KinX Learning

If a survey were taken of athletes asking them what they thought their major weakness was, I feel confident that most would say the quadriceps, hamstrings, or pectorals. Very few, if any, would say the fingers or the hands. This is understandable because most people take their hands for granted when doing weight training or in their daily work. However, the hands play a critical role in regard to the development of other parts of the body and in execution of many skills. The reason for this is that your grip is the key to how much weight you can lift and how well you perform in sports. The fingers (hands) must be able to hold the weight you wish to use or to withstand or utilize and direct the forces created in sports such as football, baseball, tennis, golf, and so on. Another major reason for strengthening the fingers and hands is to prevent injury. Of all the injuries that athletes sustain, injuries to the hands and fingers are the most common. They are probably responsible for putting more athletes on the disabled list than any other type of injury. This is understandable when you closely examine what the hands and fingers must do during gameplay especially in sports in which different kinds of equipment, especially balls and hitting implements, are used. Thus, you should work your fingers and hands. One of the best pieces of equipment with which to do this is the Exer Rings (round and flat rings that provide different amounts of tension and resiliency). With them you can duplicate and isolate almost all actions of the fingers. This includes flexion, extension, adduction, and abduction. The best exercise to develop finger grip is Exer Ring finger flexion.

Kinesthesis is the ability to perceive your position and movement of the body and/or limbs in space. Kinesthesis relies on the use of various receptors in the joints, muscles and tendons. For example, the muscle spindle that lies in parallel with the muscle fibers is activated when the muscle is stretched during an eccentric contraction (This is known as the stretch reflex). The Golgi tendon organs are other receptors located at the junction of the tendon and the muscle. They respond to the amount of stretch taking place in the tendon and the muscle. It is important to understand that when a muscle stretches, the tendon also undergoes stretching. It is very elastic tissue and can withstand great tension. When activated, the Golgi tendon organs trigger the antagonistic muscle groups to stop the movement and to inhibit the agonist muscle contraction. This is done to avoid possible injury to the muscle-tendon complex. Because of their actions, it is much easier to fully stretch a muscle when the Golgi tendon organs are shut down. There are also receptors located in the joint capsules and in the ligaments that relay information to the brain. This includes a change in position, speed of movement, or the acceleration of the limbs that occur at the joints. These receptors are very sensitive and fire when there is a small change (up to two degrees) in joint position. There are also many pressure receptors that are very active in posture. When there is any deviation in position, they are fired so that a correction can be made to bring you back into the normal position.

The back raise is the only exercise in which the lower back (lumbar) spinal muscles can be worked through a full ROM in a safe manner. Dr. Yessis developed this exercise about thirty years ago after working with many people with “bad backs.” He looked closely at the spinal musculature and asked myself why hyperextensions (Hip extension with the trunk in motion) did not exercise the area safely and effectively. The answer became obvious: the lower back muscles were not worked dynamically through a full ROM. Since then, the back raise, in which the muscles are strengthened in dynamic movement, has been used very successfully by athletes and non-athletes in the treatment and prevention of back problems. In addition, it has enabled better sports skill execution.  Exercising the back muscles (the erector spinae) is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. For many years it was believed that it was only necessary to strengthen the abdominals and stretch the back in order to strengthen the spine. But today strengthening the erector spinae muscles is known to be even more effective for the development of a strong, healthy spine. The back raise is perhaps the best exercise for most people and especially for athletes.  However, there is still a strong contingent that believes it is only necessary to stabilize the lower back and not strengthen the muscles full range. In essence, they believe you should only do exercises to strengthen the stabilization function of the muscles rather than dynamically strengthening them. This may have great value for the average person but it should not apply to athletes. Athletes must have strength through the full range not only to perform their sports movements, but to prevent back problems.