Exercise of the Month:
Lunge and Twist with Medicine Ball

Lunges with twists are a tremendous exercise to work your legs, glutes, obliques, core and overall stabilization. The twisting motion of your upper body will challenge your lower body stabilization. Using a medicine ball in your workouts can help you train for explosive power, strength, stabilization and balance for you entire body.

Starting position
Begin this exercise by standing upright while holding the medicine ball out front of you just below chest level. Your elbows should not be locked.

Action
Step forward with one leg and lower your body to 90 degrees at both knees. Do not let your knees go past your toes. Your thigh should be parallel to the floor now. As you step forward, rotate your torso to the same side you step to (right leg forward, and then twist to right) with the ball. Keep arms straight in front of you. Push back to an upright position with your forward leg and bring arms back to the center of your body.

Try doing 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions for each leg. As you progress use a heavier weight of medicine ball.

Muscles worked:

• Glutes
• Quads
• Abdominals
• Lats
• Obliques
• Deltoids

Additional benefits:

• Improved flexibility
• Improved balance and proprioception
• Spinal and lumbopelvic stabilization
   

Sterling Physical Therapy 4K

Join Us Saturday, August 8
for the Knoxville Nationals 1/3 Marathon  and Sterling Physical Therapy 4K... presented by Pella Rolscreen Foundation.

Knoxville Dollars for Scholars site has more information about registration, course map, and race results.

Unconventional Strength and Endurance Training for Athletes

It can be easy to get bored with any training program, especially during the summer months when school is out and many athletes focus on their pre-season training. When programs become stale and predictable, athletes can often become complacent with their training, giving less than 100% effort. It can also lead to the body adapting to the training program, leading to plateaus in strength gains and endurance. Here are a few unconventional training ideas to help improve strength and endurance, but most of all, add fun to any training program.

Tire Flips:
Flipping an old tractor tire is a great way to build leg and lower back strength. Tractor tires can weigh any where from 200 lbs. to 600 lbs. Athletes can flip the tires up an incline for added resistance or stand on either side of the tire, pushing back and forth, which can help develop upper body power.

Sledge Hammer Swings:
Sledge hammers can be a way to develop core strength and stability. Workouts with a sledge hammer can be done a couple of different ways. Athletes can work on generating force by swinging the hammer into a rubber surface (like a tractor tire), or they can work on resisting momentum by performing acceleration and deceleration movement patterns.

Sandbag Carries:
Fill a sandbag with as much sand as needed. Having a wide range of weights will help ensure every athlete will be able to get a good workout. Athletes can drape the bags across their shoulders and perform several movement patterns such as lunges, stair climbs, vertical jumps and straight ahead running. Perform this exercise in a group setting and make a relay race out of it.

Car Pushes:
This is as simple as it sounds. Find a car, put it in neutral and push it across an open parking lot with another person inside steering and controlling the brake. This will help improve lower body strength, power and endurance. Pick a distance and have someone time the push. That way you can keep track of improvements.

While these are only a few examples of unconventional training ideas, there are several others. A training program should always be functional to allow them to improve on their sport in which they are participating, and most of all, a training program should be fun!