A little jumping to help with your reaction time

An easy exercise to do to help with your reaction time (quickness) is a simple Hop Hop Hop Land exercise. Take a hip width stance. Be relaxed in your ankles, knees and hips. Stay neutral in pelvis/low back. Now jump just high enough so your whole foot leaves the ground 3 times, make sure you land with little or no sound at all. After the third "hop" land softy in a half squat. Repeat 5 to 10 times. You may use an arm swing if you like. This is a good exercise to reintroduce you to jumping if you've had to take time off due to an injury.

Another back friendly skiing exercise

Here is a great exercise to practise your good spinal hygiene. Try single leg Romanian Deadlifts. First stand with your feet together. Next reach for a stable object like the back of a chair or anything about hip to waist high. The way you reach is to take one foot off of the ground while you flex at your hip and reach with the opposite hand. The foot/leg your not standing on swings gently backward staying in a straight line with the hand your reaching with. Try one set and 8 reps at first and you can work up to 3 or 4 set of 20 without any added weight. You should feel this in the hip(glute) of the leg your standing on. Good luck!

Movements (exercises) to help your skiing

Hopefully you have started stretching or Foam Rolling and now it's time to choose some movements that will help your skiing without bothering your back. The first movement I would try would be a low step up. Start with a step between "3 to "6 inches high. Either have your hands behind your head (hardest) on your hips or free to use for balance. Next facing the step, place one foot on the step with the foot pointing straight ahead. Putting a little more weight on the heel, try to drive the foot through the step as you lift the other foot off of the ground placing this foot next to the one on the step. To step back down reverse this movement trying not to fall down but rather lowering yourself down slowly. Try to work up to 4 sets of 20 reps with no weight to start and keep your rest time as little as possible. Stay tuned for more training tips!

Now a word from our sponsor!

Attention skiers NOW is the time to start training for the upcoming ski season! Those of you with back issues remember the first thing you lose when you quit training is flexibility. For a healthy low back that means hip flexibility and low back stability. Say tuned for more insights.

It's been too long part 2 or some numbers

I'm unloading this week but last week my back squat was 190lbs x 10)3, Deadlift off of 3" blocks 165 x 10)3, none of which was that hard.

It's been too long...

Well all is well with the back and the knee is getting better. Played indoors Saturday night and Sunday at the beach (San Onofre). Last week of September or first week of October I started a basic Hypertrophy phase that I will cycle until about the second week in January. What I hope to gain is primary tissue integrity. I'm still doing my AT for my back and knee before I lift. Please let me know if I can answer any questions you may have about low back rehab or training. Talk to you soon!

Phase II

On Tuesday and Thursday of last week I did some light squat snatches and squat cleans. They felt great! Also I'm up to a 20" box for box jumps. Everyday I see a little more of my knee cap, so I'm happy.