Strengthening/Flexibility Hips, Glutes, etc

Brad Marcus

I posted this topic on the dashboard looking to see if there was an old thread, and since it got the interest of a few of you, I figured we'd begin one here:


I made a promise to myself during training this season to use my "off-season" to strengthen hips, glutes and increase flexibility (especially in the hip flexors!) - all weak areas for me. Aside from a half-mary, and maybe an impromptu sprint, I am officially in the off-season and looking forward to my first full IM next year. I figured this was a good time to address the topic. Can anyone suggest, exercises/stretches, etc for this type of thing? I managed a relatively injury free season, but seems like most past problems seems to stem from tightness in the hips...at least for me. I also will beginning some yoga (a first for me) over the next week....figured it can't hurt!

Any comments/suggestions welcomed.

Satish Punna

I recently got the book " relax into stretch " from amazon and have found the lower body stretches to be really great, particularly the hip flexor stretch- my IT band is completely loose after this stretch, and I thnk this will help my patellofemoral issues. The author also has a 30 minute video on YouTube demonstrating all the stretches.

Nate Parady

Brad, you are absolutely thinking right here about focusing on these areas. After IMFL last year (2nd one), I recovered, then started running again. After two months of OS type work I got crushed by ITBS. My hips and glutes were not working at all. Lots of leg lifts, Clams, and work with bands and i am stronger than ever. Lots of core work too. All trying to stabalize my pelvis and remind my brain that I have glutes and hips to use while running.

My favorite exercieses involve a band tied around my ankles. You can buy these exercise bands at any sporting good store. Feet shoulder width apart, I slowly walk sideways down the hall with the band around my feet. Kind of like marching, feet together, feet apart. I then repeat this back the opposite direction.
With the band still around my legs I will stand on one leg and push or swing the opposite leg backwards. I feel it in both the leg swinging and the leg stabalizing me. You don't need a lot of tension with the bands to feel it. The clamb is where you lie on one side with your knees bent and feet together. You then open up your legs keeping your feet together. this is a killer at first.

You start to realize how many little ways you can work your hip and glute muscles. you also start to realize how these muscles aren't used as much as you think while running and biking which is what causes the imbalances and ultimately the injury.

I'm doing my best in the IM plan to do these exercises twice a week but its getting tough. Once my race is over, before I start training again, i will do this type of routine regularly before I even think about hard training.

This routine doesn't take me very long at all and I can do it while watching TV.

Scott Alexander

I started going to a PT this year, and she's led me through all the core/hip/glute stabilization progression - and it's noticeably worked in both bike and run.

From here on out, and thru the OS, we're adding/focusing on stretching too, because I'm gonna snap as I feel like an old leathery rubber band!

Peter Noyes

I do the stretches listed here every night:
http://phraktured.net/starting-stretching.html

I also foam roll my IT bands every night as well, and I also try to do it before/after every run if I can.

Since I started this routine I have been much more injury free (knock on wood)

tgarson

I've spent a small fortune working on core, hip and glute flexibility this season after getting knocked out of commission by ITBS.

Kind of hard to boil down my 'routine' because to be honest I haven't developed a great one yet on my own. I do well when my strength coach is yelling at me what to do and keeping me from bailing out, but my home routine is more scattered.

Suffice to say, I have a strong focus on stretching quad, hamstring, TFL and hip flexor. At home I do an absolute ton of band-walks (described above) but you with everything, form is very important so you will need to check out some videos if you can't have a PT or other qualified person coach you through. I do a lot of variations on single leg squats, a million different variety of lunges, many incorporating a box / elevated platform. Starting to chain together shorter very high rep work followed by plyometrics.

Again, just too hard to describe this stuff as I don't know the technical names for half of what I'm doing. I'd highly encourage looking into some one on one or group classes if there is anyone qualified in your area to help get the ball rolling.

Alternatively, for DIY I found this to be a pretty decent routine: http://scottproscia.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/beating-the-band/

Nate Parady

just to add one more thought:
I think its really the trifecta that is needed. Rolling, Stretching, and Strengthening. If you leave any one of those out you are destined to get injured at some point. IMO. I was a frequent stretcher and roller and was missing the strength part. Hip, Glute, and Core.

I also feel, that now that I've had a few injuries (tendonitis and ITBS), I am much more aware of the early warning signs. Looking back I should have never started those high intensity intervals post IMFL until my hips had losened up. I could fee/hearl the ITBs talking to me but wasn't that aware of what they were saying, so to speak.

If you stand on a stability ball and your knee wants to point in ward, that's a major indicator that you need to work on some hip and glute strength to stabalize your leg. After about 6 weeks of solid work doing these exercises I was able to pass the stability ball test.

cgres123

Core work in my house planks;side planks;bird dog and some ab work.

Brad Marcus

All great comments. Some of these have been suggested by the ART person that I go to when I'm sensing something is not right. He stresses proper warmup/cool down, stretching, rolling, as well as keeping the underutilized areas strong. Being a triathlete himself, I trust him, and it helps to hear similar ideas from you guys. Tomorrow will be my first go at Yoga. I'll be back with the report on that if I can walk afterwards.

MattAaronson

Until recently I did virtually no strengthening work other than when required by an injury and the consequent PT. About 12 weeks ago I started a run-only phase of traning for a marathon and decided to add some strengthening to prevent injury and to help me maintain running form when fatigued. My criteria was (a) no equipment and (b) limited time committment. I ended up with:

1. A set of "myrtle exercises". This is a lot of the glute medius stuff that is meant to prevent running injuries. I've worked my way up to doing this 5-6x per week. Two circuits of:
a. Clamshells - 25 reps each leg
b. Lateral leg raises - 15 reps each leg
c. Donkey kicks - 15 reps each leg
d. Fire hydrant OR knee circles - 15 reps each leg

It takes only 12 minutes to do the above circuit twice, so I really force myself to do it every day. I make sure to do the clamshells and the leg raises with my back and butt agaist a wall, so the movement is totally lateral and it isolates the muscles as well as can be done. There are more myrtle exercises you can do, check out the following video…the model demonstrating isn't tough on the eyes, either: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GLrKr54yA0

I agree that exercises with resistance bands can enhance the routine but I made my no-equipment criteria really firm. I need something I can do anywhere and without planning.

2. A set of core-strengthening exercises. Theoretically these are meant to increase your ability to hold together your running form late in long races. Time will tell if it works but I'm willing to try. I do these 3x per week. The ab stuff is painful even after 8 weeks of doing it so either I'm not making good progress or they are just difficult (although I have increased the reps and hold times of some of the exercises per the progression specified in the sources I got them from). Attention to the proper form when doing these is really important. Two circuits of:
a. Abdominal crunch - 20 reps
b. Leg pushaway - 20 reps…these are REALLY TOUGH if you do them right with no break in form, and really easy if you don't!
c. Staff - 6 reps of 5 sec
d. Single leg bridges - 3 reps of 15 sec per leg
e. Back extension - 5 reps of 10 sec
f. Side hover / side planks - 3 reps of 15 sec per side

The above takes 22 minutes in total and is a pain in the ass, but so far I've been able to maintain it.

IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE RIGHT FORM WHEN YOU DO THESE. BEST TO GET A TRAINER OR SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING TO INSTRUCT YOU!!

Overall I've decided I don't like doing these exercises at all. Not my thing. But I'm trying to give myself the best chance to run a good "one and done" marathon so will maintain these through October. If I think they are really additive then I'll probably continue a subset into the OS. Probably the myrtle exercises. Not sure about the core stuff which is more painful and of more questionable value IMO.

Btw, I didn't address the stretching / flexibility part of your question. Put simply, I don't stretch. I used to do some static stretching after workouts but got a hamstring injury in the 2011 OS and stretching really slowed the recovery. Ever since I haven't stretched at all. Strangely the last time I saw an ortho doc he said my flexibility was excellent. Go figure. Maybe it's genetic.

helen.king@invis.co.uk

On off the wall suggestion, especially in a tri forum that’s all about doing stuff, but you might want to try a bit of Alexander Technique style ‘constructive rest’. See http://alexandertechnique.com/constructiverest/constructiverest.pdf for a good description or http://bodylearningcast.com/constructiverest/ for lots of resources.

This isn’t going to help you strengthen the areas but it might help you relax them and increase flexibility without having to actually do anything. Taking Alexander Technique lessons is a long term commitment and I’m not sure it’s entirely compatible with triathlon but most people seem to get some benefit from doing 5-10 minutes constructive rest every day.

Nate Parady

in regards to Single Leg Bridges. A chiro I was working with had me do these. I would then alternate legs while my pelvis was still up in the air. he wanted to see my pelvis stabalized while I was switching legs. The first time I did this exercise my Hamstring locked up. This was all part of his plan to prove a point that I wasn't firing my glute muscles. After a few weeks I could do them all day long with no issues. Also practice pushing up, holding, now relax your hamstring and just use your glute. It took just as much mental energy to do these exercises as it did physical. it was linking the brain and body to use the glutes and hips which can become dominated by strong hamstrings and quads for folks who do Tris.

Reminds me, that i need to do more of these single leg bridges. That is a good one.

Matt's routine is pretty solid and no bands or anything required. I do like my band work. I keep my band in the dresser at home and will pull it out and do some work while my daughter is getting ready for bed.

new2703

@Helen. I think any activity that places an emphasis on body alignment is a good thing and will often make you stronger without doing a single butt squeeze etc. When planning on a off season conditioning program, we first need to think about what we are trying to accomplish and than how are we going to accomplish this. First order of business should be restoring symmetry of movement. We need to look at the body and the various joints and ensure that they are moving equally right to left and front to back. If they don't figure out why? Is it a muscle tightness issue or due to poor/ faulty muscle recruitment pattern. With asymmetries, we can never really have stability. You can do all the strengthening in the world but if movement patterns are asymmetrical eventually the body or area will break down. Spend some time this off season looking at body position. From head down to feet. Example stand up and move head forward and see what happens to the rest of the body in terms of positioning and also muscle tone. Do you have enough ankle mobility to allow the body to move correctly over the base of support? If you find that you are constantly having to stretch things out look to other areas that could be impacting that segment. Example, bad hip mobility can have an impact on knee mechanics and even ankle mobility. It can also impact the lumbar spine.

[Deleted User]

I am starting to incorporate a lot of TRX into my stretching/strengthening. I have their Legs and Hip workout as well as a TRX Hip Program I found online from Dynamic Sports PT. Between that, rolling, massage, and ice hopefully I will be much looser for the Out Season.

--Larry