Using Resets to Help Our Core Training Program

I have always believed in having our athletes perform activation exercises to “turn on” muscles with the intention of preventing injuries. During our off-season workouts, we will always perform an activation exercise for our hip extensors, abductors, and flexors immediately after foam rolling. Exercises such as glute bridges, straight leg abductions, and hip flexions for 1 set of 10 reps each have always been in our program.

We perform activation exercises for a few reasons. 1- I feel that exercises such as glute bridges are a necessity for us. The glutes are the most powerful hip extensors and we will continue to glute bridge (both double and single leg) to ensure that our players are utilizing their glutes to produce extension. 2- Facilitating hip abductor and rotator muscles can help patella-femoral issues. 3-The psoas and illiacus are important for movement and stabilization of the hip and lumbar spine when our athletes skate and run. 4- The time that is taken to perform these exercises is less than 5 minutes which helps from a time management perspective.

There are many positives for the continuation of activation exercises. However, we always have to investigate better ways to properly train our players. With activation exercises, I am guilty of thinking that there are always positive benefits to the exercises versus questioning if they actually work. One question that I ask myself is -Why are some of our athletes performing the same looking repetitions at the beginning of the set of exercises? For example, why can't they extend their hips fully when we start a set of glute bridges? It doesn't make sense because we are doing them daily and we are constantly coaching proper technique. If we are performing activation exercises on a daily basis, then why do we still have to constantly do them? I understand and agree with the quote “If it is important, then do it every day”, but sometimes I feel like we are just going through the motions and not getting the results that we should be getting.

We use the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) as our method of assessing movement and asymmetries between right and left limbs. We have embraced the system and have seen positive changes with the correction of our athletes' scores. The reason why I mention the FMS is because a big reason why the corrective exercises create positive changes is because we are using our reflexive core during some of the corrective exercise prescriptions. (We could also use the terms soft core, inner unit, or intrinsic stabilizers). We were learning to “activate” or use our reflexive core before and during the repetitions of the corrective exercises.

We were all born with the ability to move through a proper sequence of movement. When we were babies, our reflexive core was the first part of our body that worked to allow us to move. Automatically, our brain turned on our core before we rolled onto our stomach, before we lifted our head, before we crawled, before we squatted, etc. Somehow, most of us have lost the ability to move like the way we did when we were children. What has happened? I think as a society, we have stopped moving. It's not hard to figure it out when you just look around. There is way more sitting and less moving.

While we move less over time, the ability to move like we once did can become lost. We forget what it's like to move when we were younger. However, we still need to move to get around. As a result we become movement compensators. We figure out ways to move because we have lost the correct strategy. We haven't done enough moving to sustain our proper patterns. As a result, we become tight and stiff in joints because of overcompensation.

So, what does this have to do with core activation exercises? If we are movement compensators, then when we perform our activation exercises, we are just becoming better compensators. We need to get to the root of the problem which is removing the compensations, moving better, and then adding our activation exercises to help prevent injury.

I was very intrigued when I read the book Becoming Bulletproof by Tim Anderson and Mike McNiff (1). In this book, the authors talk about how we can become better movers and activate our reflexive core by initiating a series of exercises that look a lot like the ways that we moved when we were babies. These exercises are called “Resets”. By performing these resets, we can activate our reflexive core and help reset movement. To me, this is brilliant. The authors recommend performing the resets throughout the whole entire day to combat the daily habits and routines that involve sitting and/or doing anything else with bad posture. This has been what I have been looking for- A way to way to turn on our reflexive core prior to doing anything else in our training sessions.

Why I really like the concepts that Tim and Mike talk about is because the resets can be applied in the group setting. These are exercises that anyone can do- regardless of an athletes' FMS score. The authors mentioned in the book how performing the resets can in fact improve someone's FMS. These are similar to the concepts advocated by Gray Cook, Lee Burton, and Brett Jones in the DVD “Secrets of Primitive Patterns”.

Part of my role as a Strength and Conditioning Coach is applying principles in a group/team setting. In this instance, my thought is why not perform reset progressions on a daily basis to get better results from not only activation exercises, but movement in general. If we are going to perform exercises like rolling and crawling to correct FMS scores, then why not perform these exercises with everyone to make sure that the FMS scores are better and help ensure us with durable athletes who move better?

In the offseason, my plan is to add the resets to the program immediately after foam rolling and prior to our core activation exercises.

Cross Crawling- The authors mention in the book about crossing midline with their arms and legs. We will start with a lying down version. We will then progress to a seated version. We will then progress to standing. Then we will progress to standing with eyes closed.

Rolling- Rolling is an exercise progression that has been successful for us in correcting rotary stability scores. Rolling has been a positive addition to our program. We have always used rolling patterns in our rotary stability screen corrections but I know believe that everyone should roll- even if our players can demonstrate 3's on both sides.

Rocking- rocking is a movement that I thought wouldn't work in my environment. However, I must say that our players embraced it. When you show them a movement that helps them and shows them results, buy in is better. Please remember that my clientele are men between the ages of 18 -42.

Crawling- Crawling is a movement that I am looking forward to incorporating during the off-season. Our space doesn't allow for us to use crawling the way I would like. We will use quadruped variations but we won't actually crawl.

Currently, we use the progressions in our in-season program. I have not had the opportunity to use them yet in an off-season. What I have seen is our players move better in their sets of resets. For example, their rolling looks better and rocking looks more fluid as we continue to use them consistently. There are a few players who have added them to their own pre-game routines. I am excited to see how the resets can help us for the rest of the season.

(1) Anderson, T and McNiff, M. (2011). Becoming Bulletproof; An Uncommon Approach to Building a Resilient Body. Retrieved from Apple IBooks.