Rehab and Stretching

It is impossible to train hard and never run the risk of some kind of injury. Those who tell you that they have never at some point in sport or training injured themselves have never likely pushed the limits of what their bodies are capable of. Soft tissue damage is par for the course when your training or activity load starts to get into the triple digits in a given month. On the other end of the spectrum you have those who fitness does not match their drive, and the result is the same. Injuries that slow progress and limit capacity. Most people either end up waiting injuries out and missing essential training time, or caught up doing routine exercises prescibed by physios who hope that doing more work is going to solve an issue of an overworked muscle. In the worst of cases we see doctors blindly prescribing surgery to alleviate pain in soft tissue, with the result being that the underlying problem is never dealt with. Enter the new world of soft tissue work. This page is dedicated to the stuff we do before and after training to keep our bodies in the shape they need to be to deal with high training loads. If there is something you remember seeing but can't find just drop us an email at info@irrationalfitness.com and we will see if we can get you access to it.

Elbow Pain - Triceps

So here is a quick clip on rolling out the triceps. These mighty muscles have a great capacity for causing elbow pain [read: tennis elbow], and are often hard to properly stretch. Prior to stretching it is a good idea to start in with some rolling of the muscle. Once that is done we can move on to some active stretches for getting that tricep working properly.

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Foam Rolling and Ball Work

Soft tissue work at its most basic. This is a quick video that is going up to ensure that the dinos get the information they need so they can quit winging about being sore. If I get a chance I will get a full write up together for this series on stretching and foam rolling. This deserves some high quality video and some actual explanations on what it is that I am doing this for. For the time being, follow the carny. Look for sore and tender points and try and "iron" them out with a roller or a ball. I find that a hard ball works better than a soft one, though some give in it is essential. A hard hockey ball, or a soft ball (think baseball) work quite well, and I am quite fond of super bouncy balls.

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Some Basic Static Stretching

This is the kind of stuff that you should be following up your training with. This should also be done after practice, and really if you want to see some real improvements you should be doing this every day either in the morning or the evening. Most people are going to only see minimal gains with passive stretching, though this is the item that should be the mainstay post workout. The big ticket item for improving flexibility is most definitely PNF (proprioseptive neuromuscluar facilitation) stretching. I mention this briefly at the beginning when I mention generating tension in the muscles, or the opposing muscles of what you intend to stretch. This is a topic that is going to require decent audio to actually explain. Again something that will happen when I discover more time, if there is enough demand we'll do some PNF related stuff in the next couple weeks.

In terms of things to watch for with these stretches. Spend time in them and remember to breathe, muscles will relax if you don't push it too far and let your body relax. This might mean you don't go very deep into your stretches to start with, and it might take a while to relax, but it will be worth the wait.
Other than that, tensing the muscle that is tight and then relaxing it provides the basics of PNF, feel free to toss in some of that with really stubborn muscle groups. Just generate some extra tension, hold it for a bit, and then when you relax see if you can go any farther into the stretch.
On the whole it is usually best to start with small muscle groups and work to bigger ones, I know I do my calves after already doing my hamstrings but lets not argue about why I do that.

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