Core Stability For Soccer Athletes: Part 1

Programming for a soccer athlete is primarily about making sure they perform the common movements significantly well.  These include goblet squats, reverse lunges, pulling patterns (trap bar, SLDL), push ups, rows, chin ups, and core stability drills.  Core stability is no different.  The athlete is only going to benefit if you teach them how to get into the right position first before executing them.  These are a few of the top movements that any soccer athlete can benefit from once starting a training program.  These require the athlete to stabilize the pelvis in a neutral position (or to put them into a more neutral position) so that they prevent stabilizing through passive restraints (ligaments, spine vertebrae, tendons). Most extension-based athletes (soccer, baseball, hockey, offensive lineman in football) live in some sort of anterior pelvic tilt which stresses the lumbar spine, hips, and anterior abdominal wall to a significant degree.  These next few movements should be executed with the ribs in a “down” position which encourages less extension through their mid/lower back which reinforces a move efficient and safe stabilization pattern.

Glute Bridges

• Instead of cueing the soccer athlete to simply squeeze their butt up, have them exhale all their air out first (feel the ribs sink down), slightly brace, and then squeeze their butt up.  99% of the time you’ll notice their hip extension is more limited but where it should be.

Wall Press Abs

• Just listen to Bill Hartman!  Starting in supine (back on ground) is always a great place to start core stability and see how well they can control their pelvis and spine in an un-weighted position.

Front Planks/Side Planks

Have them start on knees and to keep hips (butt) squeezed all the way through.  Next, see if they can take full diaphragmatic breath while holding that position.  If too difficult, regress to on the floor again.  4-6 breath cycles is usually sufficient per set.

Cheers and more core stability progressions to come in the future,

Matt

Groin Strain Issues

Straining or ”pulling” a muscle is one of those issues that arises far too often in sports.  Soccer, hockey, and many track and field runners are part of the population that seemed to get plagued with these.  Often times hamstring pulls are actually groin issues.  These strains can be caused from a variety of issues such as…

• Poor tissue quality
• Strength imbalance between addutors and ABductors
• Limited hip range of motion
• Stiffness imbalance between glutes and adductors (basically similar to #2)
• Lack of overall core stability
• High volume running or skating in the preseason and a lack of off-season preparation

Poor Tissue Quality

If there is one area of the body that seems to feel like a steel cable to many athletes it is in their adductors.  Soccer players, hockey players, and a variety of track runners that I used to know always noted how there adductors seemed to be problematic.  One way to really get into the “high” posterior adductor magnus, the one adductor that gets overworked (check glute strength), is to use a dense medicine ball in this area as part of the warm-up (as foam rolling should be but the medball in this case works better).  Also, hammering the glutes (lax ball), and hip flexors.

Posterior Adductor Magnus

Stiffness Imbalance between ADDuctors and ABductors

Since spending the past 2 in-seasons with a hockey organization, I have noticed similarities in warm-up and stretching with hockey and soccer players.  Many of them have too much flexibility or mobility in their adductors and not enough with their glutes.  What is the first stretch you will almost always see these players go to…

Everytime

As a result, they gain too much frontal plane flexibility (side-to-side flexibility), and much denser or “stiffer” glutes.  We can help prevent the imbalance by mobilizing the glutes and strengthening the adductors in a shorter position

Provocative

Lack of Core Stability

Sports hernia’s are the rage in many sports and to learn a great deal about them, I  suggest taking the time to check out Kevin’s blogs about all these.  Click here to start.

Basically, there is a tug of war going on with the fascia of the core musculature and the adductors.  A marked anterior pelvic tilt makes this situation even worse.  Anterior pelvic tilt stretches the abdominal wall–>bad news.  We need to get athletes out of this extension and back to neutral by always coaching neutral spine.

Not there yet

There we go. Good positioning, and why the PVC is awesome

Thanks to the guys at Endeavor for teaching me these things

Cheers,

Matt

P.S. 400 meter sprints have been known to be one of the top ways to lose fat. Guess what, they probably are.  I got home about 1 hour ago after doing 3×400′s.  My heart rate shot up to 190-193 and it took me 4 minutes to get back down to 120s (call me fat and out of shape).  I am going to do these 1x/week and see how it helps my conditioning.

Rethinking The Reverse Crunch…as well

The reverse crunch has gained some attention lately, mainly because it is thought as a way to reverse the anterior tilt on the pelvis that we see so often in athletes, clients, and pretty much everyone.  The basic idea is that if you live in anterior pelvic tilt, the lumbar erectors and hip flexors are toned (a word basically meaning that the muscle is constantly turned “on”) which then causes inhibition of the abdominals and glutes.  Also popularly known as Janda’s lower-crossed syndrome.

But is the reverse crunch reversing the anterior pelvic tilt?  I am not at bay to answer but there are some issues to address or think of…

• First, can they perform the movement at the hips while maintaining neutral spine, which would fall in-line with the joint-by-joint philosophy.  For those not familiar, we want mobile (and of course stable) hips with a stable lumbar spine (no movement).  If so, that is awesome but if the tilt becomes too excessive that the core cannot remain stiff enough (what we want) to prevent the lumbar movement then it becomes a no-no!
• Other ideas:  If we want to ultimately decrease tone in the lumbar erectors & hip flexors while giving back motor control/stability/activation for the obliques/abdominals & glutes would we want to perform a movement that “looks” like it does the opposite?  Look at the reverse crunch–hip flexion causing more tone to the hip flexors, inhibition of the glutes as a result of that full flexion.  I guess it does lie in how you do it, but I can see where the movement can go awfully wrong.

Either way, I think you will not go wrong with good anti-core movements and an even a bigger reason to have glute contraction in the presence of the core stability movements we do like front planks, side planks, etc…If that does not make sense, look at people who do push-ups, the majority of the time they have their hips sag or their is a huge low back arch which is demonstrating that they are getting stability from their lumbar erectors and hip flexors.  We want abdominals, and glutes.

Cheers,

Matt

Core Exercises are Glute Activation Exercises

     Core stabilization exercises such as front planks, side planks, belly presses have been staple exercises at Endeavor and deservedly so.  Core stabilization exercises are typically what we are after when working with our athletes but we can also stabilize the wrong structures, namely by using passive structures (hanging onto our ligaments).  Most people basically live in some type of anterior pelvic tilt because of the associated desk-jockey lifestyle (sitting for many hours during the day).  Sitting is hip flexion, therefore sitting for long periods of time will cause the hip flexors to become stiff and/or short which have a downward pull on the pelvis.

How many people do you see with the waistline like this?

   

     Anterior pelvic tilt changes our natural posture or alignment which then throws off the stabilization recruitment patterns of muscles.  So, if we live in this position, the best option to stabilize is from bony approximation (vertebrae of the spine getting closer together).  Charlie Weingroff had a great quote on his blog describing what happens when we have this anterior pelvic tilt, “ This anterior tilt creates bony approximation, and that bony approximation tells the brain, “Hey, we’re good down here.  We have stability from bones being closer togther.  We don’t need any inner core.  You guys can take a break.”  The natural curves of the spine are that way to resist compression and accommodate shear forces.  Consequently, anything more or less than the natural curves may cause problems.   

     High percentage of people have anterior pelvic tilt = Hammering away on glute activation even during core stabilization exercises.  During basic core stabilization exercises there are many times where you will see athletes or clients in this position.  Make core exercises that occur in the tall kneeling, 1/2 kneeling, and plank positions glute activation exercises.  This position (glutes squeezed and through) puts the athletes back in neutral alignment and forces them to use the core to truly stabilize instead of hanging on their spinal structures or hip flexors.  There is usually always some grimacing expression as if that same exercise just became increasingly more difficult.  Here are two pictures of what you may see or do with core exercises.  With all the exercises you have to have the glutes squeezed through the entire time (if in 1/2 kneeling position, the down leg should be squeezed the entire time).

 

Incorrect

 

 

Yeahhhh Buddy!

          

Cheers,

Matt