Conditioning Research

Someone (the nano workout crew) has been watching Kelly S   The original

Although I have previously pointed to studies which question the general value of stretching  particularly in terms of impact on sports performance, injury and muscle soreness.  Stretching before exercise has been especially challenged. However, stretching to restore deficits caused by poor posture or the environment - like too much sitting - is still something that I do and recommend.  Here is Tom Furman on a simple stretch series for the hipflexors.  Tom says "Stretching, and eliminating hip flexor tightness can improve posture and reduce back ache."

Mike Reinold has posted this useful video on how to improve the basic bridge.  This move is something that I recommend for getting the glutes active and firing, something that we need to maintain and promote especially when we spend so much of our time sitting.

LAst year I put up a post on the double hip in a punch, with a video from Peter Consterdine . Anyway, i thought of that when I saw this piece of research.  It is about golf, but the principle is the same. "Up until now, the evidence for 'loading the hips' has all been anecdotal," says Dr Su Stewart , who led the research. "Coaches emphasise it, and certainly any golfer can feel the tension the movement creates. What we have shown is how closely this relatively small movement correlates with increased angular velocity at the club head. A great golf drive is not simply about creating torque by rotating the body around the spine, it is also about creating torque within the hips by rotating the pelvis around the right hip joint itself." In the study, eight right-handed male golfers with handicaps below five were tested in the laboratory with a variety of techniques including an array of 12 motion-capture cameras and 39 reflective markers (35 on the par...