.

 

COMPENSATION: Try to focus on just a pec stretch, do not lean too far forward or rotate your chest too far away. Don’t let your shoulder fall forward, keep your shoulder blade back.

HOW: While placing both hands up against the wall for support, begin by sagging your hips to arch the back. Then push back into a child’s pose against the wall, the goal is to stretch the back into a rounding position. Repeat this movement back and forth with control.

 

FEEL: When you drop your hips you will feel the abs and the low back stretching into the arched position. When you bring your body down towards the floor you will feel the low back muscles being stretched.