If you are a Soccer Player or Coach, avoid these 3 exercises to keep your athletes healthy and available.
We have always been in the forefront of choosing exercises that suit individual needs, the needs to enhance the athletes function of their sport and teams. Over the years, we have evaluated exercises, training philosophies and maturity rates of youth athletes and while no exercise or philosophy is wrong, we believe that there are exercises that should be avoided or used with caution.
The Burpee
While the Burpee is not a new exercise and can have positive phisological responses to adults and athletes, the Burpee is one we keep clear of with our youth athletes, and soccer players due to the lack of developed core strength.
The lack of core strength places undue stress to the lumbar and can ultimately cause injury to the low back (have you seen how these kids throw themselves down just trying to get through it).
Options instead of the Burpee:
Planking
Bear Planks
Mountain Climbers
Back Squats
Yes, the tried and true back squat and one of the most programmed exercises in strength and conditioning. The Back Squat can be a tool used to gain a treamendous amount of size and strength; however, soccer players are not powerlifters or weightlifters. They run, jump and change direction while kicking a ball and moving at a fast rate of speed.
Choosing the best exercise for Quad health should come with that in mind, health of the muscles and joint. The back squat offers more of a risk than reward in this situation, loading the spine, hips and knee joints only to exaturbate the theme of soccer players having larger, less mobile quads.
(1)"Overall, two leg squats demonstrate poor H:Q co-activation ratios. Single leg exercises, when performed between 30 and 90 degrees of knee flexion, produce adequate H:Q ratios, thereby potentially reducing the risk of tensile stress on the ACL and ACL injury."
The reality is that single leg exercises provide the best way to strengthen the knee joint while addressing muscular imbalances.
Here is what we suggest instead:
Bulgarian Split Squats
Lunges
Step Ups
Crunches
While important for spine health the Crunch is a exercise we simply do not prescribed as there are far better abdominal exercises out there for youth athletes to use other than them cranking on their necks and feeling the burn.
The abdominals are an intricate part to a soccer player's performance and function, providing trunk stability while in contact with another player. The adbominals are uniquely tied with our groin and pelvis assisting in already what most players have in an anterior pelvic tilt, adding to risk versus reward list.
Here is what we suggest instead:
Reverse Crunch
Leg Raise
Leg Lowers
Windmills
If you're an athlete and unsure what exercises you should be doing, we offer online training and programming for a fraction of the cost to train with us in person while still getting world class coaching by our trainers.
This is ideal if you already have
1.A Gym Membership
2.Workout at home
3. Traveling for competition or are not local
To learn more information on our Online Training Options visit
References:
(1)Dedinsky R, Baker L, Imbus S, Bowman M, Murray L. EXERCISES THAT FACILITATE OPTIMAL HAMSTRING AND QUADRICEPS CO-ACTIVATION TO HELP DECREASE ACL INJURY RISK IN HEALTHY FEMALES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2017 Feb;12(1):3-15. PMID: 28217412; PMCID: PMC5294945.