hip and kneeHope your week is rolling along nicely – we are having a great week at RevCon!  I was out to watch Paul Town backstop his London Junior Knights team to a solid win at the Budweiser Garden on Friday night, then the chance to see Team RevCon athlete Purdy & Marinaro compete in the Skate America Grand Prix event in Detroit and of course this weekend Virtue & Moir unveil their new programs at Skate Canada.  Cool stuff.

I will probably miss seeing live coverage of Scott & Tessa and Michael & Margaret from New Brunswick as I attend a course that I have wanted to check out for quite a while.  Physiotherapist Brian Gastaldi and I will be making the trek down the 401 to exotic Windsor, Ontario for the Postural Restoration Institute course on Saturday and Sunday.  Looking forward to it!

Baby got back…

I am sure I will have more to tell you about the PRI course in the weeks to come, but for today I want to show you an exercise that you should be including as one of your hip dominant exercises during your strength training or included in your dynamic warm-up.  It is a multi-planar glute activation (strengthening) exercise which is essential for reducing your risk of knee injury.


If you cannot see the video in the player above, simply click the link below…
http://youtu.be/v8OeSBIK-m8

A strong bum makes my knees better?

Absolutely, most knee pain has nothing at all to do with the knee (other than that is the part that hurts).  The same way uneven tire wear has nothing to do with your tires – it is probably your alignment causing the problem, the tires are just the sign of the problem.

So basically, if you have weak glutes, then you are going to have trouble controlling the rotation of your femur (thigh), when the femur rotates inward, so goes the knee and that can lead to a cascade of issues:

  • patellofemoral pain syndrome
  • increased risk of ACL tears
  • patellar tendonitis
  • iliotibial band friction syndrome
  • meniscal injuries

How many? How much?

Start with just your body weight and reach your arms out over your head, just until you get the balance, then you can add a light load (5lbs).  Do 3 reps in each direction on each leg.

Focus on using your glutes and hamstrings to ‘pull’ you back to an upright position.

Cheers,
Maria

PS – if this exercise gives you flashbacks of the movie “Legally Blonde” scene where they ‘bend and SNAP’ – – me too 🙂