It’s that time again, with the new year rolling in, it is the perfect time to set up new habits to help us maintain great mobility and help us with recovery. This month’s mobility we want to focus on the hamstrings, as well as shoulders to help improve the front rack position.
First we will start with the hamstrings, the hamstrings are comprised of 3 muscles: the biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus each of these muscles help with flexion in the knee, as well as help with hip extension. By doing the following hamstring mobility (mashing) you will feel immediate results which will help with optimal hamstring range of motion.
What you will need is a hard surface to sit on tall enough for your legs to hang freely, a resistance band, as well as lacrosse ball. Sitting on the box with your starting leg you will wrap the band around your midfoot allowing you to have complete control of your leg in your hands. We then place the lacrosse ball on the origin of the muscle group which is circled in red and begin extending our leg as well as flexing, after 10 to 15 reps we then adducting and abducting our leg (side to side) this will help break up any tight fascia tissue as well as loosen any knots. When you no longer feel pain in that area work the ball down an inch at a time until you get to the insertion point (circled in blue slightly above the back of the knee)
Next we will work on the upper body, specifically the external rotators of the shoulder. The muscles that comprise this movement are the rotator cuff as well as the posterior deltoid. We will lay on our side placing the ball right under our shoulder with our arm perpendicular to our body. With our elbow flexed we then try to bring our palm flat to the floor, then the back of our hand to the floor this is 1 repetition, try to get as far as you can in a slow and controlled manner giving yourself a slight pause at the end of range, continue to breath normally throughout the movement this will help those muscles relax increase range of motion. Get 50 reps then switch arms.
If you have any questions about either of these movements, ask a coach they will be more than happy to help! Good luck and Happy New Year!