Spring is finally here and with it plenty of fitness fodder to satiate your hungry minds! From the looks of this month’s favorites everyone is anxious to get moving and apply their knowledge with their clients. While we all prepare ourselves for what to expect in the “new normal” gym settings, we can also get busy employing mobility training and the ultimate core training exercise. Meanwhile, you can help your runners out by improving hip stability and connecting with the pesky hip flexor the psoas. Lots of great application articles this month, so if you missed ’em, read ’em now!
Mobility Training
Mobility training assists clients with stability, active and passive range of motion, and strength. There are many benefits and outcomes rolled into this type of training.
In the fitness world, mobility is defined as a joint’s active range of motion before encountering tissue restriction. This is certainly rooted in optimal movement, and training it can improve its capacity. The benefits are endless for the regular gym goer, athletes, fit pros, and especially those beginning an exercise program.
Help your clients get stronger, by taking their joints a little deeper.
How to Do the Pallof Press
I’ve found that the exercises that look the least complicated are typically the best for you. At first glance, the Pallof Press would certainly fit that description. There’s very little movement to it, which is what makes the exercise feel much harder than it looks; you have to resist movement in order to effectively train your core.
The Pallof Press is an anti-rotational core exercise, which means it trains the muscles along the spine in order to prevent movement (unlike crunches and Russian twists that create movement at the spine). Training with exercises like Pallof Presses is not only efficient in creating optimal core and spinal bracing from unwanted movement, but it can assist with injury prevention and decrease energy leaks, enabling better performance in multijoint exercises such as deadlifts and chin-ups. Learn this simple, but not easy, core exercise.
Psoas: The Fight or Flight Muscle
The psoas muscle is one that is talked about often– whether an athlete is blaming it for “tight” hips or when a yoga instructor claims that a stretch is going to release it. You may have even heard that it is also considered the “fight-or-flight” muscle. But what does this mean? What is the psoas?
Learn about this short hip flexor muscle’s connection to fear and stress.
The Importance of Hip Stability in Runners
Did you know it is estimated that the average person who runs a marathon takes anywhere from between 55,000 and 65,000 steps? That is thousands of frontal plane bipedal locomotive opportunities for not just stability, but for fatigue as well. While running, we propel ourselves from one foot, to the other. During foot strike and take-off we are effectively stabilizing on a single foot, through impact, transferring all the way up the chain to our hips.
It follows, that hip stability plays an integral role in running. We know that both the hip abductors and lateral lumbar flexors play an important role in stabilizing the hip during locomotion. If they are not proficient, and/or working in concert with one another, inefficient and even possibly injurious patterns may arise.
Here is why hip stability should be a primary focus of your training.
Post-Pandemic Gym Modifications
For our clients who have experience working out in fitness centers pre-pandemic, they will likely see modifications since the pandemic. Trainers can assist clients with navigating through these new changes. During the pandemic, most gyms closed temporarily or, unfortunately for many, permanently. As the doors have started opening on those who had temporary closings, things look different. Hours might be reduced and some classes may no longer be on the schedule. We can move through this limbo stage and make it work by adhering to the new protocols. Whether your clients are beginners or experienced, training sessions held in a gym make an ideal setting to plant seeds so clients will feel comfortable even if you aren’t with them.
Here is a rundown to prepare clients for what to expect in a post-pandemic fitness center.
