5 WAYS TO SAVE RAFA NADAL Part 2

Do the Hokey Pokey…and move it all about.

 In my last post I talked about the importance of doing a complete functional movement screen and looking at movement as a whole (rather than looking at separate body parts under a microscope)…Now let’s have Rafa change his warm up routine.

The only warm-up I have seen Rafa doing is a series of internal and external shoulder rotation exercises.  He also does his signature on court after the ball toss:  a few plyo jumps at the net, and then a sprint to the baseline.  I am sure he does a lot more than that before the match, or before practice…or does he?

Here is a short video from 2010 of about 1 min of a warmup. And another even shorter warm-up from 2012...I hope he moved a bit prior to that. 

According to the Wall Street Journal in 2010  “The state of the Spaniard’s knees dictates a lot of the training. Instead Mr. Nadal prefers high-impact aerobic work. In the weights room he does compensation work for his arms and back…You have to work on hip strength, particularly on clay when points on last longer," says Mr. Forcades. "Resistance is very important and we have to improve Rafa's recovery time."

The article then adds that “several hours of stretching is a very important part of the daily routine both as a warm up, an exercise in itself and then recovery.”

The protocols above confuse me…but here is my suggestion: more movement-oriented mobility work and less static stretching.  Yesterday in fact, the famous team of Andre Agassi and Coach Gil Reyes (@AgassiandReyes) tweeted a short video of a football team doing what they called “the perfect stretch”.  It is the perfect combo of joint mobility work, rotation and flexibility. 

So, why is pre-workout mobility work so important?  Studies within the past few years have proven that static stretching prior to an activity actually decreases performance. Mobility work increases your range of motion, allowing your muscles to work safely and more efficiently; mobility warm-ups can also increase circulation and prevent injury and dysfunction.

As you will see in my next post (#3 in this series), the internal structure of our bodies is comprised of a series of “train tracks” that connect ligament to muscle to joint/bone…these long tracks are called myofascial lines.   These myofascial lines are long tracks, true…there are connections that run from the sole of your foot through your hamstrings, low-back all the way up to the crown of your head! 

From:  http://www.bsmpg.com/Blog/bid/93350/The-Plantar-Fascia-Look-Beyond-The-Point-of-Pain

Because of these intricate connections if you have lack of mobility in one joint, it can affect a host of other things.  If you are not mobile in the ankle,   it can throw off your knee, or hip movement.  If you are immobile in your hip, compensation or injury can occur anywhere down your leg.  The knees…stuck in the middle, of the track going up OR down, take the lion’s share. 

Immobility anywhere on the train tracks is how injuries can start.  Here are a few ways to work on your mobility: 

 1.    Foam roll, SMR and Trigger Point therapy—see blog post, November 8 2014

2.    Warm-up the core—prone scorpions or, lunges with gentle rotation, or "the perfect stretch" I mentioned above.

3.    Do some sequenced hip, chest/shoulder and spinal mobility-squat demo here, sit-outs to spider crawls, bear crawls or even our Bespoke Lunge 

4.  Get creative!  Mix it up, create your own flow, Shake it off, do the Hokey Pokey—and most of all, keep moving.

Look for part 3 of 5 Ways to Save Rafa Nadal later this week.

Brilliant.  Easy.  Bespoke.   

For more information:

Thomas Myers,  Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists

Evan Osar, Corrective Exercise Solutions to Common Shoulder and Hip Dysfunction

5 WAYS TO SAVE RAFA NADAL

The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year, ended last Sunday.  Despite being defeated in the quarterfinals of the tournament, Rafa Nadal made a stunning comeback to tennis.  After taking a long nine months off for injuries, he definitely did his best and looked in top form for his early matches.  The power and exquisite ball placement was back, and people took notice.  (They also noticed his shorter shorts-thanks Nike!)

But in the quarterfinal match against Tomas Berdych his body may have failed him yet again. Whispers of a torn hamstring plagued after-match press conferences.  But when a reporter asked about the  “so-so” match, Nadal only said “…not ‘so-so’ [match].  Very bad.  You can say it, no problem.”

So, what’s up with Rafa?  Watch any of his matches and you will see his strength and power on the court.  In 2010 Rafa's doctor, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, described him as being "able to mix the explosive pace of a 200-metre sprinter with the resistance of a marathon runner"

But if he is so strong, why is he so prone to injuries?  Many blame it on the hardcourt surface; others blame it on his powerful style of play and the intensity of his practice sessions.

I’m going to blame his body, as well as his brain (more on that in a later post).

First, let’s recount the injuries:

2004 Stress fracture, left ankle

2005 Foot injury

2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 Patellar femoral tendonitis, both knees; Hoffa’s Syndrome (left knee); torn patellar tendon (left knee)

2009 Right abdominal rupture (1.02 inches)

2012 "I was sitting on a chair in the hotel, I felt like a crack on the knee. [It was] really strange. I stand up. I felt the knee a little bit strange. I moved the leg like this two times to try to find the feeling. After the second time, the knee stays with an unbelievable pain completely straight. I have no movement on the knee. I wasn't 100 percent sure I would have a chance to play.” (HUH?)

2013 Stomach virus

2014 Right wrist injury

2014-2015 Low back disc “issues”--treated with stem cells

2011, 2015 Left hamstring pulled

2014 Large blister on hand

2014 Appendicitis (ok…well, he couldn’t help that one)

The world of tennis has made great strides with equipment (shoes, court surface, etc), medical treatment, and technology (like Rafa’s new Babolat “smart” racquet with the tiny computer inside). 

But maybe it is time to get back to the basics of his body. 

I am not making a diagnosis;  I am not a doctor, or physical therapist. But based on what we know about Nadal, and what we know about strength and conditioning training, I am sharing a few ideas to save Rafa Nadal and his tennis career.  Tennis fans spent the last nine months without Rafa Nadal--bad for tennis fans and bad for the business of tennis. (Are you listening, Nike?)  Maybe someone can save his body and his mind so we don’t have to be without him again.

So…what if he has some muscle imbalances? Or some movement impairments caused by joint mobility issues and/or by faulty movement patterns?  What if some corrective exercise would help?

This is the first of my FIVE ideas to save Rafa Nadal:

Rafa needs to get a complete functional movement assessment (FMS).  This means, stop looking at his body parts through a microscope.  All movements are three-dimensional, and are a complex coordination of joints, muscles, and ligaments.  As physical therapist and creator of FMS Gray Cook says, “muscles should do their job automatically, but if the reflex behavior that drives them is altered by poor movement patterns, poor flexibility, muscle imbalances, or poor warm up,” then fixing one injury is just like putting a Band-Aid on a dam that just broke.  The underlying weak link will remain unidentified.  Add intense training on top of that weak link and you have a recipe for disaster.

“You can’t put fitness on dysfunction,” as Cook says in his book Movement.

Prior to Cook’s Functional Movement System (a series of seven different movements requiring integrated mobility and stability), the only measure of “fitness” for an athlete was a 1RM squat test--a measure of strength only.

How about we take a look at Rafa’s deep squat form, his hip flexibility, trunk stability, and thoracic spine mobility?  And if we look at his movement patterns, instead of body parts, we can discover any dysfunction or asymmetry.   Find the weak link then prescribe some corrective exercise—the brain must be re-wired to execute these patterns correctly and without compensation.

To me, this means: an athlete’s longevity in their sport could simply be a function of healthy, functional movement patterns.

Look for my next four ways to save Rafa Nadal this week!