The Core & Athletic Performance

When a person sleeps at night, osmotic pressure causes the discs to expand. This decreases lumbar flexion by about 5 degrees.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The deep stabilizers have multiple functions within the body. Firstly they must co-contract to secure spine stability but secondly and just as importantly, they must assist in elevated breathing.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

1. Begin the training session with flexion-extension cycles, also known as the cat-camel exercise. This reduces spine viscosity.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

A healthy performing body depends on correct function of the pelvis and hips to stabilize the spine, avoid disc herniation and prevent lower back pain. The various muscles surrounding the hips and pelvis have multiple functions.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The side bridge is an outstanding exercise to challenge the major stabilizers of the abdominal obliques, latissimus dorsi and quadratus lumborum, while sparing the spine from high loads.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Because the intra abdominal cavity contains mainly liquid and viscous material, it can be considered an element that can transmit forces from the muscles surrounding the cavity to the supporting structures of the core.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Many people with bad backs are programmed back and core exercises that exceed the capacity of their damaged/weak tissues.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The crossed pelvis syndrome is the result of muscle strength imbalances in the lower body and may be one such cause of back pain and impaired athletic performance.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Isometric contraction requires a muscle to increase its force from rest to a maximum or sub maximum value over a given time, to sustain this force for another set interval and then to decrease this force to rest. You may distinguish between explosive isometrics, which requires rapid acceleration upto the maximum force value and slow isometrics with a much longer onset to maximum force.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

1. Introductory Mesocycle. This type of mesocycle starts a Macrocycle. Normally it contains two to three general preparation cycles and one restoration microcycle.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Below are six considerations that affect success in training and competition: 1) Health - Health dictates the athlete’s mood toward training

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Mental training - also called imagery training or emotional self control, is used in an athletes sport specific preparation and throughout the competition period.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Tactical training includes developing tactical thinking, mastering the theoretical basis of tactics, becoming proficient in the practical tactics including their variations and learning about opponents.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The purpose of technical training is to learn and improve the technique for competition and training actions. Technical training can be separated into general, directed and sport specific technical training.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

There are 3 pre competition emotional states - readiness, anxiety and apathy. These emotional states are related and correspond with levels of arousal - optimal for the exercise, too high and too low.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Agility is the ability to perform precisely coordinated, fluid changes of whole body movements quickly. It is a combination of coordination, power and speed whilst also an expression of the mobility of the central nervous system.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Coordination is developed by learning new and varied exercises and by performing familiar exercises in new conditions. When learning new coordination exercises, the athlete should not aim for perfection but for basic proficiency in the general technique of the exercise.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The qualities of a strong will are such characteristics as discipline, purposefulness, self-sufficiency, initiative, self-control, confidence, perseverance, decisiveness and courage.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Sports training affects every aspect of an athlete - The skills, physical abilities and psychological characteristics. Psychological training is required for developing an enhanced level of competitive form as well as for improving physical abilities.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Exposure to a cold environment has extreme effects on many features of the human response to exercise. It brings about changes in the lungs, heart, blood vessels, muscles, nerves, rate of metabolism and the functioning of brown fat.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Training and Competitions in hot environments offer an additional challenge to athletes as heat dissipation becomes a limiting factor for performance.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The Effectiveness of altitude training for a particular athlete depends on many factors, including genetics, training status, total physical and mental stress, diet and recovery.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Sport Specific Strength Training has to develop the exact type of strength of the muscles that dictates technical proficiency in a given sport

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Since bones are living tissues, they have the capacity to adapt their structure and mechanical properties to the functional demands of the whole body.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

During the general preparation period, the job of strength training is to regain and surpass the level of general strength from the previous season.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Jumping capacity is an expression of explosive strength in the form of a jump. Other expressions of explosive strength include martial arts kicks and punches, or the action of the arm in javelin.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Certain sports can be used during the off-season or preparation periods as a method of recovery or improving certain qualities such as fine motor control or explosiveness.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Some of the most important aspects for establishing sport specific training are: 1) Sports training should be a year round and multi year procedure.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Performance improvement in endurance sports is associated with expanding the potential to utilize aerobic sources of energy by raising the onset of blood lactate accumulation (the level of oxygen use at which the anaerobic systems begin to trigger).

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones