Muscle Balance Assessment and Core Exercises

An article by Debi Hazelden    1 Comment

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Sports massage

I’m feeling much better after a slow week last week. I’ve had 2 of my now regular Monday massages and I’m feeling really good. She didn’t go super hard on the first one, but last Monday she gave my muscles a good deep sports massage. I’ve had 2 good training sessions since then – 2 hour bikes and runs off the bike. And they felt so good – well they did feel like hell – but in a better than normal way if that makes sense.

I don’t feel the tightness I have had constantly for over a year. It’s awesome and I can’t wait for my next one now. Bring on next Monday! The massages are painful – especially in the calves. But I love it. If anyone is looking for a brilliant sports massage therapist in Christchurch I recommend Brittany from Russley Sports Massage.

Muscle Balance Assessment

I had my muscle balance assessment last Friday with Andrew Abakhan. I found out essentially I tested well with the exceptions of my core, shoulder and glute flexibility. I have a sway back which could do with working on and my right shoulder is very unflexible.

The muscle balance assessment (MBA) consisted of a few flexibility tests and general measurements, then went onto core exercises to test my strength. Who would have thought going to the physio would be a workout?

One thing he said to focus on is gluteal recruitment during exercise. I’ll be doing single leg squats. The idea for this is that I get stronger in the glutes and abdominal strength then learn to integrate this into my swim / bike / run.

Next appointment

I’ll be going to see him again in 2 weeks time and we’ll go through a cycling and running assessment with video analysis; integrate single leg stability tasks and build on strong back with introduction to deadlift/ bent over reverse fly/bent over rows. This should help me to work on my glute muscles and start to integrate them into my cycling.

Funny that Andrew is talking about this and then I see this post on Facebook the same day about ‘how to squat your way to a better pedal stroke‘. It all makes sense. I can work on my glutes and straightening my sway back to increase performance.

My program for next 2 weeks

Stretching:

Daily Shoulder Sleeper stretch (both shoulders) and Glut stretch until Right is equivalent to Left; integrate general
stretching regime post training 2-4 x weekly over 6 weeks.

Core Sessions:

3-4x weekly core set. This core set is essentially what my coach has been getting me to do and I have been slack – So now is the time for me to get my ass into gear. I guess I never realised how important the core strength is in racing.

1. (4 on the floor) : 20 reps

• with the one where you are face down – push heel to sky, squeeze glutes, push shoulder blades together and hold thumbs up

2. Double leg squat (to chair) : 30 reps

3. Kneeling swiss ball roll out : 20 reps

• rotate from knees rather than hips
• lock elbows and roll forward on swiss ball

4. Lunge n twist : 20 each leg

• arms crossed
• keep looking ahead when twisting

5. Calf raises : as many as you can each leg

• make sure you are going to the same height each time
• slow going down – about 3 seconds

6. Single leg squat (to chair:using swiss ball to increase gluteal recruitment) : 20 each leg

• push your knee against the wall or swissball to make the glutes work

7. Hamstring curls (single leg on swiss ball) : 20 reps each side

• Roll the swissball in and out keeping hips high

8. Single leg bridge off bench: 20 each leg