Sports Specific Strength and Conditioning
A service offered within our clinics is Sports Specific Strength and Conditioning, which is a vital program feature within our Performance Physiotherapy Programs. Our lead performance physiotherapist Clayton Barnes explains more below on what exactly it is and how athletes can benefit from it.
Sports Specific Strength and Conditioning involves the identification of the key movement patterns and demands within the athletes chosen sport, along side an athletes goals for performance. Following this, a performance physiotherapist is able to create an individually tailored program that aims to enhance and improve those movement patterns and physical demands, with respect to the their capacity and characteristics. No one exercise is 100% sport specific.
An Example:
Sprinting- its a sport on its own but also a key movement and performance demand within many sports.
A common goal of an athlete is to improve sprinting speed, thus improving performance.
On analysis, sprinting can be further broken down into different components, including power and lower limb stiffness. Lower limb stiffness is the ability to reduce a joint's movement against force. During sprinting we want to maximise lower limb stiffness while the foot is making contact with the ground to create maximal propulsion. The greater the increase in propulsion the greater the speed enhancement.
How does lower limb stiffness increase propulsion?
Reducing Force Leaks - The more a joint moves while in contact with the floor, the more force is dissipated or lost. This leads to lesser ground reaction force, meaning less propulsion of the athlete and therefore, reduced speed.
Stretch-shortening cycle of the tendons - higher stiffness = large stretch/recoil, enabling elastic tendons to be more efficient in creating more force output and thus Increased propulsion from the posterior chain (calves, hamstrings, glutes)
Exercises:
There are many ways to target an improvement in sprint speed. Every athlete will need different stimuli, and part practice exercises should always complement a sprint running program.
Exercises suggested by Physiotherapist Clayton for targeting lower limb stiffness:
Double Leg Pogos
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Wall Pillar March (Level 1)
Wall Pillar March (Level 2)
Explosive Step Up
