Category Archives: Injury Prevention
Reach your highest athletic potential with periodization training
What is the secret to training to avoid injury and peak when it counts? The answer is periodization. Russian physiologist Leo Metveyev and Romanian sport scientist Tudor Bompa have been regarded as the fathers of modern periodization. To train and compete at the best of your ability, and to do it with the least amount of injury, fatigue and worry, nothing compares to Periodization.
This stair-step training plan ramps your training up safely and leaves you primed to fly. If you just want to stay in shape and don’t care about getting faster or losing large chunks of time to nagging injuries, then continue to train without a plan. But if you want to improve your fitness, stop getting injured, and give yourself the best chance to reach your highest athletic potential, listen to Be at your Peak when it Counts. Join Dr. Ivan Huergo and Robert Forster as they discuss strategies for you to resolve pain, improve sport performance, and help you move through life with strength and confidence.
In 1980, Robert Forster started his physical therapy business with a single client who would be later known throughout the world for her Olympic gold medal achievements- Florence Griffith Joyner. Working with dozens of Olympic medalists, US Open & Wimbledon champions, NBA superstars and triathlon world record holders, Forster encountered countless ill-advised and erroneous training programs that actually caused injury, and didn’t result in improvement.
Robert Forster developed the 24 Fit Workout
Listen to the introduction, then Robert Forster contribution starts at 10.05
Shoulder Stabilisation Exercises
The shoulder has the greatest range of movement of any joint in the body, which explains why injuries to the shoulder are the most common in sports.
Maybe interesting to see how the shoulder works before addressing the preventative measures. It’s an elegant piece of machinery where hundreds of little muscles and tendons come together and attach and interact with each other.
The bottom line for those injuries is the best way to prevent them is by creating the correct posture for the shoulder joint, which means strengthening and stretching the muscles around your shoulder to prevent injury to the joint.
Simple stretching and light weightlifting you can avoid rotator cuff problems.
“Strengthening the four rotator cuff muscles that stabilise it is critical. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy says physical therapist Robert Forster ” the cuff gets little blood flow and is invisible to the naked eye, so its ignored, under strengthened compared to the glamorous muscles and subject to tears!”
Shoulder Stabilization Exercises
Phase 1 of the 24 Fit workout is about establishing stability throughout every part of your body. That’s Spine and Pelvic Stabilization, Shoulder Stabilization and Total Body Integration. This involves the use of light weights and other exercises, which cane be done at home to strengthen all the little “helper muscles” around the joints, which, along with a lot of stretching insures that each joint is functioning properly. This phase prepares the body for the more strenuous work to come later in the training cycle. What Robert Forster calls making his runners “bullet proof” or “Kevlar Training” so that they don’t breakdown during training.
Strength Training & Injury Prevention for Runners & Triathletes
A scientifically designed strength & flexibility program is essential to proper bio-mechanics which translates into efficiency (speed), resiliency (injury prevention), and enjoyment (less strain). Learn the secrets we have used for our professional and recreational runners for 30 years to improve performance and protect joints.
Everyone needs to weight train and you are not too young or old to start now! Even if you have no specific performance goals please consider these too hard facts of aging:
Osteoporosis: It’s not just a woman’s disease. All of us need a sound strength training program to maintain bone mass as we age. One out of every two women and one in four men over fifty will suffer an osteoporosis related fracture in their lifetime!
Sarcopenia: You may not have heard of but you will. Sarcopenia is defined as the loss of muscle mass as we age and it has serious implications for your health. Men loose one pound of muscle per year after the age of fifty, women slightly less but it is a significant factor in weight gain and associated diseases later in life as muscle burns more calories than other tissues and helps us to stay lean!!
