Prehab Exercises

What are some of the best prehab exercises to do as an athlete (particulary footballers)? I know that the knees, hips, ankles, shoulders, and lower back are typically the most injured areas for all athletes, so what exercises can be done to help prevent these injuries? Also, should these be done pre-workout, or post-workout?

Thanks.

Buckeye,

I go over quite a few of the often injured areas in my “Designer Athletes” program. Manual resistance is actually a great way to develop all the functions around the ankle; when I was working with our volleyball teams at BSU, we had them do ankle strengthening stuff almost daily.

Other than that, some of the best things you can do are: A) have good flexibility and B) get strong as all get out!

Stay strong
MR

Are you looking at this as a coach, athlete, or both?

Jim

As both. I am ceritanly interested in using these to help me get ready for football/in lifting, but I would also like to know about these to use with athletes that I may be coaching in the future.

[quote]Mike Robertson wrote:
Buckeye,

I go over quite a few of the often injured areas in my “Designer Athletes” program. Manual resistance is actually a great way to develop all the functions around the ankle; when I was working with our volleyball teams at BSU, we had them do ankle strengthening stuff almost daily.

Other than that, some of the best things you can do are: A) have good flexibility and B) get strong as all get out!

Stay strong
MR[/quote]

any chance of a manual resistance article?

Before I lift I always stretch and jump rope. One of the most important warm-up exersises I do are neck bridges. When I do them I really arch my back and tighten all my muscles. They really seem to help with my lower back and stretch my quads and hip flexors.

[quote]buckeye75 wrote:
What are some of the best prehab exercises to do as an athlete (particulary footballers)? I know that the knees, hips, ankles, shoulders, and lower back are typically the most injured areas for all athletes, so what exercises can be done to help prevent these injuries? Also, should these be done pre-workout, or post-workout?

Thanks.[/quote]

The best source Ive found for pre-hab and injury prevention are the core performance cd rom and book by Mark Verstegen. The cd would cover it if you only wanted to by one. Also some great lower body stuff is in mike boyles linear and or lateral speed developing videos. These guys train some of the best athletes in the world so their rep is #1. You can get all items from performbetter.com good luck.

I agree with gymratsince73 with the addition of Gray Cooks work. The prehab work is good if you know what you need to work on. With Cook (Athletic Body in Balance) and Boyle (Functional Training for Sports) you’ll get a good idea what you may need to work on. That and feedback from a good coach.

Best of luck!

Jim

[quote]trainerjim wrote:
I agree with gymratsince73 with the addition of Gray Cooks work. The prehab work is good if you know what you need to work on. With Cook (Athletic Body in Balance) and Boyle (Functional Training for Sports) you’ll get a good idea what you may need to work on. That and feedback from a good coach.

Best of luck!

Jim[/quote]

trainerjim is right both the cook stuff and boyles book are excellent. Also m. boyles “recovery and regeneration” tape is another tool that could help anyone who is training hard as the better you recover the sooner you can train hard again- gymrat