Defending the Trap Bar

The topic that probably found itself ranking at the forefront of discussion in the industry over the last year was the debate over lower body bilateral movements. This includes primarily variations of the squat and deadlift. Its my feeling that if you want to take something away it should be for a couple reasons. One, there are other tools that could be better benefiting you in progress to your goals. Two, it is causing harm to your athletes in the form of injury due to poor pattern or poor risk reward. When I look at the trap bar deadlift I can not find a way to justify these questions. Let look at just a few reasons why it can be such a useful tool...

Using the trap bar to teach movement:
It is all too common to find people who are unstable on the deep squat. Stabilization is timing. A key component in the TBDL is the isometric loading you obtain in the start position. This allows the athlete to consciously gauge the feeling of firing the stabilizers first before going into the squat pattern from the bottom up. Also when put into proper position, the only way to overcome the isometric load is them to activate the global muscles through hip extension. This action of isometric loading to active hip extension will allow you to gain the stability so many athletes lack in the deep squatting pattern.

It is easy to modify:
Not every athlete has the warranted hip mobility that will allow them to pick a heavy load from the ground and maybe they are just to tall to safely pick up the standard sized bar. The best part about bar is that the weight is close to the base of support (your feet) and can be safely elevated. This can allow you to make sure that no matter the athlete, proper spine alignment can be achieved in most cases.
Without a lift many athletes with poor mobility/stability lock the back into extension and also will extend the neck as they attempt to bring shoulder back.









With a couple plates or aerobic boxes, you can easily find a range in which the athlete will not have to compromise mobility to achieve the pattern.








Also a great way to reinforce this movement pattern is to do a toe touch progression within a super-set to compliment this lift.






Scapular Stability:
Lets not forget that this wonderful exercise requires strength, stability, and mobility from all areas. A key area of this stability is one that is often missing in many programs. The scap/thoracic region can be stabilized in two ways. One of them, compression, is commonly seen with things like planks and push ups. The second, distraction, is greatly developed in the TBDL. This is when the scapula has to resist a load from protraction. One can identify this when an athlete lifts too heavy of a load and the shoulder drift anterior.

Lower Body Warm Up: Band Routine

Continuing with the previous post on our warm up, I have included some pics and vids of example our band warm up. Here is the schedule of our tasks on this day:
Roll-out/Tennis Ball
Hurdle Mobility- Lateral

Kneeling Psoas
We always incorporate a stretch for the hip flexor complex in hope to get better recruitment of the posterior musculature in the following activation drills.

"Squeeze glute, lean toward knee, Look at hand"

Wall V Stretch
This stretch is great to get a quality stretch of the adductors to really help open up the hips before a lower body session.

"Squeeze glutes, keep toes dorsi-flexed and pointed toward you"

After these stretches we get them set up in lines and give them a band for the specific band warm-up. These exercises are done in a controlled yet higher paced routine.

Straight Leg Lateral Walk x5 ea


"Legs straight, toes forward. Don't Sway"

Straight Leg Forward/Backward x5 ea


"Keep tension on band, don't lean forward"

Monster Walk Forward/Backward x5 ea


"Chest Up, Heel to toe, keep knees out"

Leg External Rotation x10


"Toes forward, Bring back slow, squeeze glutes to pull band!!"

Tall Marching x5 ea


"Stomach tight, Don't Bend at the waist, stay tall"

Dot Drill 4-6 movements 15-20 sec
Plyos
Movement Drills

One of the first comments I got from an athlete after doing this quick and simple routine was "Wow, My legs feel so...Free!" It is not uncommon to see the athletes moving their legs throughout the new found range of motion after activating many dormant muscles. Most of these movements are geared toward activation/strengthening of the glutes and psoas, essential muscles to help stabilize the athlete under loads during a lower body day.

As a promised earlier I have example videos and photos of the specific exercises we do in our Stick Routine. This is the the routine that takes place after our hurdle mobility prior to lower body days. Things to remember on day 1. Make sure you teach them proper position so that they know every time you cue them to get into position what it is. Use your resources to obtain the materials needed. We have PVC, Broomsticks, and cut up poll vaulting poles from the track team. Also use this time to take note of obvious movement patterns or stiff areas that may need attention too. If you notice that a majority of the athletes are having trouble keeping there heels down, maybe some extra ankle mobility work is needed and so forth. Also, if you are running a large group get an athlete with knowledgeable understanding of the drills to lead the counting and reps so that everyone is at the same pace.

ARM PLACEMENT: Place stick across head and place hands so that elbows are at a 90 degree angle. Press overhead with arms straight.



OH Squat w/ band around knees-2x15 sec hold in hole

(My Glutes Are Screaming Right Now!!)

T-Spine Rotations- 1x10 each

"Chest Out, Stomach/Glute tight, Knee Straight"

OH Squat w/ 1 sec pause in hole- X10

"Knees out, Arms straight, Spread floor w/ feet"

1 Legged Good Morning- X10

"Maintain neutral spine, Back leg straight"

OH Lunge W/ Alt Twist- X10 each

"Squeeze glute, knee straight, stomach tight"

Monster Walk- 5 Forward 5 Backward

"Big steps, Heel to Toe, Chest Out"

This is a stretch that we will perform on a box prior to this routine. It really frees up the hips and allows them to get into position much easier. We just set up plyo boxes for after the hurdle routine.

Lunge w/ Ext Rotation- 1x30sec each

"Stay tall, Back Leg Straight"

From here we go to ladder drills and then on to multi-directional speed drills. With the Hurdles, Stick Routine, and Movement Drills, it will take 12-15 minutes. We encourage our athletes to move through all the drills quickly yet under control. This routine does a great job at hitting the wide variety of movements, activation, and stretching that is required to get our athletes prepared for increased performances.

Team Warm Up-Lower Body 2 of 2: Stick Routine

As I clarified in my previous post, there are so many things that are important to address in order to establish quality movement prior to lifting and performance overall. With large groups or teams, utilizing your simple tools can reinforce proper posture and positioning while performing a wide array of movements without the need for constant cueing.

Speaking of cues, it can make you job much easier by teaching the desired position you want them in with the tool that you are using. For example, with the stick warm up, on the first day they performed it we established what we expected them to do during the movements. Basically arms straight, chest out, belly button in, and knee(s) out. So now every time we do this routine and they are told to get in position, they know exactly what that means and it takes care of having to constantly throw out cues. Here is a example of the routine.

Foam Roll
Stretch
Kneeling Psoas stretch 1x30 ea
Wall Adductor/Hamstring-Lie down, V Legs against wall, actively abduct legs
Hurdle Mobility Forward (Paired with Dynamic Stretch)
"Fish Hook"
Lead w/ R/L
Over/Under
"Grab Stick" aka Homemade cut up PVC and Dowels
OH squat w/ long pause in hole 2x15 sec
Kneeling t-spine Rotation x10 each
OH Squat w/ 1 sec pause x10 "Count out loud"
Single leg good mornings x10 ea
OH Lunge w/ twist x10ea
Monster Walk F/B x 5ea
Glute Bridge- x10 w/ 3 sec hold

From here we will again lead into or movement drills and then it is off to the iron game! You may have gotten the indication from the routine that I love counting reps out loud and them doing it in sync. This just avoids guys trying to slack off on a few reps because if they are not in sync with everyone they will stick out pretty easily. Also that these sticks were all homemade. We cut spare dowels, found old broomsticks and PVC that met the dimensions too. This way we were able to obtain more than enough sticks for large groups for nothing more than putting in extra time to make them and searching.

The thing I like most about this routine is that you can identify progress in mobility and keep weekly note of how there movement patterns are improving. Hope this serves as some help And I will have some video up with the two routines early next week which can help give a better picture at the constancy of the warm up and how easy it is to implement.

Moving better, Playing better.

Since implementing our warm up with the team, noticeable movement patterns have definitely exposed for need of some cleaning up. There are several key exercises that we implement in pre work and warm up to help shore up these patterns which will hopefully rid of us of dysfunctional movement.

In line-Lunge














This is great for identifying functional mobility of forward leg (hip flexion, ankle dorsiflexion). The dynamic stability can be identified in observing control of movement, knee stability, and there is a good balance component which will require adequate frontal plane stability.

Overhead Squat with Pause in hole














This is part of out "stick" warm up which we perform once per week. Basically, we do a series of movements with dowels after our rolling, hurdle mobility, and some other stretches/movement drills. The OHS gives me a great indicator on progress throughout the off season on several factors. From the bottom up your able to identify dorsiflexion, Foot position, hip ROM, Low back arch compared to thoracic, shoulder ROM, and whether the bear the load on one leg or the other. WOW, what a long list! But, you can expect that as this improves, it will indicate that a lot of mobility issues have panned out.

Standing Psoas March


















Cleaning up hip flexion will have a strong influence on avoiding many major compensation patterns. You may see TFL taking over via cramp, forward spinal flexion from overall weakness, and, using momentum generated from quad to achieve desired ROM. This can lead to low back pain and even quad strain/pull. A key point is making sure they are in perfect posture and cue the right muscles (stomach, psoas) in order to get the activation necessary.

These are 3 examples of exercises we use in some of our warm ups in order to not just prepare them for lifting or running, but to get them moving better in all aspects of function. It is holistic way of looking at improvement. If your athletes are feeling better throughout the day, the subjective readiness will be that much higher before even starting warm ups.

Integrating corective exercise into team training

In the previous post I mentioned how important it is to address stiffness/shortness as well as combating the faulty postures that accompany sitting in class all day long. One of the things I have to take into account is that we have around 100 athletes on the team and most have similar issues including stiff hip flexors, poor internal hip rotation, and stiff pec minors.

Ideally, every athlete would wake up, go through their stretching and activation routine, and repeat after workout. Well, that just doesn't happen. Although many do take the time to address there tissue quality and work on flexibility issues, a majority just don't. The simple solution to this is forcing them to do it as part of the workout.

Day 1 UB
Explosive
Snatch- Dumbbell 1 Arm

w/

Sumo Squat to Stand

Horizontal Push
Bench Press
Horizontal Pull- tri set
Heavy 1 Arm Row
w/
Cable Lift (also serves as active hip flexor stretch)
w/
90/90 stretch

Post Work circuit x2
Includes corrective and specific strengthening exercises for players
Regeneration
will address more specific stretches specific to player/position

Really it is as easy as filling there "rest" periods with quality time to address flexibility/mobility issues. Is it going to have a direct influence on gaining outstanding flexibility...no. But it isn't just about gaining flexibility/mobility, but it will help prevent them from loosing it. Some players have gone through a full evaluation already and are addressing length issue head on with more long duration and EQI stretches and have made a great difference. Even if the total time of the stretches is only 1.5 minutes or so per area it will go a long way as opposed to them not dedicating any time at all. We also address mobility and soft tissue in the warm up which I have posted previously allowing us to cover all areas. This was they are hitting these areas at least 4X per week. This is a great way to not have guys just floating around between sets and many times guys are not disciplined enough to just sit around and stretch at the end of workouts. This takes care of it!