I’m helping my 15yo nephew (5’10" 188lbs) train - primarily for football. Our strength training is based on the conjugate method. In assisting him with pnf stretches of his glutes and hips we realized we could not get activation of his left glute with the same movements that were successful with the right glute. Closer examination revealed that his left glute is less developed than his right glute. My prescription was continued single leg movements like step ups, lunges, one legged squats and pnf. He does have difficulty with balance on the one legged movements. What are you guys thoughts?
keep up witht he regular training as well, squats, power cleans, deads, etc…but your on the right track with the unilateral movements, add them after the main lower body lift.
You could try some (I hesitate to say this) isolation work, perhaps the Cook Hip Lift. It’s essentially a single-leg bridge with one leg up at the hip holding a tennis ball or towel and one leg down. The idea is to separate lumbar spine extension and hip extension. For a good description, they have photos and a more detailed explanation in Mike Boyle’s Functional Training for Sports. If the glute, glute medius, and hamstring muscles aren’t firing doing some of the single-leg work won’t work nearly as well. You have to get those muscles activated. Then again, just plain hip bridging with two legs works well also.
Does anybody know any other activation exercises besides the pillars and hip bridges for the glutes? Any other for the glutes or hamstrings specifically?
Have you read these articles?
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=9F706A070B260EDBF6FC33ED59834E5A.titan?id=497495
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=9F706A070B260EDBF6FC33ED59834E5A.titan?id=497495
there’s a total of seven articles which you can navigate from links back in the articles. Obviously the get your butt in gear is most specific. The last two articles in the other series are good as well.
You could always just try pre-contracting these muscles before use on squats, deads, etc., etc. Hopefully this would become more reflexive with time.
I don’t think you would need specific activation exercises for the hamstrings, mainly the glutes. One exercise I can think of is using lying cross your legs at so the calf of one leg is touching the hin of the other. Use the quad of one leg to provide resistance to the hamstreing of the other. Bridges are great. What about placing one heel up on a chair and raising your hips. That activates the hamstrings ore than a regular bridge.
Slap his arse when he powercleans/squats etc. Yehah! mind muscle connection
While some single leg training is essential for good development of the medial and small glutes, since he is only 15 the problem will probably correct itself through normal squatting and deadlifting over time (assuming an imbalance really does exist). From a pure hypertrophy perspective, the closer a muscle gets to its maximum potential the less it will grow (diminishing returns). Hence the weaker leg will catch up with the stronger one because the stronger one plateaus earlier, while the weaker one continues to grow until the body finds a natural balance.
I have found this to generally be the case so long as you are not doing maximum lifts, which I assume (and hope) you are not since he is only 15 (though the word conjugate suggests you are familiar with Westside – which emphasises max lifts). With max lifts I see more twisting and overcompensation by stronger body parts as the lifter fights to conquer the weight – which can lead to injuries and will not correct problems. This is why Westside places so much emphasis on repetition work for the weaknesses.
So I would not overly worry yourself at this point just work on the basics and make sure you correct any foot placement issues at the beginning of every set and force him to use good form. Stop the set if the bar starts to twist or drops excessively to one side. In the long run it will be better to correct these things now (and sacrifice progression in terms of apparent strength improvements) then try to correct them a few years down the line where the stakes in terms of ego and performance will be far greater.
I appreciate all of the suggestions. I had forgotten about those tmag articles and went back through and reread them. For some reason I completely forgot to account for his liz franc fracture that he had. His pins were removed about 10 weeks ago.