Last week I shared a blog from Crossfit Carolina Beach about glute activation and its importance for stand up paddlers, this week's #tuesdaytip is building on that. Next time you're out for a low intensity paddle in calm waters, may I suggest you bring a small exercise band (bonus, you need this band to do a lot of the glute activation exercises that Jordan recommended in last week's blog) put the small exercise band near your knees and make sure you keep tension on the band by pushing out like in the video. Having strong glutes helps with PAIN in the LOWER BACK, and HAMSTRINGS.
When your glutes don't fire / your knees come in while paddling, you're over compensating with other muscles - you're trying to drive power into the paddle but your glutes can't keep up - and this leads to injury down the road. These problems are only exacerbated by the drive to go to narrower and narrower boards. As the surface you're paddling on becomes more unstable glute activation is PARAMOUNT to staying pain free, going as fast as possible, or both.
Reasons you NEED TO STRENGTHEN YOUR GLUTES AS A PADDLER
1. Injury prevention
2. Better balance
3. Better power transfer to your paddle (makes you go faster)
Exercises to STRENGTHEN YOUR GLUTES
Banded hamstring curls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0kABjeJ_TY
Prone hamstring curls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uye2wpH3xDw
Copenhagen Adduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZGQ97fmmcM
Band Pull Throughs https://www.t-nation.com/videos/tip-the-band-pull-through
Supine Hamstring Curls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl__8Dnmms4
X-band walks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9IcLbu8ThY
Glute ham raises
Romanian deadlifts
Single leg deadlifts
Frog pumps
From Jordan and the CFCB Blog:
Please, don’t do all of these in one day. As part of a program, I would add the top list of exercises, 1-2 per day(if they are different-i.e. don’t do hamstring curls and prone hamstring curls in the same day), then another 2 exercises 2-3 days later.
For instance
Monday- extra credit/accessory = 100 prone hamstring curls and accumulate 2 minutes star fish plank.
Thursday- extra credit/accessory work = 200 prone hamstring curls and 3 sets of 10 copenhagen adduction.
Always remember, gains happen when you sleep and take time off. Do some high quality movement, then let that shit heal! Eat high quality foods, and roll once or twice a day with an off day between rolling specific sections.
