Since Angie asked what I am doing for my hip ab- and adductors (and I couldn't find an e-mail addy on her page!!) I thought I'd do a quick post.
Let me preface it by saying that these were not my idea. Chris, my trainer, went to a session given by Dr. Reed Ferber of the Running Injury Clinic. Following that, two things happened. One, I got new (as in, more) exercises, including these cable extensions. Two, I went to Reed Ferber's session on injury prevention at the Running Symposium I attended in March and saw him speak for myself.
I was impressed with his knowledge, focus on research and what seemed like a good, solid, common sense approach. (And didn't Rob say common sense was sexy? Right on!)
Anyway, at my gym we have this thing called the Total Leg Machine. I'm sure it can subject its users to any variety of tortures, but my particular tortures are hip adductor extensions (4 sets of 10, per leg) -- as seen on this swanky website -- and hip abductor extensions (4 sets of 10, per leg) -- going in the opposite direction. Hence, the 80 reps a day, per leg.
The idea is to do them daily until you have worked up to 4 sets of 10 (which I have). From there, you start doing them without holding on to anything for support. So far, I can only do the last two of my four sets "hands free"... It's way harder than you'd think! Hint: You have to be careful to control the motion and not let momentum take over.
The result has been an incredible increase in stability, at times, very sore hips and glutes and the development of "thunder thighs"... surprisingly strong thunder thighs, I might add! (No, that is not an invitation for saucy comments, so don't even think about it!!) I just want to run again!
So there you go, Angie. Hope it helps!
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5 comments:
Nothing saucy from me... I've got too much 'common sense' for that.
So, $300. for the good Dr. to watch you walk/run? That's pretty stiff but probably worth it to someone who needs it.
aha! I wonder if my gym has those cables...looks pretty nifty.
I've always heard that you should give your muscles a full 48 hours of rest before working them again - did you find that working them every day still helped to develop the muscles?
Hi Sarah,
Good luck with these new exercises "thunder thighs", I may try them myself.
Janice~
Angie - I have heard the same thing, from various sources, so I asked Reed that very question at the end of his session. He said that the point is not to work the muscle to exhaustion (in other words, don't jack up the weight), but rather to re-train them on a daily basis.
I have to do my physio exercises every day (started as twice a day!), so I just consider this part of my physio routine now.
That's a lot of work! Good for you!
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