Exercise Pool: Lower Body

Continuing the process of building our extensive Exercise Pool, we will now look at the second of or our three main strength categories, Lower Body Movements. I cannot reiterate enough how important the process of establishing your pool is. This is the key to your ability to choosing the correct movement choices for your athletes. The extensiveness of you pool will give you numerous options based on training age of your athlete as well as their capability.

Utilizing our basic sample pool(see below), this was just a simple task of listing all the exercises/movements that came to mind when choosing exercises based on these two questions, 1–Can I teach it? As a coach, am I competent and capable of instructing an athlete to properly execute a specific movement in a safe and efficient manner? 2–Do I have the necessary equipment to safely implement this particular exercise?It is now time to separate these exercises into specific movement categories.

The second category we will discuss is the Lower-body Movement Category. This movement category will be headlined by the numerous variations of the bilateral squat.The bilateral squat variation is usually the key movement in developing lower body strength in an athletic based training program. Lower Body strength is a key component in the improvements of total body strength as well as the overall development of the hips, glutes, quads, and hamstrings.

Lower Body Movements

Lower Body movements are those movements that concentrate on the development of body from the belly button down. These are predominantly knee dominant movements. These movements will help increase strength in the spinal erectors, quadriceps,hamstrings, gluteus group, hip extensions, flexors, abductors, abductors, as wells as the muscles of the lower leg (calves and ankles). Bilateral movements are usually the most commonly discussed lower body exercises, but in an athletic based training program, the implementation of unilateral movements in various planes is crucial to developing “strength mobility” in the lower body. Single Joint, isolation movements that emphasize flexion and extension of the knee, as well as, dorsi flexion, plantar flexion, inversion, and version of the ankle fall into the lower body movement category Utilizing the Sample Pool lets specifically separate the Lower Body Exercise from our pool.

I will always remind you the coaches, that your pool is “your pool”. Do not let others position of exercises and how they are performed to influence your choices. You know what you believe is necessary, you know what you can teach, and you know what your athletes are capable of. Make your decisions wisely.