What’s up OTA Nation,
One thing I’ve noticed a lot of athletes overlook is; posture, mobility, and structure…
ESPECIALLY when it comes to your performance in the weight room.
Because whether you know it or not, chronic tension in your muscles, faulty form, and bad posture mixed with lifting can be DISASTROUS.
Injuries,
Missed playing time,
and squandered opportunities follow.
But when you take some special measures to address that tension, focus on your form, and take the steps to fix your posture, you’ll perform WAY better in the gym and, of course, on the field.
Today I want to show you some myofascial release techniques with the lacrosse ball that I like to use with my athletes.
The first one being for your Gluteus Medius.
This is the muscle that sits right at the top of your butt.
Like in the video, you’ll want to place the lacrosse ball on the ground and sit on it, right on top of the gluteus medius
Ease into the ball and relax.
I see a lot of athletes be super tense when they foam roll. This goes against everything we’re working towards.
Make sure when you use a foam roller or lacrosse ball that you EASE into the roller. Every 10 seconds you’ll want to dig deeper into the muscle and breathe deeply.
Massage your Gluteus Medius for about 60-90 seconds, or until you feel the tension in that muscle dissipate.
The next muscle we’ll be focusing on will be your TFL, or your tensor fasciae latae muscle.
This is a muscle that gets super tight on almost everyone. If you sit a lot and drive, you’re using this muscle every single day.
So it’s even more important we concentrate on this muscle daily so it doesn’t create resistance during exercises like that squat.
The third muscle I want my athletes to focus on is their IT Band.
This is the long muscle that runs on the outer side of your leg.
It’s usually easier to hit your IT Band using a long foam roller but I also like to utilize the lacrosse ball because it can get deeper into the muscle.
Again, foam roll this muscle until most of the tension has dissipated and the muscle isn’t as tender.
The last muscle I want you to concentrate on is piriformis.
This muscle is going to run along your butt check, close to where you foam rolled the gluteus medius.
Sit on the ball and relax into it. Make sure to take your time and really target this muscle. You’ll feel a huge release in tension.
Hitting these 4 muscles before squatting will really open up your hips and allow you to get the most out of the exercise.
What I like to personally do is perform a few of these myofascial release techniques, and then move on to a dynamic warm up to get my muscles and body temperature warmed up.
After a full body dynamic stretch, I move on to static stretching to really mobilize my joints.
Now, I’ve had a few people come at me saying that static stretching isn’t supposed to be done before training.
That it decreases power in the athlete.
While this is true, my train of thought is; what good is that power if the movement producing it is off.
I rather have my athletes move efficiently and slowly build the power using proper mechanics.
Hope you guys enjoyed that video.
If you have some dope myofascial release techniques for the hips I’d love to hear them in the comments below.
Holler,
