It’s HIP to be Strong… [Skiing Series #4] - West Lake Hills Physical Therapy - Austin Physical Therapy

February 23, 2018 in Skiing, Snowboarding

Hey guys, its Stephen here from CORE Therapy & Pilates… I wanted to go over the next round of our skiers series. This is number 4 and this is Reece… Dudley’s always stealing the show here and his birthday was yesterday, but this is my girl Reece, she’s the most spoiled, best boxer in the world… don’t tell Dudley… but anyway…

I want to go into the next round of the skier series and what we’re going to work on today is some outer hip strength and a little bit of some inner thigh strength as well. We will work the ABductors and ADductors…

So the first thing we’re going to go over is a simple exercise using a little thera-band or thera-tube. It’s tied into a small loop and we’re going to put it around the knees and do a little squatting motion tied in with strengthening the outer hips. What we’re going to do with the band tight around your knees there, we’re going to bend down into a mini squat, take a step to the left, take a step to the left and back up… we’re going to bend down, step to the right, step to the right and back up. That’s going to create some outer hip motion with your ABductors, but at the same time we’re strengthening the quads as well… so that’s the first one and do about 10-12 of those back and forth.

The next one we’re going to do is using this Pilates flex ring (or magic circle). This is a piece of Pilates equipment and what we’re going to do is put this around the knees and perform an abdominal contraction, then hip ABduction from there… so we’re going to inhale, belly goes up, exhale belly comes down, legs go apart… inhale release, exhale pulling apart. We’re strengthening these outer legs, you can certainly use the band as well but I’m a fan of the ring, you get a little more stability with it, a little more resistance. Alright so that’s the outer thighs…

Now while we are in this position, we’ll do an inner thigh contraction by putting the ring between the legs. Same thing, belly up on the inhale, belly down on the exhale, tightening the core and then squeezing the ball… it can be the gold ball, a volleyball or soccer ball, whatever… So that’s your inner thighs or your ADductors…

Now I’m going to show you one in standing where you use the ring at the wall, and this is one I think is very effective… You’re going to put the ring right here at your hip and at the wall. Now what’s going to happen here is I’m pushing with this hip into the wall, so I’m basically using my left ABductor to push into the floor and lean into the wall, making the ring oblong… and repeat… and then to do it the other way. I’m now using this hip, push it in to it. So we are strengthening the ABductors…

Alright, now why are the ABductors important for skiing? Because when you’re in your ski position, you’re doing a lot of this type of motion back and forth so it’s very important for those guys to be involved with the strength…

I’m going to show you one more and this last one’s going to be something you can do laying on your side on the ground… and in this position we’re going to bend the bottom knee underneath and we’re going to keep the top leg straight and lift straight up. Pretty simple but it’s also a pretty weak muscle for most people… Alright and then you would do the opposite side, this way…

We’ve focused more on the ABductors today but we also added the one squeezing in, the ADductors… We did a couple standing, laying down, a couple of different options…

Try these as you’re getting ready for your ski trip, Spring Break is right around the corner, so I hope this helps… take care, that’s it for today… bye guys.

Who is going to the mountains for Spring Break? Have you been trying these exercises from our skiers series?

Call 512.215.4227 to ask about our specials during Spring Break, for those of you who will still be in town…

Do you need to have one of our Physical Therapist perform an evaluation on your back, hip or knee beefier you head to the mountains? Click Here to apply! »

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Stephen Dunn

Co-Owner / Physical Therapist at CORE Therapy and Pilates

Stephen graduated with a Masters in Physical Therapy in 1998 from LSUMC in New Orleans and is a licensed physical therapist in Texas since 2004. Immediately interested in hands-on therapy, he began to study with Brian Mulligan and became certified in the Maitland Australian Approach in 2003. Stephen has since studied the fascial system through John F Barnes Myofascial Release. Stephen completed a comprehensive Pilates training in 2002 and the GYROTONIC Expansion System® in 2009. The combined treatment of manual therapy with mind-body awareness exercises using Pilates and Gyrotonic concepts was the start of his whole-body treatment approach.