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5 essential exercises you need

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Daily habits can be powerful. Routine anchors us and builds resilience and health. Adding a routine or mini-structure to your day so that fewer decisions need to be made is one way to succeed. When it comes to your health, preventing injuries in any activity you enjoy is crucial. Here are five injury-preventing exercises to put on your habit list that don’t take up too much time. Whether you are a seasoned athlete, or simply just enjoy being active but don’t want to get hurt, incorporate these moves into your day.

Activate the core: Heel on toe crunch

A demonstration of the heel-on-toe crunch. Photo courtesy of Connie Aronson

The core muscles help stabilize the spine and support movement. The following two core exercises have minimal movement, and are far more effective than a standard sit-up. The heel-on-toe crunch spares the back, while building muscular fitness. You begin the crunch by stiffening the abdominal muscles and slightly raising the head and shoulders off the ground. Count to 10, then lower back down to the starting position. To a viewer it might not look like you’re doing much of anything, says Stuart McGill, but with proper technique, you should feel like you’re working.

  • Begin with your legs straight, left heel on top of right foot.
  • Bring your left hand behind your head for support, and lift your right arm straight up from your shoulder.
  • Curl up, raising your head, neck and shoulder blades off mat, tightening your abdominals.
  • Slowly return to the start position. 10 reps. Switch sides.

Side lying hip lift


A demonstration of the side-lying hip lift. Photo courtesy of Connie Aronson

  • Lying on your right side with your knees bent (or straight for advanced variation), place your right elbow under your right shoulder. Push your shoulder away from your ear to engage the shoulder girdle.
  • Avoid letting your rib cage slump toward floor; maintain natural curve of spine.
  • Exhale and lift your right hip off floor. Hold for 10 counts.
  • Slowly lower to start. 6-8 reps. Switch sides.

Stretch tight hamstrings


A demonstration of a hamstring stretch using a yoga strap.

Tightness in the back of your legs may be a sign of instability in your core, causing the leg muscles to overwork and shorten. As well, hamstrings are an important muscle to stretch if you have back pain, as they attach to the pelvis, which attaches to the back. An excellent stretch to ease the tension in the back of your legs is the hamstring stretch using a strap.

  • Lie on your back and place a yoga strap or rope under one foot, with the other leg straight, on the floor, heel flexed.
  • Slowly extend the leg toward straight.
  • If it is too difficult to completely straighten the leg, bend the opposite leg.

Foam roller alignment

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Lying lengthwise on a foam roller not only feels good but encourages good spinal length. We’re all guilty of bending forward while scrolling on our phones, resulting in a “forward head.” For every inch that your head is forward there’s 10 more pounds of pressure on the neck. Reset your alignment every day by lying on a foam roller. Lengthening the lumbar erector spinal muscles helps encourage neutral alignment and good posture.

  • With your knees bent, lie on a roller, head supported and neck in a neutral position.
  • Tighten the abdominals.
  • Gently roll side to side for 20-30 seconds.

The sock test

A demonstration of the one-legged sock test.Photo courtesy of Connie Aronson

Losing your balance as you get older is no joke. Research has shown that the ability to stand on one foot drastically decreases after the age of 60, along with a rapid increase of falls and injury. The ability to stand on one leg is imperative for gait and function.

The sock test takes the exercise a step further. Practicing it is a fun challenge to build strength capacity and balance.

  • Holding a sock, stand on one leg, knee slightly bent.
  • Bring your right leg up toward you as you put your sock on
  • Lower the leg to the floor and repeat with your left foot.

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Add single -leg squats to your training

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  • Early fall, ski-teamers are working on quad strength for their upcoming competitive season. You should be, too, if you are planning to ski this winter. Even if you’re not doing any type of physical activity, you should at least train your legs to keep them strong. As an exercise, squats strengthen your leg muscles, especially the glutes and quadriceps, and your core, burn calories and help prevent injury. If you’ve been avoiding squats because of knee pain, you are not alone, as over 50% of people experience knee pain on a regular basis. It’s likely that you might not have sufficient ankle, foot or hip mobility to squat well. With specific massage, stretches and exercises you can fix this common muscle imbalance.

The squat is a movement that we do throughout the day, from sitting into a chair or car, to lifting up a child or parcel. It’s also a foundational movement where the feet, ankles and hips have to be working correctly. Leg machines such as the leg extension and leg curl machine are useful, but you could be missing out on building more dynamic, full-body exercises that burn more calories and are fun. A ground-based exercise, the single leg squat, puts high loads on the leg without the need for additional weight.

Consider that in walking or any ground-based activity, the ankle needs to roll in, bend, and absorb weight as you transfer your weight from the right foot to the left. Similarly, the hip should internally rotate as you step forward. Together, there is an accepting and transferring of weight through the entire lower kinetic chain. For example, if the hips aren’t internally rotating in a back swing, stresses may affect the knee, shoulder or back. The knee simply doesn’t have the same mobility that the ankles and hips are capable of, as the knee mostly bends forward and back, with limited movement side to side and in rotation. Without the feet, ankles and hips working correctly, the knee is compromised. It’s important to note that the knee and foot’s (and spine’s) primary function is stability.

The TRX Lunge (photo 3), a single leg exercise, will strengthen your leg muscles and is a great way to dynamically stretch the hip flexor muscles of the rear leg.

Corrective exercise sequence to target the hip flexors

1. Tennis ball rolling on the hip flexor. Justin Price, creator of the BioMechanics Method, likens tennis ball or foam rolling to blowing a big bubble. You first have to chew the gum to prepare it to be pliant enough to blow a bubble! You can use a baseball or any other ball you have during the self-myofascial release portion. Hold each sore spot for 20-30 seconds, for a total of two to three minutes on each side.  

 

Tennis ball on the hip flexor

2. Kneeling hip flexor stretch. Hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side 

  

Kneeling quad stretch- engage the gluteals and core

3. Single leg  lunge. Aim for about 90% of the weight on your front leg.

TRX suspended lunge

Printed in the Idaho Mountain Express October 12, 2022

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-add-single-leg-squats-to-your-training/article_00966ace-443e-11ed-9418-67966173447a.html

Say goodbye to sore muscles with foam rolling and a tennis ball

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Rolling, or myofacial release is a simple therapy to help you stretch and get rid of knots in your muscles.

Should you be foam rolling?  If you’ve never noticed or heard of them, they are 3- foot long white or colored foam rolls, typically in gyms near the stretching area. And if you also noticed tennis balls being used by trainers and regulars, you might want to give them a try. Rolling, or myofacial release is a simple therapy to help you stretch and get rid of knots in your muscles. It relieves and releases adhesions within the fascia. Akin to massage and trigger -point therapy, the manual pressure of rolling rejuvenates hard working muscles and soft tissue. If your muscles hurt after a hard day of skiing, or have overuse patterns, myofascia-release helps stretch, increase blood blow and increase range of motion to muscle.

Fascia is the connective tissue that covers all muscle. Injury, inactivity, disease or inflammation contributes to a loss of elasticity, resulting in unwanted fibrous adhesions. In other words, tight, sore muscles. Physiotherapists or massage therapists typically spend about 45 percent of their time doing massage therapy on these areas to stretch tight muscles and fascia, loosen scar tissue, and relieve muscle spasms. The good news is that in as little as two minutes, foam or tennis ball rolling can enhance joint range of motion, which is important for healthy movement, particularly if you never stretch. 

1. First you roll 

Starting your training or competition with foam rolling helps get your muscles warmed up, as it improves your range of motion. Unlike static stretching at the beginning of a workout, which research shows can diminishes performance, foam rolling doesn’t have any drawbacks. In a recent study participants improved their range of motion significantly after foam rolling compared to static and dynamic stretching.

Begin by applying sustained pressure on a roller or ball with your body weight. You can roll any muscle, but hip flexors, hamstrings, calves, quadriceps, and the upper back are typically the tightest areas. Use your own body weight in varying positions. The sustained pressure helps isolate soft tissue areas and release fascial adhesions, similar to a deep massage. What’s more is that the friction between the fascia and the foam roller warms the fascia, making it more fluid and elastic. 

2. Stretch and strengthen afterwards

After spending a few minutes rolling, it is important to actively stretch the area you just rolled. Let’s say that you just finished rolling your calf muscle, because it’s tight from skiing. Getting up from the ground and performing a standing calf stretch will further stretch the muscles you just rolled, bringing it back to it’s resting length. Doing so, you’ve just helped fixed shortened, tight muscles into lengthened proper functioning muscles. The final step in a well-rounded corrective protocol would be to do some calf exercises, like standing heel raises, to strengthen all the calf muscles. 

3. Don’t run for the shower yet 

You might also consider using a roller or tennis ball after demanding exercise. All that hard work creates muscle damage. Recent studies showed participants improved range of motion in the knee joint and hips compared to control groups.

And lastly, there is evidence that foam rolling can also help you reduce fatigue post-exercise and possibly improve long-term performance.

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3 Top Hip and Back Stretches- You don’t have to be sore after a workout

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These 3 moves will help you recover and realign after a big day on a bike, 1/2 marathon, or strenuous hike. All target the hips, to help extend the body upwards and undo much of the tightness of not only the hips, as well as the back, shoulders and calf muscles.

Foam rolling, or self-myofascial release can help with athletic recovery

Foam rolling, or self-myofascial release can help with athletic recovery

1.Foam Roll Quads
 
Foam Rolling is a self-myofascial release stretching technique that regenerates and rejuvenates muscles and other soft tissue affected by an overzealous day on a bike, or on the trails.There are 4 quad muscles in the upper leg, and the outer most one, the rectus femoris, when tight, pulls the spine towards the top of the leg, causing hip or back pain, or  hyper-extention of the spine in an effort to stand up straight.Place the roller perpendicular to your thigh and lie over it. Find any sore spot and hold your body weight there for a few seconds until the tissue releases. Roll each leg for one minute. ( If rolling hurts your shoulder, lie on the floor with a tennis ball )
 
A "do-anywhere" great hip, upper back and calf stretch
2. Step Back with Arm Reach
 
This integrated exercise helps realign the entire body by combining a calf and hip flexor stretch, while strengthening the muscles of the upper back and shoulders. Stand with you feet hip-width apart and take a big step back with your right leg. Simultaneously reach the right arm upward.Keep the back leg straight, heel down. Push your hip forward without arching the lower back. Instead, extend from the upper back. Hold for 2-3 seconds. 6-10 reps on both sides.
 
3. Spine Extension The majority of the muscles in the hips originate at the lumbar spine, cross the pelvis, and attach to the top of the femur. This exercise stretches the whole front body,, and spine extensors, undoing much of the forward bending of many activities, plus feels great. Place your hands, fingers pointed down, firmly on your lower back. Inhale, and extend the spine as you lift your chest. Exhale, as you return to neutral posture. Repeat 6-8 times. 
 

Stretch your low back with this standing stretch.

Stretch your low back with this standing stretch.

 
Photos by Hallie MacPherson