Essential off season leg stability work

I am sure many of you out there have gone through a knee, hip or ankle problem. Joint issues are very common among endurance athletes,but the good new is that you can dramatically reduce your chance of getting one of those kinds of injuries! Strengthening weak muscles, stretching tight ones and relieving muscle tension should become not just an off season, but year round mantra of any one who doesn't want to get injured.

STRENGTHEN

Most joint injuries are a result of muscle instability. That means that certain dominant muscle are much stronger as compared to weaker large muscles or weaker stabilizing muscles. If this happens then joints, like hips and knees get yanked on too much in one direction by the stronger muscle and not equalized because the weaker muscle groups are too weak to do their job and pull it back into alignment.

For knees and hips specifically, working your abductor and adductors are two of what I consider to be the essential injury prevention exercises. There are some others like different types of lunges, but start with these first. These can be added to your existing leg routine or done at home with stretch cords. I prefer that people do this on cable machines though like the videos below show.

How many? Well, if you have never done something like this before, then start with 2 sets of 10 reps on each leg for about 4 weeks and then add another set to make it three. Or if you are really time crunched, the use this exercise as your warmup for leg day and do one set of 15.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT, AS YOU AS YOU CAN, YOU BEGIN TO LET GO WITH YOUR HAND AND LEARN TO BALANCE ON YOUR SUPPORTING FOOT. A BIG PART OF THE STABILIZING AND STRENGTHENING GAINS YOU MAKE ACTUALLY COME FROM THE STANDING FOOT AS WELL. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT YOUR STANDING LEG BECOMES TIRED AND BURNS BEFORE THE WORKING LEG.

STRETCH AND RELIEVE TENSION

There are numerous resources that have effective stretches. There are now multiple DVD's and Books on stretching and Yoga for athletes. These are great because they show you poses that you can do when you are tired and don't need any more strength or power work. Just relax and stretch. Flexibility Training is one of my favorite DVD's. It is a great 25 minutes stretch routine and has some good leg stretches as well. Do this once or twice a week will really help your body unwind.

For relieving muscle tension and knots, you either need to have a really good sports massage therapist you see once or twice a month AND/OR you use something like a Trigger Point Therapy kit. You can read that post here.

Oh and, this quick video demonstrated the yoga stretches that target specifically the adductor/abductor muscles we are concerned with today. ACTUALLY, you will have to just do what this video says and then drop your leg the other direction as well(across your body.) to get both sets of muscles.

So, just remember that injury prevention should be a staple part of your year round program. Happy strengthening, stretching and relieving of muscle tension!