Avoid Groin Injuries!

Do your best to avoid groin injuries! One of my worst injuries as an athlete was pulled muscles in the groin (groan!) area! It is impossible to sprint, cut and explode the way you need to during practice or games when the groin area is hurt.

Prevention is best when it comes to injuries. Trust me, it can take a long time for your groin area to heal! You need to keep the groin area flexible and you will help prevent painful, nagging injuries.

The groin flexibility test will measure the flexibility in the adductors.





1. Sit on the floor with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor and legs together.

2. Let your knees drop sideways as far as possible keeping your feet together. The soles of your feet should be together.

3. Grab your feet and pull your ankles as close to your body as possible. Measure the distance from your heels to your groin. Record the results.

Groin Flexibility Test Results

Poor - 25 cm
Fair - 20 cm
Good - 15 cm
Very good - 10 cm
Excellent - 5 cm

Good stretches for the groin area are lateral lunges, seated butterfly stretch, kneeling hip flexor/groin stretch and static standing adductor stretch.

Stretch that groin area every day and prevent the pain and injuries!

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Knee ACL Injury Rehab Workout

A knee ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury rehab is a process that can take 8-12 months. And, if you play a sport, it will probably take another year for you to regain your former speed and power (or as close as you can).

Your knee injury rehab will probably start with you and a physical therapist. The rehab process is a team approach---you, your physical therapist and your personal trainer (get My Fitness Hut's Bodyweight 200 Knee Rehab Workout Book!).

You should rehab the injured knee area as follows:

1. Restore the range of motion.
2. Restore flexibility and strength of the injured knee area.
3. Regain balance lost because of the knee injury.

Stop any exercise that causes sharp pain. Continuing an exercise in pain will only set your rehab back.

Restoring the range of motion is critical because it lays the groundwork for future training. Range of motion should be restored in all 3 planes. If you had a knee injury, you might have to begin your exercises with partial range of motion (working towards full range) in one plane. You would gradually work towards including exercises that required sideways, rotating, twisting or turning actions.

Once range of motion is restored, you can then begin to introduce light weight training exercises and stretching exercises to strengthen the injured muscles, tendons and ligaments.

It is also important to stretch and strengthen the areas around the injured area. Use of machine weights, isometric exercises (the injured area contracts but doesn't move), resistance bands or bodyweight exercises are all good in the rehab process.

Balance and proprioception (limb position sense in 3D space) must be restored or the injury will probably reoccur.

When a part of the body is injured, the nerve cells in that area are also damaged. This affects your control and the stability of the joint structures. Once you have regained some strength and flexibility, you should begin to do balance exercises.

You could start with simple exercises like walking in a straight line and progress to one-legged or closed-eyed exercises. You would then gradually progress to stability ball exercises, foam cushion exercises, BOSU exercises, etc.

The rehab process should not be rushed. Trying to come back too fast from a serious knee ACL injury will almost certainly lead to reinjury.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Improve Speed With Lower Body Strength

Improve your speed with enough lower body strength to enhance your speed and power. Here are a few tips:

Strengthen and condition your hips, glutes, thighs and hamstrings. These groups make up your athletic "power center."

"Powerize" your running with exercises like power step ups and squat jumps. Other single leg exercises like lunges are great because single leg exercises use the same pathways that it takes to run.

Make squats, deadlifts, good mornings, glute/ham drops and hang cleans regular exercises in your routine.

Strengthen your core every day. Exercises like planks, side planks and bridges can be done every day. A strong core is important for speed endurance.

How much lower body strength do you need to develop optimum power and speed? A male should be able to squat his body weight 8-10 times and a female should be able to squat about 75% of her body weight 8-10 times. If you are not able to squat, then you should be able to leg press about 1.5 times your body weight 8-10 times.

It doesn't help you to continually get stronger if power development is not there also. Power, or speed strength (how fast your muscles can produce force) is one of the best physical predictors of success in sports.

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Stability Ball Plank

The stability ball plank is a great core exercise to advance from the plank exercise on the floor.



1. Place your elbows on the ball and balance on your toes while keeping your body in a straight line.

2. Hold the plank position for a count of 5-10 seconds without moving. The ball will move, so it is a challenge to hold the right alignment. This will obviously improve your balance. Your abs and shoulders will also work much harder.

Keep your head in line with your torso and brace your torso (as if taking a punch to the gut).

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Stability Ball Pushup

Try the stability ball pushup as an advancement from regular pushups. The stability ball pushup requires you to balance your body and improves core strength.



The stability ball pushup requires more muscles to be activated, such as stabilizers and core muscles. So, the stability ball push up works more muscles than the bench press exercise.

Do the stability ball pushup this way:

1. Lay your chest on the stability ball.

2. Put your hands at the sides of the ball. With your toes on the ground, keep your legs straight.

3. Push your body up until your arms are almost straight (don't lock your elbows). Keep your body in a straight line and your torso braced (as if taking a punch to the gut).

4. Hold and balance for two seconds.

5. Slowly return to the starting position and repeat.

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2-Handed Medicine Ball Chest Pass

The 2-handed medicine ball chest pass is a great exercise to improve your sports power and core strength. This is an advanced power exercise that is performed at full speed.



Use a medicine ball about 10% of your bodyweight if you can control and throw it explosively. Use a lighter ball if needed and progress from there.

1. Stand with your feet straight and in a staggered-stance. Generate power from your legs (then to your core) to pass the medicine ball.

2. Hold the medicine ball with both hands at chest level and your elbows flexed.

3. Push and pass the ball as explosively as possible. Don't let your shoulders shrug.

4. Repeat the pass as soon as possible with control and power.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Soccer Throw With Medicine Ball

The soccer throw with medicine ball is a great sports power exercise to improve your core strength and arm speed.

The soccer throw works the muscles that you use to throw a ball or swing a racquet overhead. The soccer throw is an advanced core exercise.

Do the soccer throw full speed if your body is ready for the intensity. Use a medicine ball that is 10% of your bodyweight if you can throw a ball this heavy at full speed. If not, start with a lighter ball.



Be sure to also use your legs as you throw the medicine ball. If you don't use your legs, you won't be able to throw at full speed. Don't stand straight up as you throw. Keep your back leg straight and your front leg bent.

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Romanian Dumbbell Deadlift

The romanian dumbbell deadlift is a great exercise to strengthen your hamstrings and glutes....

Finish

Start

1. Start with your feet about shoulder width apart, a slight bend in your knees and hold two dumbbells with an overhand grip (in front of your thighs).

2. Bend forward at the hips and push your glutes back (as if sitting in a chair) while keeping the arch in your lower back.

3. Keep the dumbbells close to your thighs and shins until the dumbbells come to about mid-shin (you will feel the stretch in your hamstrings).

4. Keeping the dumbbells close to your shins and thighs, extend your hips and contract your glutes as you return to the start position. That's one repetition.

Add the romanian dumbbell deadlift to your exercise routine. It will help you lessen the risk of nagging hamstring injuries.

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Lateral Lunge

Use the lateral lunge to help you improve your lateral strength, speed and power. The frontal plane (side to side) is often undertrained by athletes....that's a big problem because many athletic movements require you to move laterally or side-to-side...



Straight-line speed is important but so is lateral speed and agility in sports. The athlete has to move quickly and efficiently from linear to lateral positions (and back again) many times during a practice or game.

If you have tight hips and adductors, a good dynamic flexibility exercise for you would be the lateral lunge.

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Prisoner Squats

Add prisoner squats to your exercise routine. You can do prisoner squats anywhere and all you need is your bodyweight.

Besides the obvious strength benefits for your glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps, prisoner squats also help to realign your shoulder blades.



1.Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart with your toes pointing slightly outward.

2. With your hands behind your head, keep your chest up and shoulder blades down and back throughout the range of motion.

3. As you descend, push your glutes back as if sitting down, bending at the hips and knees. Keep your knees aligned with your toes (don't let the knees "cave in" or protrude outside the feet). Also, don’t let your knees pass over your toes and stay back on your heels.

4. Don’t lean forward, maintain the natural arch in your back and keep your core braced (as if getting ready to take a punch).

5. As you ascend, contract your glutes.

Prisoner squats are a good variation from the traditional squats.

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Walking Lunge With Upper Body Rotation

The walking lunge with upper body rotation is a good exercise that will improve core strength, lower body strength, running speed and dynamic balance.



When you do the walking lunge with upper body rotation, keep your torso upright, don't let your front knee go past the front foot and don't let the back knee touch the ground. Also, when you lunge, the front thigh should be parallel to the ground. Rotate your upper body with the medicine ball in both hands when you lunge (see picture above).

Do this exercise as a warmup or regular workout exercise. To work your hamstrings more, lunge out further with the front leg. A shorter lunge will work the quadriceps more. Most athletes need more hamstring strength to prevent injuries.

Increase the weight of the medicine ball to increase difficulty.

Include the walking lunge with upper body rotation in your regular workouts.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Improve Speed With Power Step Ups

Improve your speed with power step ups. Do this exercise full speed with control.



1. Face a bench or platform (knee high) and put your right foot on the bench. Your knee should be bent 90 degrees. Don't do this exercise with dumbbells until you have mastered the bodyweight version.

2. Alternate your feet on and off the bench or platform (you will be sprinting in place).

3. Explosively drive your knees up and pump your arms as fast as possible. Each set should be 20-30 seconds.

4. Do this exercise with correct running mechanics.

Challenge yourself to get better each day!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Side Plank With Lateral Hip Raise

Do the side plank with lateral hip raise to strengthen your core and hips.



1. Start with the side plank, keep your body straight and torso braced (as if taking a punch to the gut).

2. Hold the side plank position for 5 seconds.

3. Raise your top leg and hold for 1 count. That's one repetition.

One neglected area of training for many athletes is improving lateral strength and lateral speed. As an athlete, many of your movements in games involve lateral movements like shuffles.

Part of your athletic "power center" is your core and hips...you need to constantly condition and strengthen them so your body is ready to "fire on demand" in the heat of competition!

Be sure and download your Free Dumbbell and Medicine Ball Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

Other things being equal, a muscular, powerful athlete will outperform a fat, slower or skinny, weaker athlete. Sports Fitness Hut's Fat Blaster Athletic Power Training System will give you your "lean and mean" athletic machine!

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Improve Speed With Feet Landing Under Your Hips

MAKE SURE YOUR FEET LAND UNDER YOUR HIPS (your center of gravity) and you'll improve your running speed! You'll generate more power running this way.

When the foot leaves the ground, it should follow a path straight up to the buttocks. It should not flail from side to side.

One of the most common running mistakes is overstriding. When you overstride, your heel lands first with your foot well ahead of your body's center of gravity. This causes "braking" and slows you down. Its also a good way to get injured. The heel should never touch the ground when you run.

Strengthen and condition your hips, glutes, thighs and hamstrings. These groups make up your athletic "power center" and great athletes dominate with these muscle groups.

Train smarter and not just harder!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Choose Quality Speed Training Over Quantity

"Quality speed training" work is better than just "quantity of speed trainig" work. Speed training for 5-6 days a week will break down your body and lead to injuries.

When you do quality speed training, like 3 days a week, you give your body the needed time to recover. If you've had a very intense speed workout, your body needs at least 48 hours to recover.

Speed training, unlike endurance running, will not benefit you more by doing more and more speed work. Choose quality speed work over quantity of speed work (less gives more benefit). So, doing sprint training every day will eventually give you mental and physical exhaustion.

Also, if your body is exhausted, you will not be able to give the "maximum effort" it takes to improve your running speed. You have to train fast to get faster.

Even during a quality speed training workout, you need adequate rest between sprints. So, if you are doing 80 yard sprints, rest about 8 minutes between sprints (about 1 minute of rest for every 10 yards sprinted).

Finally, speed training should be done at the beginning of your workout when you are fresh. Your body's neuromuscular system is highly fatigue-prone at high intensities.

Train smarter and not just harder!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Deep Knee Bends And Deep Knee Bend Jumps Improve Vertical Jumps

Deep knee bends and deep knee bend jumps will help improve your vertical jump height.....also, the fastest players often have the highest vertical leaps.



Deep knee bends will strengthen your knees and ligaments around them. Having strong, stable knee structures will influence how high you can jump.

For deep knee bends, make sure that your back is straight when you are bending your knees. Crouch down as low as possible and rise back in a slow motion. Repeat this exercise for 10-15 repetitions. You can add dumbbells to this exercise as you progress.

Deep knee bend jumps are like deep knee bends. When you reach the lowest point of the crouch, leap vertically and explosively as high as you can. When you land, crouch back down and jump again. Do 10-15 repetitions.

Make sure you have perfected jumping and landing techniques to avoid injury.

Include deep knee bends and deep knee bend jumps in your sports fitness training routine to improve your power and speed.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES

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Maintain Speed And Power During Long Season

You need to maintain your speed and power during the season or you will waste all your hard off-season work!

Simply put, you don't won't to lose any of the hard-earned strength, power and speed you improved in your offseason program! In general, a weekly training program that includes 1 strength, 1 speed and 1 plyometric workout during the season will maintain your strength and explosiveness for competition.

The strength workout doesn't need to include "max out" lifting but should include full body strength training in the 8-10 repetition range for each exercise.

The speed workout can also be as simple as running ten 60-yard sprints at maximum effort before practice. Players should also perform all drills, scrimmages, plays, etc. at full speed. This way, you will continue sport specific speed training during the season.

The plyometric workout should include exercises for the upper and lower body such as medicine ball throws, depth jumps, squat jumps, tuck jumps, etc. During the season, some coaches incorporate plyometric training into regular team practices.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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