Woof Guys,
In Response to Peregrine's question, i apologize I didn't get back to this sooner, the weekend is always just the best time for me to write.
Yes, while those exercises are Good ones for core stability in general. i still feel it is important to start more simply, Even though Ron Hruska wrote the article you posted I think He was writing for other therapists who have had some experience with the Myokinematics system and have had some questions regarding how to progress patient beyond the basics. IMHO, To start with some of the exercises you had mentioned would be little like showing up for the first day of Kali class and the instructor saying, " ok, were going to start with a variety of sinawali activities today". When i Took Ron's course he stated that the Girls he works with in his capacity as Strength and conditioning coach at the University of Nebraska women's Volleyball team, that his girls don't progress to "Closed Chain" (standing or any activity in weight bearing position), until they can demonstrate ability to perform certain strength tests. Just Like any methodology there is a progression of activity to The PRI method requires that you spend some time strengthening these specific Muscles groups before attemting to integrate functional movement pasterns into your routine.
here is a list of Exercises instruct people in to get started:
1) Supine 90/90 Position (on your back with feet on wall) Hip Lift. i think the name throws people off on this one, i see people in the clinic performing bridges constantly and it is actually meant to be a posterior pelvic tilt for the purpose of creating lower lumbar flexion and activation of The hamstrings, and only the hamstrings, in order to create lower lumbar flexion. once A patient has the hang of this one I will sometimes encourage them to, " pull your belly button toward your spine" in order to engage the transverse abdominals but i always make sure they start with just a simple PPT (posterior Pelvic tilt) I always encourage Diaphragmatic breathing during all exercises.
2) Either supine 90/90 or sidelying 90/90 right Hip shift with right Hip external rotation vs. theraband if the patients tolerance will allow. This is isolate and engage the Glute max the sidelying position is my preference for this exercise because you are adding the effects of gravity to increase the difficulty. In The Clinic we often start with only the Right glutes and this is only because in a pathological/symptomatic patient often displays the hallmark weaknesses of the Left AIC Pattern which are as follows: weak Right glute, weak Left hamstring and weak Left IC adductor. for your average person i would recommend you start focusing on the right glute max utilizing a moderate resistance exercise band and progress to doing the exercise bilaterally upon progressing to the next level of exercise band The reason we just start focusing on Right Glute max is that Ron has seen enough patients in his career and done enough research to feel it is safe to assume that most ,if not all of us, have some degree of the Left AIC Patterned alignment dysfunction at work. The Hip shift part of this exercise is performed in the following manner, you Lay on your Left side with the knees together and hips and knees bent to somewhere between 60 and 90 degrees, its a comfort issue but you may have to adjust leg position in order to perform the exercise correctly. You may place a folded towel between your knees for comfort. you would then place an exercise band around your legs just above the knees. you will have your left foot pressing into the wall to anchor, the right foot less so because it must pivot. you begin by shifting your right thigh and hip forward until you feel the adductors in your left thigh grab. You may also feel a stretch in the posterior part of your left Hip. You Then externally rotate your right hip or in other words raise the right knee toward the ceiling being very carefull to maintain the right pelvis in a forward rotated position and as well as maintain the sensation that the left adductors are biting you just a little bit. It is very important to keep the back flat and right hip rotated forward during this exercise. Hold This position and Breath five big breaths, inhaling through the nose and Sighing the air out through the mouth. you will perform 5 -7 reps of this exercise and believe me, if you are doing it right this will be enough. Patients in the clinic often ask me "How do I know if am doing this exercise correctly?" tell them if you feel any muscles other than the left adductors and the right glutes working then you are doing it incorrectly. Common mistakes include: using the toes on the right foot to push into the wall engaging both the right calf muscles and the right hamstrings, allowing the right hip to roll back upon externally rotating due to glute weakness and habitual over usage of the lumbar paraspinals , pushing the hips back with the left hip engaging the left glutes and hamstrings. these substitutions are common and i end up correcting these three mistakes the most often.
3) Supine 90/90 Hip Lift with Left hip shift (Down) For This exercise you start in the same position as you do for the initial exercise i listed above. The only difference here is that we will be using a small ball (4-6) inches between the knees. once up in the exercise position with the pelvis posteriorly rotated, you then will drop the left hip down making sure to keep the right thigh pointed straight at the ceiling. this will look as if you left thigh suddenly became shorter. how far you can or will drop your lef hip will depend on how much play you have in your left hip joint capsule. Here the goal is again to engage the Left IC adductor so you will hopefully be able to drop the left hip down far enough to feel that muscle engage and Bite a little bit. Ok ,you should now be in supine 90/90 position with your feet on a wall and with your pelvis slight lifted and in a posterior tilt. you should also have the left hip dropped down enough to feel the Left IC adductor biting at you right in the left groin area. You Now squeeze inward with the left knee and only the left knee to create a maximal Adductor contraction. with this exercise you will also be engaging your hamstrings so you should be feeling a strong hamstring contraction as well as maximal adductor contraction. to progress this activity you can perform a hemi-bridge by simply lifting your Right foot off the wall, this will allow you to create a maximal hamstring contraction on the left as well as maximal IC adductor contraction.
have progressed this exercise in my own routine to utilize bilateral hipshifts and hemi bridges in order to alternately strengthen right and left hamstrings/adductors feel this has helped improve my BJJ Gaurd immensely. Just ordered a new video camera and it should be here next week I will post video of me performing this exercise on you tube under My account "Totalkombatarts" sometime next week.
There are of course a variety of exercises that one can do that will strengthen all of the muscles i have outlined here. I recommend these particular activities because we are not only talking about strength we are talking about training a muscle to perform a specific task, the task of stabilizing the pelvis, and in as such we must remember that specificity in the training task is also important. these are the exercise i teach in the clinic to anyone who comes to me with problems related to instability of the back or pelvis. i also perform these exercises in my home routine in order to maintain pelvic stability for other activities. Good luck wth these activities i hope this helps
I will try and get video of each of these activities posted on my you tube account soon. if you can't find my you tube account then simply go to my website
www.totalkombatarts.com ad follow the you tube link from there. i probably wont be able to get anything posted till later in the week so keep checking.
Thanks everyone have a Nice weekend!