Guest Blog: Soccer Butts - why the glutes are vital to a footballer and any other athlete

YOU'D PERHAPS be surprised to learn the identity of the body's most powerful muscle group, which drives good function on the footy pitch.

'I know the title of this article is a little tongue in cheek (excuse the pun) but I thought: What better time is there to talk about the most powerful muscle groups in the body and the powerhouses that drive good function and football performance.

'As you probably have guessed, the term "soccer butts" refers to the large and powerful muscles that make up the glutes (gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, piriformis and the hamstrings) or as we like to call them"The Back Butt".

'The Back Butt I hear you say? Surely we only have one butt. Right? Well maybe not. As a very general rule if we can think of the muscles in the back butt as the ones that control hip flexion, it would make sense to also have a "Front Butt" made up of the muscles that look after hip extension(hip flexors, hip adductors, TFL, quads).

'I think I have mentioned this in some of my previous articles, but when we look at the function of the human body it is made up of bullies and the bullied.

'What I mean by this is that there are areas of the body that commonly display poor functional movement but rarely get injured themselves or display pain symptoms as a result.

'We call these the bully areas or bullies and predominantly they are the feet, the hips and the thoracic spine. Many of you reading this are probably thinking I know loads of people who have hip pain or foot pain, but I bet you know way more people that have or have experienced lower back pain (lumbar pain), shoulder pain, knee pain or shin splints.

'These are the bullied areas of the body that often pick up the slack and develop pain symptoms because of the poor function of one or more of the bully zones.

The hips are certainly one of  the most prevalent causes of pain and dysfunction in the human body. 'They yield a massive amount of power and directly influence how effective your abdominal muscles are, what goes on at the knee joint, at your feet and even what happens in the shoulder.

'The relationship between the muscles of the front and back butts and the rest of the body is a very complex one. Maybe a little too complex to go into here, but rest assured that training your butts in the correct way for football and other sports will not only improve your speed, power, balance, agility and strength, but also vastly limit the amount of injuries you will pick up during a season.

'For fans of Adam Sandler movies like me, you will probably be familiar the film Happy Gilmore and the favourite saying of his golf coach in the movie Chubbs (Apollo Creed) "It's all in the hips".

'In terms of human movement, no truer word has ever been spoken, take a look at the video below and enjoy trying out the exercises. They are designed to target successful hip motion and stability for better sporting function. Hopefully you can persuade your coaches and trainers to include them in your pre-season fitness regimes and warm ups.

Look out for part two in the Football Butts series where I will share some of the more intense techniques that will help you become faster fitter and stronger for next season. You never know, it could help you win the league next year.

As usual, I would love to answer any questions you may have or even just hear your thoughts on the article so please feel free to drop me an email:
darren@synergyhealthstudios.co.uk

Or simply leave a comment blow and I will get back to you as soon as I can

I am as always looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Yours in better function, Darren

The Hamstrings: Why they get injured and what they are really meant to do.

I originally wrote this post a little while ago, while footballer Jack Rodwell was still playing for Everton. Since then,  there have been a few changes in Jack's career, most notably, a big money move to Manchester City. What has not changed however is the recurring hamstring injuries he is continuing to suffer from. Even a trip to the famous rehab  specialist Dr Müller-Wohlfahrt has not helped. Looks like the physio and rehab specialists at both Man City and Everton have not read my blog yet. The real shame is however, that these types of injuries are still all too common in football as well as other team sports, players are being continually let down by rehab, medical and conditioning staff who still have a very old school idea of what the hamstrings do during a football match or upright function in general.

So with these injuries fresh in the minds of all football fans on Merseyside, Manchester and the whole of the UK, maybe this is an ideal time to repost this blog and share with you some of the thoughts and ideas on how we might look and aim to treat a hamstring injuries and ultimately prevent them from reoccurring.

In order for us to prevent or treat a hamstring injury, we need to know what the muscle does. Throughout my university degree and personal training and sports injury therapy courses I was taught that the main job of the hamstrings is to flex the knee joint.

Although this is true when sitting or lying down, when walking, running or playing football THE HAMSTRING DO NOT FLEX THE KNEE! In fact, they do the exact opposite and act as knee extensor; it's actually gravity that flexes the knee and not our hamstrings.

In the video below Gary Gray mentions that the hamstrings are probably the most important muscle in human locomotion, they are responsible for decelerating motion in every plane, during every step, twist or turn.

As I have mentioned in the last article in the series, just like the knee, the hamstring are also an area that gets bullied and has to pick up the slack to help out other muscles and joints around them that are not functioning the way they should.

So with this in mind then, in the case of Jack Rodwell it would be a good idea to start looking at other areas of the body that may be working sub-optimally and putting the hamstrings under greater stress to increase injury risk in this area.

During the video Gary mentions, problems with foot, hip or thoracic spine function will put extra pressure on the hamstrings and possibly make a player more venerable and increase the risk of hamstring injuries.

I apologise for the complex answer, but while researching this article I came across this amazing video by a highly qualified Physiotherapist and "The Father of Function" Gary Gray, who explains this a lot more eloquently than I ever could:

So now we have a slightly better understanding of what the hamstrings actually do and what could potentially cause a hamstring injury, below are my top tips on what you should and should not be doing to help rehab and condition your hamstrings and prevent injuries:

* The hamstrings DO NOT flex the knee so get off those leg curl machines; they will only make the muscle shorter and tighter, actually de-conditioning the muscle for football.

* Avoid static or PNF stretching. There are no scenarios on a football field where you have to hold your muscles in an extended state for any length of time. In fact, recent evidence suggests that stretching your muscles in this way might de-train the nervous system and limit the ability of your muscles to load effectively and pull you out of a dangerous situation.
Dynamic stretching is much more effective: Moving your muscles into a lengthened state and coming straight back out of the movement prepares them much better for the demands of football.

Check out the video in my running blog (click here) these dymanic mobility exercises are designed for running but can be easily tweaked and adapted to help football players and participants of other sports

* Train as specific as possible to football. Come away from machines or any device that puts artificial loads on the body. As a basic rule free weights are better as they will load your muscles more closely to how they work on the field.

* Move in all three planes at a variety of speeds. Football is a multi-planer, dynamic game that is not played in straight lines. Your training should involve twisting, turning and side to side movements that stress the hamstring in ways it would be stressed during a match. Where possible try to make these movements as reactive and random as you can.

I hope you enjoyed the article guys. As always, please leave a comment to tell me what you think or alternatively, please contact me by email: darren@synergyhealthstudios.co.uk, or Phone: 07834616197 with any questions or queries you may have.

Preventing sporting Injuries Taking a look at the knee: Part 2

Hi everyone, welcome back to my preventing injuries and bullet proofing your body for sport series. This time we are revisiting the knee and I have teamed up with Ben Woolley our Head Physiotherapist at Synergy Health Studios. Myself and Ben have created a great video showing you fantastic technique to help rehab knee injuries and help prevent them from occurring in the first place. As promised in my previous article (Taking a look at the knee part 1: click here) the video provides a practical example of a technique we would incorporate into our rehab and conditioning sessions to help improve the function and stability of the knee.

Remember though guys, you don’t want to be training through pain so if any of the techniques in the video hurt more than a dull ache then you need to see a professional therapist for some bespoke help.

I hope you enjoy the video and please feel free to leave a comment to let us know how you got on with the exercises or to ask further questions regarding injury treatment or training for better function. Also, feel free to email me at darren@synergyhealthstudios.co.uk regarding anything you do not want to share publicly.

Thanks again for following my posts, keep an eye out for future articles and more great information regarding functional training and rehab!