Sports

An average basketball game includes around 105 high-intensity bouts lasting 2-6 seconds; that means approximately one bout every 21 seconds of play. Therefore, repeated high-intensity efforts, including short sprints, are highly important for basketball players. Moreover, sprint acceleration can highly affect the outcome of game-deciding situations in field sports like football, soccer, and rugby. However, we must bear in mind that sports incorporating a significant degree of sprint acceleration render individuals to a higher risk of incurring a hamstring muscle injury.

 

During the acceleration phase of sprinting the horizontal component of ground reaction force has been shown to highly affect sprint performance. Mechanically speaking, horizontal force production is essential for us to move forward. The key players of horizontal force production are the hip extensors muscles; gluteus maximus and hamstrings. So, it all comes down to glutes and hams!!

 

A greater degree of horizontal force production has been detected in athletes that demonstrated high skills in activating their hams before ground contact and had the greatest ability to produce eccentric hamstring peak torque. High amounts of horizontal ground reaction force require intense backward movements of the lower limb (backward horizontal push) during both the stance and the late swing phase of sprinting. Hams are responsible for producing high forces during both phases.

Moreover, the transition between swing and stance is very important for hamstrings since they offset hip flexion and knee extension moments as well as withstand forces as much as 8 times bodyweight given the very high limb velocities present before ground contact. Hamstring muscles impose a great effect upon the direction of external propulsive forces and move the center of mass forward during sprinting.

 

Following repeated sprints, fatigued hamstring muscles absorb less energy before failure implying that the risk of injuring our hams when being in a fatigued state increases substantially. Regardless of the ensuing fatigue, sprint acceleration calls for high horizontal force production. Horizontal force production is also affected by gluteus maximus activation and peak concentric hip extension torque.

 

Pay a great deal of attention to the following…..Under non-fatigue state hamstring eccentric peak torque appears to be the major determinant of horizontal force production but under fatigue there has been a shift whereby hip extensor concentric peak torque mainly produced by gluteus maximus is the major determinant of horizontal force production. So gluteus maximus makes up for the decreased ability of hamstrings under fatigue and both act in synergy for the optimization of horizontal force production.

 

Moreover, the aforementioned compensatory mechanism protects our hamstrings from injury aiming to reduce rapid lengthening of the hams during fatigued repeated sprints. However, strength deficiencies in both concentric hip extensors and eccentric knee flexors have been linked with a higher prevalence of hamstring muscle injury.

 

It is about time to put theory into practice. If you want to optimize your sprint performance while protecting those delicate structures you need to incorporate a very well structured strengthening program for your lower limb posterior chain muscles. This program must include but not limited to eccentric contractions executed with high loads at longer musculotendinous lengths while adding an endurance element too. If we want to satisfy our purpose, we need to focus on both our knee and hip joints by incorporating knee flexion and hip extension exercises.

 

So, let me give you some sample exercises to be included in strength and conditioning programs targeting lower limb posterior chain muscles (GLUTES AND HAMS) for sprint performance optimization and injury prevention.

Knee Flexion sample exercises: Lying Leg Curl, Seated Leg Curl, Single-Leg Standing Leg Curl, TRX Alternate Knee Flexion, TRX Single-Leg Curl

Hip Extension sample exercises: Barbell Romanian Deadlift, Barbell Good-Morning, Single-Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift, Elevated Barbell Bridge, Single-Leg Lying Hip Extension

Knee Flexion + Hip Extension Combo sample exercises: Glute Ham Raise, Nordic Curl, Eccentric Glute-Ham Emphasis in the aforementioned exercises of the combo section, TRX knee flexion + hip extension combo

 

ENJOY!!

 

Castagna, C., Abt, G., Manzi, V., Annino, G., Padua, E., & D'Ottavio, S. (2008). Effect of recovery mode on repeated sprint ability in young basketball players. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 22(3), 923–929. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e31816a4281

 

Edouard, P., Mendiguchia, J., Lahti, J., Arnal, P. J., Gimenez, P., Jiménez-Reyes, P., Brughelli, M., Samozino, P., & Morin, J. B. (2018). Sprint Acceleration Mechanics in Fatigue Conditions: Compensatory Role of Gluteal Muscles in Horizontal Force Production and Potential Protection of Hamstring Muscles. Frontiers in physiology, 9, 1706. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.01706

 

Morin, J. B., Gimenez, P., Edouard, P., Arnal, P., Jiménez-Reyes, P., Samozino, P., Brughelli, M., & Mendiguchia, J. (2015). Sprint Acceleration Mechanics: The Major Role of Hamstrings in Horizontal Force Production. Frontiers in physiology, 6, 404. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2015.00404

 

Spinks, C. D., Murphy, A. J., Spinks, W. L., & Lockie, R. G. (2007). The effects of resisted sprint training on acceleration performance and kinematics in soccer, rugby union, and Australian football players. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 21(1), 77–85. https://doi.org/10.1519/00124278-200702000-00015