One of my guys has a tight glute med or piriformis which really bothers him some days giving pain while sprinting or squatting…definitely affecting his performances. Our conference meet is coming up in a couple weeks and I am a dummy when it comes addressing these issues.
Any general suggestions regarding elementary manual therapy or stretching that I could do? What do you think he could work on that wouldn’t cause further harm/irritation? no23? thanks.
The pigeon stretch is probably by far the best. I would do some basic myofascial release via tennis ball on the glute med. Hopefully, you get to see “the Man” who will definitely have your guy working well. I would consider some light assisted pnf on the glute where he would lie on his back on a table (or floor maybe) and you bring up the leg and have it cross a bit and up and you lay on it and he can resist like that. Kind of hard to describe, but hopefully you understand the description.
Massage, whether it’s self-massage or with a therapist would probably help. Also, ems.
I also had to deal with such tension in those areas.
In addition to SMR with a tennis ball on the floor, I do the two stretch that Ian King have recommend in a t-nation article.
a link:
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459832
Seach for the microstretching in the CFTS forum, awesome form of stretch without causing any harm to the muscle. Also don’t require any warm-up but go easy with the intensity, It may feel like you don’t even stretch, but It’ll work.
Good luck and don’t sprint when there are tension. Tight glutes may be the cause of many hamtring pull in addition to the over-stimulation/under-recovery pattern.
When the body is trying to tell you something, listen!
adonail
You have been given all good comments, the only thing i would add is:
Tempo till the hips are cleared up.
Get the massage done every day.
The massage once feeling heaps better needs to be realy deep to get to the underlying muscles.
Keep CNS stim by use of EMS on unaffected legs muscles. And by doing heavy benches. Avoid heavy hip weights.
Once your mates hips are free, he will be amazed at how fast and effortless he will run. Season bests for sure.
Correct me if i’m wrong, but since EMS bypasses the CNS wouldn’t EMS have no effect on stimulating the CNS.
Correct me if i’m wrong, but since EMS bypasses the CNS wouldn’t EMS have no effect on stimulating the CNS?
Your right, my bad. I ment to say, to keep muscle stim happening, as not running fast efforts for a bit or doing hip exercises in the gym will need something to replace that Stimulation. Hence EMS.
And the Heavy Benches to stim the CNS.
Good spot Bob.
What kind of bench press schedule might someone follow if they were not able to train due to a leg injury?(Just out of curiosity)
Due to lower demands on the CNS from not running fast, a 3 x 3 or 5 x 5 (after a good warm up) could easily be done every 2nd day, and results should come along fast. Although if he gets stuck into his therapy he should not be away from fast work for too long i would imagine, depends on the tighness involved??
Hi Mortac, hope this guy has improved, have you checked out the SI Joints tightness in that area can cause problems in the hip flexors/extensors. One of my athletes has a similiar problem and visits an Osteopath and Masseur on a regular basis i.e every 2-3 months.
I took him to an art guy and he resolved all the issues within about 45minutes. I will just do what I can to maintain it and take him back to the guy if it becomes a big problem again. The treatment allowed him to return to PB form even with the large interruption in training due to the issue.
What did he run at conference mort? Glad everything worked out for your guy!
ive had two athletes with tight hips, both of them had started training as weight lifters/powerlifters, and had fucked up hips, i found that working on rotational mobility of the low spine helped alot by leting me manually work hip and knee mobility.
was i found out was that due to very very poor low back ratation i couldnt actually take the hips through a full ROM without raising the pelvis from the bed, so i couldnt do much, when i loosened up the back though they where able to do after some manual warm up proper hip mobility drills (like walkovers and unders from hurdles)
anywho, this is purely empirical, has any of you observed it also or am i crazy?
I have found that tightness in the SI Joints is a major cause of hip problems and knee’s. Yes hurdle walkovers can help. In severe cases some mobilisation by a qualified practicioner is needed.