Personal trainer Toronto

 When a high school athlete enters our facility, we can see by their gait pattern that they have deficiencies in strength, stability, and biomechanical control. Athletes from both collegiate and professional levels have visited our facilities with similar problems. The senior, elite athlete and the youthful, inexperienced athlete simply differ in that the older athlete has typically maximized and benefited from their strengths while masking or hiding the compensations and weak links much better. As a result, athletes frequently seek personal trainer Toronto assistance since they are perplexed as to how they got hurt.

Although it doesn't seem exciting, it can be inferred from this frequent occurrence that training to enhance performance should come second to training to prevent injury. What is one of the main factors that effective teams succeed? Is it their physical prowess? Power? Conditioning? Found that teams who keep more of their players active for the majority of the season perform better. Surprised? Granted, you need to have a respectable skill pool, good coaches, etc., but even if you have the best squad in the country but every player is injured, the team is unlikely to succeed.

Strength and motor or movement competency (also known as movement quality), two characteristics that are lacking in many sportsmen.

Therefore, the result or whole is EXPONENTIALLY superior than the sum of the parts if you combine both the quality of skillful movement with the proper muscles operating on the right joints at the right moment coupled with a high degree of strength sustaining that pattern.

If that's the case, great. What training activities emerge as the most effective in addressing these quality and quantity concerns? When people ask, "If you had to pick your top six favourite exercises, what would they be?" it might be challenging to make a list.

How do we choose the top six patterns?

Low Risk, High Value: Always choose training activities that demand a lot of work, provide us a lot of value, and are incredibly hard to damage ourselves performing. Any fool can force their customer to put in a lot of effort, I tell my students and interns. To motivate a client to work hard and do it safely, a coach or trainer needs to be of the highest calibre, highly trained, and educated.

• Train the body's movement systems: If at all possible, train the entire body during each training session (while also allowing for proper recovery). Why does this matter? There are several upper body and lower body patterns (such as upper pulling and lower squatting or upper pushing and lower posterior chain). The only exceptions would be when an athlete is ill, has limited time to train, needs to prioritize certain lifts or patterns, or needs to avoid overtraining while they are in season or are working out 5-7 days per week.
• Prepare for Work. Example: Unless you play power lifting, it doesn't matter how much you bench. Pushups while lying on your back have limitations in terms of their use in sports.
• In addition to the reasons mentioned above, what are the actions I would advise?
• Anyone can perform these (just basic tools are required).
• For the majority of sports, unilateral exercises are more applicable. The most common way to move whether running, cutting, throwing, or striking is on one leg or with one arm (or by pulling with one arm while pushing with the other).

Are these six steps the only solution? No, but let's master certain fundamental skills that combine as many positive traits as we can.

1. Goblet or Suitcase Single Leg Squat:

Why:  Given that most athletes operate on one leg at a time, single leg squat strength has significant effects on running, cutting, jumping, acceleration, deceleration, and the prevention of ACL injuries. Balance, proprioception, foot strength, stability, and triplanar hip stability are all improved by this exercise.

Technique Points:

1. Maintain a neutral spinal position from the cervical to the lumbar spine (do not make up for greater range).
2. Free foot off a box's side edge. Brace your spine and abdomen.
3. The free foot extends forward to help with counterbalance while the hands stretch forward initially with a light load (usually 2.5 to 5 lbs per hand will allow for a strong counterbalance and actually make the exercise simpler).
4. Retract to a depth that the athlete can handle safely while still keeping good posture. Depending on their ability, each athlete's response will be different.
5. Ensure that the heel, base of the big toe, and little toe are all engaged and that the knee tracks are parallel to the second and third toes.

Optional: Split Squat (click to view a video on how to do it)

A split squat is a great approach to advance into this pattern if the athlete is unable to perform true single leg squatting.

2. Solitary-Legged Hip Extension Bowed Leg

Why:  This exercise enables the athlete to train the gluteus maximus and adductors, posterior chain muscles, keeping with the subject of unilateral training. These two underdeveloped muscle groups are important for leg and hip power during acceleration, top speed, and deceleration patterns. Additionally, injury situations resulting from synergistic dominance issues with excessive hamstring activity might be brought on by underdeveloped glutes.

Technique Points

1. Maintain a neutral spinal position from the cervical to the lumbar spine (do not make up for greater range).
2. Shoulder blades on the bench's edge. To stabilize the torso, stretch your arms while sitting on a bench.
3. The knee should be approximately 90 degrees when the hips are fully extended (foot placement too far forward causes a bigger than 90 degree knee angle and overuses the hamstring group). When the free leg's foot is dorsiflexed, it can maintain a 90/90 position.
4. To ensure the athlete has the widest possible range of motion, use a tiny pad on the floor under their hips or glutes as a goal for them to contact.
5. With the spine and abdomen braced, drive through the foot while focusing on glute contraction and a glute "squeeze" to complete the hip extension. (Reduce cues like "lift high" or "drive up" that, in beginners, tend to aggravate lumbar extension or excessive hamstring recruitment.)
6. Loads can be introduced in a number of different methods, but starting with a load like a kettlebell or plate on the abdomen will frequently help athletes establish a better brace as they get more kinesthetic feedback.

This is an additional alternative since it engages the thigh's posterior chain muscles while still incorporating the glute's role in balance and contralateral motion.

3. Push Up - Lateral Crawl

Why:  With this integrated move, the athlete can train from head to toe while working on scapular stability and unilateral postures inside the exercise. It's also a closed-chained pattern, which often enables more natural shoulder movements (better scapular rhythm) and makes overloading the pattern or shoulder less likely or more difficult (unlike, say, barbell or even occasionally dumbbell pressing). Finally, it enables the athlete to incorporate frontal plane movement, contralateral patterning, and additional emphasis on spinal stability against extension and rotation.

Methodology Points:

1. Maintain a neutral spine position from cervical to lumbar spine (do not make up for greater range of motion or load). Athletes can sense where their spine is in space by using external feedback (such a Dyna Disc, foam roller, or tennis ball), especially as they start the lateral walk.
2. To maximize body stability, draw in and brace the abdomen, tighten the glutes, and press the hands into the ground.
3. Return to the starting position after descending to a depth where the shoulder is at or just past the elbow.
4. After completing the push-up, move laterally while maintaining a neutral and level spine.

Alternative: Hands-Up Push-Up

A push-up is a common exercise where athletes struggle to control their body weight. When training a beginning, elevating the hands (for instance, on a bench) enables the athlete to brace and use their glutes as a stabilizing muscle.

4. Single Arm Row Suspension Device with Anti-Rotation

Why:  This exercise balances pushing and pulling strength while also focusing on the mid/lower trapezius and rhomboids and grip strength. The risk of lifting weights that are excessively heavy is reduced and scapular stability is improved by placing athletes in a grip-intensive position. Simply put, if the athlete can no longer maintain their grip, they will stop the activity and not endanger themselves. With exercises like cable rows and lat pulldowns, this isn't always the case. In addition, carrying the load with just one hand will give the athlete more anti-rotation practice as well as the chance to feel and learn how to pull and stabilize their scapula and spine all the way from the contralateral glute max to the posterior oblique sub system to the ground. The NASM PES.

Methodology Points:

1. Maintain a neutral spinal position from the cervical to the lumbar spine (do not make up for greater range). Allow no rotation.
2. Use a closed grasp while using a suspension device in single handle mode for safety. To establish a packed shoulder position and some retraction, the free arm can be abducted and externally rotated to 90 degrees. Often, when trying to induce retraction in the working arm, this offers less experienced athletes a sense of stability and symmetry.
3. Flat feet with slightly flexed knees to maintain footing. Braced and drawn-in abdominals.
4. Maintain a reasonably low scapula and pull until the body just barely passes the elbow of the working arm, ending in a retracted or depressed position.
5. Retrace your steps to the beginning place.

In the absence of a suspension device, one of these choices may be used.

5. Full Body Explosive: Squat, throw, drop, jump, and land on one leg while using a medicine ball. Jump, land on one leg, then hold

Why: With this straightforward whole-body explosive sequence, the athlete can experience triple flexion, triple extension, load, and deceleration while standing on one leg, as well as a single-leg jump and stable landing. The benefit in this pattern is getting two unilaterally decelerated landings with a one-legged jump along with an upper body explosive movement that translates to most overhead throwing or hitting sports.

Methodology Points:

1. Maintain a neutral spine position from the cervical to the lumbar spine (do not overcompensate).
2. Hold a medicine ball overhead and begin on the balls of your feet.
3. A rapid, soft "stick" landing on one leg after a quick triple flexion and ball slam.
4. It is important to emphasize hip load, spine alignment, knee tracking over the second and third toes, and balance.
5. The athlete should surge into triple extension after being balanced (usually for at least 1-2 seconds to demonstrate control), and then land again on the same foot as in step 4.
6. Carry on with the opposite leg.

Optional: Jump, Drop One-legged jump and stick

It is always best to break it down, make it easy, and get really good at it first if there is no medicine ball available or the technique is too complicated.

6. Split Stance Anti-Rotation Chop to Rotational Chop with Integrated Core

Why? There is a lot of material coming out of the physical therapy field that emphasizes the value of the core's capacity to prevent unintentional lumbar extension as well as rotation, as well as the ability to control and produce rotation when needed. NSM PES and Boyle Emphasizing the anti-rotation component early in the set or phases is a wonderful primary goal because being able to resist rotation and extension is a straightforward and secure prerequisite to redirecting and creating rotation. The split stance also gives the athlete the opportunity to train using the trail leg's gluteus maximus as a lumbar stabilizer while stabilizing in an unbalanced position comparable to running, lunging, and cutting.

Methodology Points:

1. The cervical through lumbar spine should be in a neutral position. The position of the spine should not alter until rotation is involved, and even then it should corkscrew downward from the thoracic spine to maximize mobility and maintain height.
2. The body should be tall and the legs should be in the 90/90 posture.
3. Braced abs and active lagging gluteus maximus.
4. Push the belly button and pull toward the chest. To keep the movement tidy, a two-phase down and two-phase backward is effective.
5. After (if) adding rotation, press down and across the thigh of the lead leg to maintain an erect stance.

Optional: Only Anti Rotational Chop (or, to reduce the degrees of freedom, from a kneeling or half-kneeling position).

An excellent choice, especially if there are any doubts or potential compensations about your athlete's rotational control.

Be a change agent who is forward-thinking and careful when embracing current trends. Avoid the classic performance improvement mistake of boosting strength and power growth without preparing and teaching your athletes to control it. These suggestions do not negate the requirement for a thorough movement examination to determine movement quality, range of motion, stability, and compensatory patterns. In order to maximize the movement quality we have already mentioned, this will assist establish whether these workouts are acceptable or whether modifications should be made. It will also help determine what corrective exercise programming should be done.