ExRx.net

Sounds like it. Be a tough guy and get a tennis ball in there instead of the foam roller.

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What if the Hokey Cokey really IS what it's all about?

tennis ball? Pfft! I've got a hockey ball. Best £1.50 I've ever spent.

Rik - no problem, any time. And yes it would be good to hear how you get on.

Oh, you all have the location of TFL right but just encase there's any confusion, it's detailed in this article by Tony Gentilcore,

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... tough_guys

KPj

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Thanks TimD

that's a brilliant article.

Slightly gutted though, I thought I'd discovered that way of massaging your rotator cuff! I didn't think I'd ever seen anyone else doing it.

Thanks for the link(s).

I shall digest whilst the Missus plays god with the TV remote tonight

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Well, guess i'm off to the sporting goods store to buy a pair of balls...

Why's everyone laughing?

Thought i'd report back on todays workout.

I alternated with some IT (TFL) stretches, pull-ups and overhead pressing and got warmed up nicely.

Then I got with some foam rolling, TFL didn't feel to bad, but boy did the quads hurt, especially outer thigh. I also foam rolled my left testicle for good measure too...oops

Tried a few sets of lying side clams. Dont think I got the benefit of these, I wanted to use my bands, but they perished in the winter last year, so did them without. Dont think I 'switched on Glute Medius'

Wanted to try some box squats. Dont have a box, so tried using my bench as a box, but its a little high.

Anyway, not happy with that, I switched to front squat and noticed knee noise was much less than back squat. So I alternated foam rolling my outer thigh and sets of front squats, each time the noise reduced to the point where I couldn't hear anything on the last set!

I found I could keep the weight more on my heels with the front squat, which seems strange, but felt good.

Tried a reverse lunge with the bad leg...most crunchy...Figured i'd do some curls for the girls and some reverse triceps extensions for me. Called it a day.

Seems that the upright torso is helping, front squat stance was about shoulder width, maybe slightly less.

Need a way to turn on Glute Medius untill I can get some bands (xmas soon!)

Figured i'd switch out 3 x back squats for the following for a while:

Monday: Stretch, Foam roll (avoid testicles), Single leg work.
Wednesday: Stretch, Foam roll (avoid testicles), box squat.
Friday : Stretch, Foam roll (avoid testicles), front squat.

Too much?

Need a best bang/bucks single leg exercise, any suggestions welcome.

Rik

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It could be that your moving from your lower back and not just from your hip. Your torso should not move at all, it should just be your leg that moves. It might be worth trying to line up against a wall and trying them, that way your torso can't move. I used to think they were a doddle until my girlfriend made me do them with her physically stopping my torso from moving, the exercise changes dramatically.



I always liked either reverse DB lunges or Bulgarian split squats, but try them holding a DB goblet style.

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What if the Hokey Cokey really IS what it's all about?

Sounds good so far (other than the foam rolling incident lol)

Couple of things..

Side Lying Clams - these are just "activation", no need to add resistance. What's key is keeping the sides/obliques pointing directly upwards towards the ceiling and not allowing your torso to rotate at all - be very strict with this. I get people to put their hand on the side of their hip/glutes to feel the muscles fire up.

Foam Rolling and stretching - Roll first, then stretch, you'll get much more out of the stretch this way (you'll also get much more out of the foam rolling). A simple of way of thinking about it is, take the knot out the band, then stretch the band. Then you "wake up" the muscle that caused the band to knot up in the first place (clams). General rule of thumb - Roll, Stretch, Move. I'll always foam roll, stretch, then do a dynamic warm up. In this specific case, you would roll, stretch, then side lying clams.

Also, clams allow "pushing the knees out" during a squat to make more sense. So, make sure you are doing this, too. This is where you take what you do on the floor to what you're doing on your feet.

How did the reverse lunge go? I have a progression single leg stuff. Basically, I want people to master the basic split squat/static lunge first. If they can't do this straight away, then we learn it in the warm up, and step ups are what we use in the actual training session until the split squat is mastered. BTW Step ups don't really progress to good lunging ability, but they are useful for a training effect and getting confident on one leg. I'm sure the concentric strength you get from them helps too but, the biggest challenge with most people and lunging is actually the eccentric.

Cues for the split squat - weight on heel, knee in front of hip, upright torso, squeeze glutes esp the glute of the rear leg. Pretend there's a door right in front of your face and if you lean forward you'll get a sore nose. If this is awkward and uncomfortable, I would prioritise mastering this with body weight first before moving onto more dynamic lunge variations.

I like to use this in the warm up to master before we do any single leg DL variations - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa2FhCjUhkI

KPj

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Thanks TimD

Beat me to it. This does completely change it!

Also good point on the goblet style of loading - this is great for keeping an upright torso without having to think too much about it. Makes it much harder to screw up.

KPj

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Thanks TimD

Noted. Must be good advice, both singing from the same song sheet here. I think i'll join in too



I like reverse lunges too, not done them for ages though. Never tried goblet style, sounds good to me.



Foam, Stretch, Activate. FSA...thats going to be my new mantra.
Interesting comment with the clams to squat technique. I like that, it's giving me a light bulb moment, I think you've found a cue that I can really get my head around. The next workouts going to be a new learning curve (again!)...it's all good!



Well, I didn't do many as it was time to wrap up my workout and the noise from my right knee was putting me off. I can do them, of course I was wobbly because of the length of time its been since I did them last. I've never tried a split squat though, I'll give them a go tomorrow.

By the way, do you think I should ignore the noise from my knee? My gut feeling is yes, try it and see.

Thanks for the link, I'll also try these.

I'll report back soon

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I'm not sure whether this helps you considering it's so anecdotal, but I get the grinding/cracking sound whenever I bend at the knee. I've had it since I was a kid. I don't get any pain from it. All that I can remember is leg extensions causing me some problems as a beginner. I've done plenty of squats, and it hasn't done me any harm that I've noticed.

Okay. reporting back. Been a real busy bee, gotta make this swift.

Rolling, stretching and activate certainly makes a real difference, getting my back against the wall for the clams sorted that too, got my glute medius switched on fo sho!

Did about 6 sets of reverse lunges 6 to 8 reps. Quickly came to the conclusion that i've managed to turn my glutes and hammies completley off over the past few months. The first two or three sets were horrible, my quads were trying to do everything, but they soon gave up and suddenly found my groove again.
I used just body weight for the 5 sets and set 6 I felt stable enough to grab a couple of 10kg dumbells and bash out a decent set.
My left leg was wore willing than my right, much more stable too.

Straight Reaching Single Leg Dead Lift was terrible! Glad no-one was watching me Need to practice these too.

I got DOMS in my glues and hammies today, feels good though, swear my knee didn't make any noise on a couple of stairs today, it seems to go quiet when I explode off my right leg. Strange? Still noisey when I go slow though, I guess its too soon to know for sure.

I'll keep ya posted.

Later,

Rik

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Sounds like everything is going well!



This is key! Believe it or not, this is a GOOD thing. It's good because you will really benefit from mastering these, then cementing the new found movement ability with added load aka single leg dead lifts. However, have patience and take the time to master it with body weight.

A good cue for these is to initiate with the rear leg i.e let the torso follow the rear leg, don't lean forward THEN push the leg out to the rear as this sets you up to bend from the lower back and not the hip. Also, with the rear leg, don't just swing it back, actually reach back hard with it - this will make sense when you try it. If it doesn't try it in the quadruped (all fours) position and it should. In this position people tend to kick the leg way up causing the lower back to arch, but when cued to reach back hard with the leg, we tend to end up with a straight line between lower back and hamstrings with a solid glute contraction which is what we're after.

On the noise (cracking/popping) - I know this was mentioned somewhere but haven't looked back to see (I actually read through this on my phone whilst sitting board out my brain in a hospital, but made a mental note to comment on it) - Noise without pain isn't generally a cause for concern. This is really because there's no solid evidence linking it to much of anything. If the noise has always been there I generally wouldn't be concerned. However, if has gradually developed then I would take it as an alarm bell. Also, if certain things (i.e. roll stretch move, or change in exercise variation, or technique) lessen the noise, then I would also look at it like an alarm bell.

The fact that you have said the things you are doing cause less noise tells me that you just need to do more of these things. Also, struggling with the single leg DL shows a real instability coming from the hips, which is something you would want to address regardless of popping/cracking sounds.

I think when joints gradually become noisy it's probably due to soft tissue restrictions, which are probably due to instability else where. I don't believe (or know if) there's any research proving this but, that's just my opinion. I also really respect my physio and had a conversation about this with him a couple of years ago. Triggered because as I was walking my ankle cracked and straight away he says, "what just popped???!!!", I asked if he thought popping and cracking was a concern and he said not in itself but it can be an indication that there's other issues going on.

Anyway, in short, in general, popping and cracking without pain aren't a big concern.

KPj

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Thanks TimD

Thanks for that. Yes, thats a good que and it works for me.

I'm starting to get these, begining to stay on my leg without falling sideways now. It stretches the hammie on the leg i'm standing on like hell. I'm guessing I need to keep the weight on my heel, right? I'm finding that difficult because of my hamstring tightness, but i'll keep at it.

Just asking, how many sets/reps for each leg? I've been doing about 6 sets of 6 reps for each.

Rik

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