hip mobility exercise, hip mobility routine, tennis injury prevention
Hip mobility exercise routine
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Case study 1
How a young tennis international was helped to stay injury-free and improve his hip mobility
The following exercise routine was designed specifically to help a 15- year-old male international junior tennis player avoid injuries and increase his range of movement on court. The routine was devised by myself in conjunction with physiotherapist Mark Edgar, who has treated this athlete for three years.
The interest in this case study is not limited to those involved in tennis, but should be seen as an example of how you can choose exercises specific to the movements involved in your athlete's sport and targeting his or her deficiencies in movement or stability. In addition, it is an example of how collaboration between fitness trainer and physio can be highly valuable.
The athlete
The tennis player concerned is very strong and fast for his age and possesses a good power game, with big shots. Much of the conditioning work we have done together has focused on his speed of movement, trunk strength and core stability. His weakness has always been his flexibility, specifcally in the groin, hips and gluteals. Because of his fast growth rate in recent years, despite regular static stretches, this poor flexibility has persisted. The main problem with this tightness is that he is prone to regular minor muscle strains and tendinitis.
Recently, I had begun to realise that his lack of flexibility in the hip area was limiting his range and ease of movement on court. For example, if he needed to get low down for a shot he would bend from the waist rather than flexing at the knees and hips. The result of this is that he places greater strain on the low back due to the repetitive forward flexion movement. Furthermore, the wider the stance became, the less he could move without bending from the waist.
Having discussed these observations with Mark, we decided that the athlete's programme should focus on increasing hip mobility using active exercises. By using these, we could place him in sports- specific positions, and starting with slow and simple exercises we could hope to improve his range of motion while maintaining his stability in the low back.
The exercises
1. Rotation squat movement - half-open stance
The athlete stands in a half-open stance, feet wider than shoulder width and right foot behind front left foot. Upper body should be tall, head up, with shoulders broad and relaxed. The athlete turns his body towards the right, and as he does so he squats down, flexing at the hip and knee and shifting his weight mostly onto the right side. The athlete then rotates his body back to the left, initiated by an extension of the right leg, shifting the weight back to the centre. The same movement is performed to the left side. This exercise should look similar to a discus throw movement.
The aim of this exercise is to teach the athlete to rotate to the left and the right whilst flexing at the knee and hip to lower down. He was instructed to ensure his lower back remained in the correct 'neutral' position during the complete range of motion.
As he improved control and range, the athlete added a weight to the exercise, holding a medicine ball in both hands while increasing the width between the feet to increase the stretch.
2. Side lunge and rotate
The athlete stands with feet hip-width apart, toes pointing forward. He then lunges out to one side, flexing the lunge leg and keeping the other leg straight. The aim is to lunge down as far as possible whilst keeping the upper body tall and upright. Once the athlete has reached the lowest point, he then performs a trunk rotation movement from left to right. After the rotation the athlete then pushes back using the lunge leg only to the start position. Again, the athlete was instructed only to lunge as wide and low as he could while maintaining a neutral low back position.
The aim of this exercise is to increase the active range of motion in the groin area while maintaining trunk stability and performing trunk rotation.
3. Shoulder exercises with the pulley machine
The pulley cable machine is a very useful piece of equipment for tennis players as they can mimic forehand, backhand and volley movements with added resistance. To help this athlete improve his balance and range of movement we included in his routine the above tennis-specific shoulder exercises in various stance positions: standing on one leg, in a low lunge position and in a wide side lunge position.
Again, the aim of these exercises was to increase stability in the various stance positions that may occur during tennis, while performing resisted shoulder movements.
The results?
The athlete soon progressed his range of movement during the above three exercises. In general, the exercises were based around the lunge or squat position, with the aim of teaching him to flex at the knee and hip while maintaining stability in the low back. The exercises were tailored to his sport by adding lateral movement and rotation to the lunge and squat exercises, and by performing trunk rotation or shoulder movements during a wide lunge or lateral lunge.
The athlete increased active hip motion and learned to co-ordinate hip and knee flexion to get into wide and low positions, whilst maintaining low back stability. This has helped him to move more effectively on court. We hope that in time he will also suffer fewer strain and tendinitis injuries, now that he has achieved a greater functional range of motion.
Summary
The importance of this exercise routine for this particular athlete was that it focused on active mobility in functional positions and movements. This allowed the athlete to transfer the improvements in the gym to the court. Using the same approach you can help other athletes in other sports with their particular problems. The method requires recognising the specific deficiencies of the athlete and trying to correct these with functional movement and positions.
Raphael Brandon
How a young tennis international was helped to stay injury-free and improve his hip mobility
The interest in this case study is not limited to those involved in tennis, but should be seen as an example of how you can choose exercises specific to the movements involved in your athlete's sport and targeting his or her deficiencies in movement or stability. In addition, it is an example of how collaboration between fitness trainer and physio can be highly valuable.
The athlete
The tennis player concerned is very strong and fast for his age and possesses a good power game, with big shots. Much of the conditioning work we have done together has focused on his speed of movement, trunk strength and core stability. His weakness has always been his flexibility, specifcally in the groin, hips and gluteals. Because of his fast growth rate in recent years, despite regular static stretches, this poor flexibility has persisted. The main problem with this tightness is that he is prone to regular minor muscle strains and tendinitis.
Recently, I had begun to realise that his lack of flexibility in the hip area was limiting his range and ease of movement on court. For example, if he needed to get low down for a shot he would bend from the waist rather than flexing at the knees and hips. The result of this is that he places greater strain on the low back due to the repetitive forward flexion movement. Furthermore, the wider the stance became, the less he could move without bending from the waist.
Having discussed these observations with Mark, we decided that the athlete's programme should focus on increasing hip mobility using active exercises. By using these, we could place him in sports- specific positions, and starting with slow and simple exercises we could hope to improve his range of motion while maintaining his stability in the low back.
The exercises
1. Rotation squat movement - half-open stance
The athlete stands in a half-open stance, feet wider than shoulder width and right foot behind front left foot. Upper body should be tall, head up, with shoulders broad and relaxed. The athlete turns his body towards the right, and as he does so he squats down, flexing at the hip and knee and shifting his weight mostly onto the right side. The athlete then rotates his body back to the left, initiated by an extension of the right leg, shifting the weight back to the centre. The same movement is performed to the left side. This exercise should look similar to a discus throw movement.
The aim of this exercise is to teach the athlete to rotate to the left and the right whilst flexing at the knee and hip to lower down. He was instructed to ensure his lower back remained in the correct 'neutral' position during the complete range of motion.
As he improved control and range, the athlete added a weight to the exercise, holding a medicine ball in both hands while increasing the width between the feet to increase the stretch.
2. Side lunge and rotate
The athlete stands with feet hip-width apart, toes pointing forward. He then lunges out to one side, flexing the lunge leg and keeping the other leg straight. The aim is to lunge down as far as possible whilst keeping the upper body tall and upright. Once the athlete has reached the lowest point, he then performs a trunk rotation movement from left to right. After the rotation the athlete then pushes back using the lunge leg only to the start position. Again, the athlete was instructed only to lunge as wide and low as he could while maintaining a neutral low back position.
The aim of this exercise is to increase the active range of motion in the groin area while maintaining trunk stability and performing trunk rotation.
3. Shoulder exercises with the pulley machine
The pulley cable machine is a very useful piece of equipment for tennis players as they can mimic forehand, backhand and volley movements with added resistance. To help this athlete improve his balance and range of movement we included in his routine the above tennis-specific shoulder exercises in various stance positions: standing on one leg, in a low lunge position and in a wide side lunge position.
Again, the aim of these exercises was to increase stability in the various stance positions that may occur during tennis, while performing resisted shoulder movements.
The results?
The athlete soon progressed his range of movement during the above three exercises. In general, the exercises were based around the lunge or squat position, with the aim of teaching him to flex at the knee and hip while maintaining stability in the low back. The exercises were tailored to his sport by adding lateral movement and rotation to the lunge and squat exercises, and by performing trunk rotation or shoulder movements during a wide lunge or lateral lunge.
The athlete increased active hip motion and learned to co-ordinate hip and knee flexion to get into wide and low positions, whilst maintaining low back stability. This has helped him to move more effectively on court. We hope that in time he will also suffer fewer strain and tendinitis injuries, now that he has achieved a greater functional range of motion.
Summary
The importance of this exercise routine for this particular athlete was that it focused on active mobility in functional positions and movements. This allowed the athlete to transfer the improvements in the gym to the court. Using the same approach you can help other athletes in other sports with their particular problems. The method requires recognising the specific deficiencies of the athlete and trying to correct these with functional movement and positions.
Raphael Brandon
