Catch your interest?
Type II Diabetes is characterized by low insulin sensitivity and is largely the result of a diet packed full of simple sugars and a lifestyle of inactivity.
Take home message: It’s completely preventable!
Hockey-related hip injuries are usually the result of under-preparation or overuse.
Take home message: They’re almost completely preventable. I say almost because there’s always a possibility of a collision-related injury, which are harder to protect against (on the upside-you’re unlikely to have a high-speed collision give you type II diabetes, which is more likely to kill you than a hip injury).
I’ve spent the last month outlining exactly how I screen/assess and train hockey players to prevent hip injuries on my site. In my experience, most athletes/coaches simply don’t have the time or patience to go through an in-depth assessment of everything, which I completely understand. There are a couple things that are easily implementable in both an individual and team setting that will definitely help prevent hip injuries:
1) A 10-minute dynamic warm-up before every practice, game, and training session. In general, most hockey players will benefit from exercises that lengthen the hip flexors, activate the glutes, and involve multi-directional movement. Lunge variations are my favorite warm-up exercise, as they serve all the above purposes well.
2) Core stability training. Planks and bridges are relatively easy to master, simple to coach, and do a lot in the prevention of hip, lower abdominal, and lower back injuries. Most hockey players take several dozen shots every practice. Think about this regarding the number of repetitions in that pattern of rotation. This can lead to an imbalance among the anti-rotators, notably the obliques. As a result, many athletes may find that performing a side plank is more difficult on one side than the other. If this is the case, it’s better to perform more sets on the weaker side. Sometimes unbalanced programming is the best way to create balance.
As a shameless pitch, I’ve spent a lot of time and effort to detail appropriate warm-up and core training exercises and progressions in my new Off-Ice Performance Training Course. I honestly believe it’s the best resource for youth players and coaches that are looking to take their off-ice training to the next level. There’s no better time to invest in your development than today…