So this week's HomeWork is on it's way... Look for it tomorrow.
In the meantime, we have a second installment of "Top Ten Worst Exercises Ever..."
Actually today's installment is more of a Exercise Training Practice rather than a specific individual exercise.
The Practice that ranks up there as being horrible, terrible, and downright dangerous is most often associated with youth athletics. I have seen a great number of pre-teen and teen athletes who are fast tracked right into their sport and end up in my office with an injury. I have seen it commonly across the spectrum of sports, whether it is girl's, boy's, softball, soccer, football, baseball, etc. etc.
To back up for a second, the general rule of exercise and sports is to go through a specific progression. This progression goes:
Technique Training
then
General Strength/Conditioning Training
then
Sports Specific Training.
It is very definite and specific to that order of progression. Any variation from this, i.e. putting General Strength/Conditioning before Technique Training will result in a significant increased risk of injury.
If an athlete can not squat with great form, then they have no business loading up a bar and doing squats for a workout.
The same example applies to General Strength/Conditioning. If a young athlete can not lunge with great form in a controlled environment like a workout room, and therefore can not lunge in that same controlled environment with mild to moderate resistance, they have absolutely NO business lunging for a soccer ball out on the wet grassy field in the heat of competition.
The common practice of fast tracking pre-teens and teens directly into a sport without at least taking a year to progress them through the above progression is very dangerous and will often result in injury. The norm is injury and it is the exception when a young athlete avoids injury upon jumping right into the sport.
And yet, this is exactly what happens every year. Young athletes are put on the field of their sport and examined/critiqued/judged on their ability to push, pull, squat, lunge, twist, flex and/or extend with little or no training in Technique and or General Strength/Conditiong beforehand. Heaven forbid should they 'make the team' and have a busy schedule of daily practice and weekly games.
The worst part about this is that there are no longer 'seasons' to youth athletics. Historically there have been particular times of the year that were devoted to different sports. This gained the young athlete some advantage and opportunity for General Strength/Conditioning if only because they were swimming in the fall, playing basketball into the winter, and soccer into the spring. Or, if they were not playing other sports, they were able to take a significant period of time and practice Technique Training and progress to General Strength/Conditioning Training in preparation for their Sport Specific Training.
Now it seems as though each "sport" is year-round because of school sport, then select sport, then premier sport, etc. etc. As a result the young athlete is more and more specialized in their sport and is playing year round. Any attempt to take a step back is severely limited because now the athlete is part of a team that is counting on him/her to be present and ready to go for the sport and quite often "the Championship Game" in two weeks.
When injury does occur, the athlete is discouraged because they are forced to sit out of the game while the other athletes are enjoying their sport. At this point athlete/patient compliance is difficult because they are doing different things than their teammates. And as we know, not only with the youth athlete, keeping them motivated and their 'spirits up' is a significant portion of rehab from an injury.
MRoss
