For today, I want to focus on a beginner workout routine for the person who has some workout history but has been relatively inactive for awhile.  They can’t commit a lot of time to exercise due to other responsibilities or simply because they physically can’t handle an overwhelming amount of exercise at this point.  They basically need a foundational plan that targets big muscle groups with a balanced approach, raises metabolism and elevates heart rate.    

With that in mind, here’s a look at a program that meets these requirements. 

Upper Body Push Movement: BOSU/Stability Ball Push-up

Lower Body Movement: Goblet Squat

Upper Body Pull Movement: Cable Single Arm Row

Core Specific Movement: Stability Ball Roll-out

The push-up performed on a BOSU ball or stability ball serves as the pushing movement that trains your upper body front-side muscles (chest and shoulders) with assistance from the triceps.  In this case, a push-up is the preference over any sort of chest press performed on a bench since the core and glutes are also trained in the process while maintaing a firm plank position.  

Using the BOSU or stability ball recruits more core and shoulder stabilizers than performing the push-up on flat ground.  Be sure to keep your head in a neutral position and tuck your elbows next to your side to maintain scapular (shoulder blade) stability, instead of flaring them out.  The feet up position shown in the video is a more advanced position.  Start initially with your feet, or even knees, on the ground.      

The goblet squat serves as the primary lower body movement that effectively trains the quads, hamstrings, and glutes if performed correctly.  The front-loaded goblet hold requires anterior core (ab) activation to maintain posture.  The first movement should be pushing the hips back, which is why I often place a box or bench behind me to encourage that movement pattern.  To complete the movement, be sure to ”shoot the hips” through at the top by squeezing your butt.  Otherwise, you won’t achieve full hip extension and glute activity. 

The cable single arm row serves as the pulling movement that trains your upper body back-side muscles with assistance from the biceps.  The standing position with a partial squat requires you to activate your core and stabilize your stance while pulling the cable.  Your shoulder should remain retracted back and down, while your elbow flexes and extends. 

The stability roll-out serves as the core specific movement that primary trains your abs as they contract isometrically during the roll-out movement.  Remember, for core strength training, we want to resist movement through the lumbar region rather than create it, such as the case in a crunch.  Added benefit is achieved during the roll-out by maintaing a “hips tall” position (versus breaking at the hips), which encourages glute activation and strengthening throughout the movement.   

To execute this program, simply perform these 4 exercises in succession (8-12 reps) with little rest in between to achieve a good anaerobic workout along with the resistance training.  Build up your volume of work with each session, ideally working up to 4 sets of this rotation. 

Remember, this serves as a beginner workout routine.  The more conditioned individual would take on more exercises and volume per workout session, but this is a good place to start. 

BU

First of all, understand that this guy is 6’8″, 260 pounds with a TON of God given ability, so LeBron has a huge margin for error when it comes to his training regimine.  That being said, let’s take a look at a 2 minute video clip from one of his training sessions.  The video includes 4 exercise segments. 

The first exercise LeBron performs is the medicine ball Russian twist.  The first strike against him is that he’s wearing gloves.  C’mon LeBron, are those really necessary?  Collect a callus or two.  They show you’ve spent some time in a weightroom. 

Besides the gloves, this does serve as a good core strengthening exercise, especially because he’s squeezing the foam roll between his legs.  This forces him to activate his core and stabilize his lumbar region.  You’ll notice the rotation of the exercise is taking place in the upper spine (thoracic), while the core is acting as a stabilizer throughout his set. 

The next segment on the video shows LeBron working on the StairClimber.  I notice a couple positives and negatives with this exercise.  On the negative side, I don’t like the limited range of motion that is taking place at the hips.  This doesn’t at all simimulate the range of motion his hips move through while he’s on the court.  The range of motion you see is similar to that of jogging.  Also, this might be picky, but I’m a stickler for posture, and I’d like to see him standing tall with his head in a neutral position through the exercise rather than him giving into fatigue and allowing himself to fall into cervical flexion, which ultimately impacts his posture all the way down the chain. 

On the positive side, the StairClimber does reduce joint reduce when compared to the pounding the joints take during running.  And, I like the integration of upper and lower body in this activity.  

The third segment shows LeBron performing the shoulder press.  I like the fact that he’s using dumbbells instead of a bar, as it allows for the shoulder to work in a healthier pattern of movement.  Although, to take advantage of the dumbbells, I would have his hands at the neutral position (palms in) at the bottom of the movement instead of palms forward.  This would allow the shoulder mechanics to work as intended. 

If I were to pick out one more thing, I would like to see him performing the shoulder press in a standing position, only because it gets him on his feet and requires him to integrate more muscle to stabilize his position while pressing the weights.    

The final segment shows LeBron performing a cable reverse fly.  I like what he’s doing here, as this is a good movement for the upper back and back of the shoulder.  It looks like he’s using the board beneath his feet to add some instability, requiring his body to adapt and stabilize the position.  I also like to perform this movement from a split stance with one leg forward and one leg back. 

So, there’s my take on a snapshot of the LeBron James workout.  I have another clip of one of his workouts that I’ll disect in my next post. 

BU

Today, we begin to work on the solution.  I’m going to provide you with 7 steps you can take to improve glute activation, which will ultimately improve your posture and performance. 

1. Decrease Muscle Tissue Density   

Remember, your glutes are probably weak, because your hip flexors are tight due to extended periods of sitting in a hips-flexed position.  Tight hip flexors place the glutes in a continually stretched position, making them weak.  To lengthen the hip flexors and take your pelvis out of anterior tilt, you must first decrease the muscle density (knots) of those muscles.  You’ll do this by foam rolling the area and seeking out the “hot spots”.  Think of it like rolling out cookie dough.  Once the tissue density is decreased, you can lengthen the muscle more effectively. 

2. Lengthen the Muscles

With tissue density now decreased in the hip flexor region, it’s now time to lengthen, or stretch, those muscles to gain increases in range of motion.  Again, this will gradually realign your pelvis, take the glutes out of a permanently stretched position, and allow them extend the hip through a full range of motion.  In the example below, the keep the trunk vertical and drive the hips forward to achieve the stretch.  

3. Performing Hip Lifts (bridging) 

Hips lifts are performed lying flat on the ground with your belly up.  They are great fundamental exercises for cuing glute activation.  Start with 2 feet on the ground, and then progress to one.  Place your feet underneath your knees and push through the heels to achieve the most glute activity.  Be sure to recruit all extension from the hip and not the lumbar spine region.  This exercise can also be loaded for more intensity. 

4. Use the Plank to Kill 2 Birds With 1 Stone

Most people only think of the plank as a core exercise.  If so, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to train the glutes as well.  In any plank position your hips are extended, so that is an opportunity to squeeze the glutes and maintain that hip extension.  This goes for push-ups, also, since it is performed from a plank position.  In the video below, I add a leg lift to the plank to achieve even more glute activation. 

5. Take Advantage of Tall Kneeling and Half Kneeling Positions

Kneeling positions, whether tall (2 knees down) or half (1 knee down), are often used in core strengthening exercises.  Once again, if you’re not glute conscious, you’re missing a great opportunity.  By nature of the stance, you have an extended hip (or 2) that you want to remain in that position.  Because of this, the glute(s) associated with the extended hip(s) should be active during the entire exercise.  Here are a couple examples.

6. Activate During Lunges and Split Stance Movements

Most of the focus during a forward lunge or split squat is naturally on the front leg but, once again, take notice of the hip on the back leg.  It should remain in an extended position, which means we want the glute active to maintain a strong angle of extension.  This just serves as another opportunity to get more bang for your buck on a basic exercise. 

7. Why Sit At Your Desk?

This might be the most awkward suggestion of all, but have you ever considered assuming a tall kneeling stance while working at your desk, even if just for a little while? 

It can go a long way toward lengthened those hip flexors and promoting more glute strength.  Or, you can dish out a little money and purchase an ergonomic chair, which accomplishes the same thing. 

Don’t worry about those who mock you.  They’ll be jealous when you’re the one sporting the great back-side!

BU

Chances are this person is suffering from both pain in his posterior chain (low back, hamstrings) and a lack of confidence because he goes unnoticed by the ladies, since he can’t fill out a pair of jeans. 

So, what’s the culprit causing the dreaded flat butt syndrome?

Well, it’s likely the result of sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week, coupled with an inadequate training program that results in a lack of glute activation.  The seated posture places your hips in flexion and consequently shortens the hip flexor muscles pulling you into anterior pelvic tilt. 

Anterior Pelvic Tilt

Tightness at one muscle will cause weakness at the muscle that performs the opposite activity.  For example, if you have tight pecs from performing way too many bench presses, you’re going to have a weak upper back, because those muscles are always on stretch.  Or, if you have tight quadriceps, you will have weak hamstrings because, like the upper back in the previous example, they will always be placed in a stetched position.

Back to the shortened, or tight, hip flexors.  Since they are tight, it stands to reason that your hip extensors would be weak.  And, what muscle group contributes most to hip extension?  The glutes.  Not only that, with your pelvis in anterior tilt, your hamstrings are also on stretch and weakened since they attach at the pelvis. 

In reference to why it’s hard to build glute muscle with tight hip flexors, consider that the hips have a hard time extending through a full range of motion, which leaves the glutes relatively dormant and weak. 

The explanation for why weak glutes lead to lower back and hamstring injuries is a matter of compensation patterns.  When the hip tries to extend and the glutes cannot perform their job, the hamstrings try to pick up the slack and do the job for them.  Since the hamstring is really only designed to play a supporting role in hip extension, it often cannot handle the extra work, which results in pulls and tears.

Think about all the hamstring tears you hear about with pitchers early in the baseball season.  It tells me that they haven’t prepared their bodies properly and are trying to perform maximal effort movement patterns with underdeveloped glutes.   

The lower back faces a similar issue.  Once again, when the glutes aren’t working to extend the hips, the lower back tries to compensate and you get lumbar extension.  From many of my other posts on core strength training, you know that we want the lumbar region to prevent movement instead of promoting it.  So, like the hamstring, you’ll often end up with a lower back injury.

In my next post, I’ll provide some exercises to encourage glute activation and remedy the muscle dysfunction discussed above. 

BU

DeMarini CF4

Every baseball player out there is looking for an edge, whether it be with their body or the tools that they use.  So, the question is, which has more influence on performance?  C’mon, you’ve seen how the typical baseball player cares for his glove and bat.  They’re irreplaceable tools, and players don’t have nearly as much confidence on the diamond without their glove or bat of choice.  But, should this be the case? 

Take the DeMarini CF4 bat, for example.  Its composite design and “trampoline” effect have high school and college players, alike, rushing to the store to help them get beyond “warning track” power. 

On the other hand, what can a player do with his body to help him generate more power and launch more bombs? 

That’s a loaded question, but I’ll get right to the root of the issue. 

Take a look at this slow motion video of Josh Hamilton’s swing and consider what’s happening throughout his lower body, especially at the hips.

What the video doesn’t show is his initial hip external rotation of about 30 degrees in the coiling phase.  What you do see, albeit in slow motion, is the violent hip internal rotation that occurs against the stiff front leg.  How violent?  Try 714 degrees/second at the hips. 

So, I think it’s safe to say that hip mobility is a priority when it comes to generating rotational power, along with a ton of deceleration strength to manage those crazy velocities.  Remember, too, that the complementary component that we want to see along with good hip range of motion is rotary stability, or the ability to resist rotation where you don’t want it (lumbar spine region). 

Upper extremity EMG activity during a swing doesn’t even compare to the work being performed in the lower body.  Follow-up studies reveal that the emphasis of a batter’s strength training program should be focused on the trunk and hip muscles.  The velocities that I cited earlier have to come from somewhere, right? 

So, those who prioritize their upper body “beach workouts” over their lower body training are compromising their results on the field.  And, so are those who run miles and miles to “build up leg strength”.  It’s no substitute for a comprehensive lower body strength training program. 

What’s the takeaway from this post? 

1. Get your legs strong and your hips mobile.  It’s pretty simple when you consider that the faster your hips can rotate through an appropriate range of motion, the more power you’re going to generate.  And, the force that is driving the hips is initiated by the force being placed in the ground.
2. As I’ve campainged for time and time again on this site, get rid of conventional ab training and core work that involve lumbar movement and instead focus on rotary stability, so you’re able to transfer the forces that you are creating in your lower body. 

BU

The goal of this post is to compare and contrast 3 general types of resistance training objectives: training for strength, training for muscle size, and training for muscular endurance. 

Strength training programs should be characterized by high-resistance, near-maximal muscle contractions for a small number of repetitions (2-5 reps), and a full recovery period between each set.  This means the intensity of each exercise is very high, while the total number of repetitions is relatively low.  

I’ve found that less is actually more when it comes to eliciting strength gains with my athletes.  In the past, I would often aim for my athletes to perform 20-24 sets of exercises during a given session.  These guidelines didn’t allow for enough recovery, and fatigue played too big of a factor during the majority of the sets, which didn’t allow maximal strength to be trained.  I’ve found that 14-18 sets is now my sweet spot with regard to volume in a session, and my athletes’ strength numbers have increased significantly.   

Strength training causes increases in the cross-sectional area of the trained muscles.  Type II muscle fiber areas increase more rapidly and at a faster rate than Type I fibers.  This is a desired result since Type II fibers produce greater force output and contract with greater velocity than the Type I fibers. 

Hypertrophy training, or training for muscle size, involves using moderate loads that allow the athlete to perform a much greater volume of repetitions than a typical strength training program.  Although, these loads are heavy enough to accomplish contraction failure within 6-12 repetitions.  It is important to begin the next set of exercise before full recovery is achieved, so the rest period is short to moderate. 

hypertrophy training

Another common variable with hypertrophy training is performing a large number of sets focused on a specific muscle group.  High training volume performed at moderate intensity is optimal for increasing muscle mass. 

It has been proven that bodybuilders contain a lower percentage of Type II muscle fibers than other strength training athletes and a larger number and size of Type I fibers.  This would explain why, despite their muscle-bound look, bodybuilders are typically not as strong or athletic as they may appear, especially when compared to strength training athletes. 

musuclar endurance

The third mode of training, muscular endurance is characterized by submaximal muscle contractions extended over a large number of repetitions (15-20) with very little recovery between each set.  The relative intensity is very low, and the overall volume of repetitions is very high. 

This mode of training encourages relative increases in aerobic potential that are similar in both Type I and Type II fibers.  Although, Type I fibers have a higher pre-existing aerobic capacity than Type II fibers. 

Strength training and hypertrophy training produce similar muscular adaptations, while aerobic endurance training is very different since it can actually reduce the overall muscle mass of the hypertrophied Type II fibers.  There is some hypertrophy of Type I fibers due to their heavy recruitment during aerobic endurance exercise, but the resulting cross-sectional increases are not nearly as great as seen in Type II fiber adaptations to resisistance training.  

In my own observations, I’ve found that there are a great deal of athletes that mistake hypertrophy training for true strength training.  They focus on their “beach muscles” and work at a comfortable intensity for long durations.  Instead, their programs should be designed around fundamental movement patterns and provide muscle balance.  They need to substitute their high number of comfortable sets for the quality of more intense, heavy-loaded sets.   

Most importantly, though, they need to recognize the difference between weight training and strength training.  Weight training is very general, while good strength training programs employ the concepts I discussed above and always place attention on the athlete’s quality of movement to provide the best opportunity to increase performance and decrease the probability of injuries. 

Your Coach,

Brian

Good shoulder health is important whether you’re throwing a baseball for a living or an Average Joe going through the functional demands of daily life.  So, considering how delicate the shoulder is, it’s important that your upper body workout plan takes measures to avoid things that will compromise the joint. 

First of all, behind-the-neck exercises should be avoided.  This school of thought has been around for awhile, but it never fails that I see individuals performing behind-the-neck pull-downs every time I go to the gym.  This movement involves extreme abduction and external rotation of the shoulder.  It’s usually also complimented with bad cervical flexion.  No es bueno. 

Next, stay away from bars.  Since they don’t bend or rotate, the bar forces the mechanics of the shoulder instead of you having control over it.  To allow the multiple joints of the shoulder to rotate through their natural spiral-diagonal patterns, you’d like for your hands to finish movement in a neutral position as they settle next to the shoulder.   

Dumbbells will serve as a better option than bars when it comes to pushing movements, while TRX bands and cables provide the same benefit for pulling movements. 

When it comes to overhead athletes like baseball players, volleyball players, tennis players, and quarterbacks, there are some additional considerations.  A narrow-minded approach suggests that, “because their sport involves so many overhead movements, they should be performing a lot of overhead pressing.”

On the surface this appears to be a sound argument, but in reality throwing a baseball is a much different stress on the shoulder than performing an overhead press.  To simplify, throwing a baseball is a traction stress, meaning that the humeral (upper arm bone) head is pulled away from the shoulder socket.  On the other hand, overhead pressing is an approximation stress, where the humeral head is driven into the socket creating the potential for rotator cuff impingement. 

There are plenty of other options to train the shoulder, so I rarely, if ever, have my throwing shoulder athletes perform overhead presses. 

A great tool for overhead athletes is the medicine ball, which helps them develop core power that’s critical to throwing.  The medicine ball also offers great eccentric work for the rotator cuff.  Here’s an example of a medicine ball throw my baseball players perform . . .

We all go through a little shoulder pain at one point or another.  The key is to have an upper body workout plan in place that doesn’t compound your issues.  Give these simple adjustments a try, and notice how much better your shoulders will feel and function.

Your Coach,

Brian

Take Aroldis Chapman, the young Cuban pitcher for the Reds, for example.  Last year at AAA Louisville, Chapman was a respectable 9-6 with a 3.57 ERA, but he got the call-up for the Reds’ playoff run ahead of others with better numbers, because he can do this . . .

There are many ways to increase pitching velocity, but for now, my focus is on how better mobility in the thoracic spine can add a foot to your fastball.  For starters, take a look at this clip of Nolan Ryan, and notice how much extension and rotation he gets out of his upper back from the point when he’s loading until he releases . . .

A couple things come to mind when I think about Nolan Ryan’s career.  How hard he threw and how healthy he was throughout all those years.  I believe much of this can be attributed to his exceptional thoracic mobility, and here’s why . . .

We must remember that our body is a collection of parts that function together and either complement or compensate for another part of the body’s movement, or lack thereof.  The thoracic spine is made up of the 12 vertebrae in the upper back that connect to the rib cage.  Unlike the lumbar spine below it, the vertebrae of the thoracic spine are designed for movement.

Better movement through the thoracic spine allows the scapulae (foundation of the shoulder) to stablize and the  glenohumeral joint (shoulder ball and socket) to move through a full range of motion, both critical functions for throwing a baseball with good efficiency. 

increase pitching velocity

As demonstated in both the examples of Nolan Ryan and Dan Haren (left), good thoracic extension and rotation allows the pitcher to create torque and load effectively at the shoulders to promote high throwing velocities. 

Also, when the thoracic spine moves well, it allows the core/lumbar spine to perform its natural function of stability and transfer power effectively.  Poor thoracic mobility leads the lumbar spine to compensate for movement, which often decreases performance and increases the probability of injuries all the way up and down the body. 

Notice, with Haren, how much separation he is getting between his hips and shoulders.  This is a product of good hip and thoracic mobility, combined with core stability.  This combination gives Haren the chance to throw hard and stay healthy.       

So, what are some things than can compromise thoracic mobility?  For one, crunches. 

I’ve blasted crunches on this site a number of times already, but consider this with regard to the thoracic spine and throwing a baseball.  The rectus abdominus is the major muscle in your abdominal region and attaches at the rib cage.  So, by performing crunches you are shortening that muscle and pulling the rib cage down, which also pulls the thoracic spine into flexion, limiting its ability to extend and rotate. 

Second, tight hip flexors will also compromise thoracic mobility.  When your hip flexors are tight, they pull your pelvis into anterior tilt, creating a sway back posture in your lumbar spine region.  When this is the case, your thoracic spine compensates by rounding, which compromises its ability to extend and rotate. 

Also, those who spend most of their time in the weight room performing pushing movements, like a bench press, tend to develop tight pecs and weak upper back muscles, which pulls the thoracic spine into flexion.   

That should serve as a good foundation to understanding the value of thoracic mobility with regard to pitching velocity.  I’ll follow up next week on drills you can do to improve your movement in the thoracic spine. 

Your Coach,

Brian

Remember, the objective for core strength training should be to PREVENT flexion, extension, and rotation through the lumbar spine region, not encourage it.  This, of course, flies in the face of what the general population usually performs in the gym on a regular basis. 

With that in mind, I wanted to give you a nudge in the right direction by proving you video samples and a little coaching on my 5 favorite core exercises.

Stability Ball Roll-out

This is my standard go-to exercise when I want to give someone, who is accustomed to performing crunches, a quick alternative for training the abdominal muscles.  Try one rep and you’ll recognize right away that the abs are being trained; you’re just not flexing and extending the lumbar spine like you would do with a crunch.  The abs are stabilizing the spine instead.  Plus, the glutes are firing to the keep the hips extended throughout the entire movement.  Adjust the ball forward or back to control the difficulty of the exercise.

Tall Kneeling Landmine Rotation

This is a great anti-rotation movement for the core, as you’ll notice the hands and bar move side to side, but the core stabilizes the trunk.  Like the roll-out, you’ll maintain a “hips tall” position by keeping the glutes active.  Adjust the angle of the bar, height of your hands on the bar, and arc of the bar movement  to control difficulty.

Bus Driver

This exercise uses basic physics to challenge core strength.  The longer the levers (your arms), the more your core has to fire to stabilizing your posture while you manipulate the plate in front of you.  Simply holding the plate extended from your body would be enough, but by turning the plate like a wheel you make the movement slightly more dynamic for the core to strengthen and stabilize. 

Cable Anti-Rotation Chop

Similar to the landmine, the anti-rotation chop is performed by pulling a loaded cable horizontally across your body while stabilizing and preventing rotation through the core.  The wide stance is necessary to balance yourself through the movement. 

Plate Stack

The plate stack is performed while holding a plank position, which is a great core exercise by itself.  Difficulty is added by transferring a stack of plates (5 lbs.) from one side of the body to the other.  The key is to hold a stable plank position by firing both the core and glutes.  Otherwise, you’ll notice a lot of shifting and rotating through the hips, which we want to avoid.  You can adjust the difficulty of the movement based on how far outside the body you set the plates. 

So, there you have it . . . exercises that challenge the entire core and are functional at the same time.  By substituting these exercises for some of the more traditional and dated ones, you will notice an improvement in the way you feel and perform. 

Your Coach,

Brian

Other related articles:

Core Strength Training: Training abs the right way

Core Strength Training for Baseball Power

Relieve Lower Back Pain: Look above and below?          

Team sports consist of a series of stops and starts as athletes react to boundary lines, placement of the ball, and player movements.  So, when it comes to speed and agility training, the inability to decelerate and put on the brakes makes it virtually impossible to compete at any level.  Even more importantly, a closer look reveals that the vast majority of injuries take place in the decelerating phase of movement. 

Think about it.  Do athletes get hurt jumping up (accelerating) or coming down (decelerating)?  Are they injured going into a cut (decelerating) or coming out of it (accelerating)? 

Athletes are more vulnerable to injury in the decelerating phase, because the body is called upon to reduce a great deal of force, many times greater than their own body weight because of the momentum they are attempting to stop.  On the other hand, acceleration is characterized by force production instead of force reduction. 

This idea should make it very clear that eccentric (muscle lengthening) strength is critical when it comes to deceleration.  That’s why the ability to control your tempo when lifting weights is so important.  Focusing on only half of the movement is robbing your body of the chance to train eccentric strength.

For example, when observing a bench press it’s common to see people bouncing the bar off their chest without any control of the downward phase.  Aside from this being dangerous for your sternum, this type of activity ignores the deceleration phase of the movement. 

Another important consideration is the idea that the greater forces your body can reduce, the more it can eventually produce, which will assist in the accelerating phase of movement that we all covet so much. 

When initiating a plyometric program, I will always train my athletes to land first before moving on the to the take-off phase as both performance and injury-prevention measures.  With baseball pitchers, I’ll have them perform weighted ball deceleration catchesbefore ramping up throwing velocity.  Considering how fast the shoulder internally rotates during a throwing motion, it is extremely important to train the decelerating muscles to promote a healthy shoulder. 

When it comes to agility we have to teach the athlete how to skillfully decelerate and also strengthen the body, so it is capable of absorbing the forces associated with deceleration. 

I employ a simple 4-step skill set when teaching my athletes how to decelerate properly:

Step 1:

The foot should strike the ground outside the box (hips and shoulders) to brake effectively.  This will place the landing foot ahead of the body’s center of mass, whether the athlete is moving in a linear or lateral path, to resist the forward momentum of the body.  In contrast, the ground contact of the landing leg during the accelerating phases takes place behind the body’s center of mass.  Take a look at the following pictures to identify the difference in foot placement.    

Step 2:

Strike the ground initially with the heel to create a horizontal braking force, before rolling to the middle of the foot to create a full foot ground contact.  This contrasts accelerating where the front of the foot contacts the ground first, and the heel remains elevated during the support phase on the ground. 

Step 3:

Unlike the acceleration phase when the body’s torso is characterized by a forward lean because of the shin angle created to push (see acceleration picture above), the torso assumes a more upright posture (in relation to the lower body) during deceleration.  This allows the foot to move ahead of the center of mass and apply the brakes.  At this point, the trunk must remain stable without swaying to help absorb the forces created on impact.  This is where core strength is so critical.  A weak core won’t allow the athlete to stabilize and absorb forces efficiently. 

Step 4:

Upon striking the ground to stop, immediately flex the hip, knee, and ankle to spread the impact forces over as many joints as possible.  This will decrease the magnitude of stress by allowing the muscles the do their eccentric work.  When accelerating, those same joints extend, instead of flexing, to produce force.   

To simplify those steps, I cue my athletes: “foot outside the box–>heel to middle of the foot–>stable trunk–>flex the hips (the knee and ankle will follow suit)” 

As far as strength training applies to decelerating, the primary muscles used for deceleration are the quadriceps and gastrocnemius (calves).  A good exercise that demonstrates the action associated with decelerating into a cut is the lunge.  In the video below, notice the dynamic movement as the left foot strikes the ground. 

You should see a semblance of the skill set I mentioned above in the movement pattern of a lunge.

Hopefully this post leads you to consider the value of the deceleration phase when it comes to speed and agility training.  It will make a huge impact on both your performance and health.

Your Coach,

Brian