Getting injured sucks. For many soccer players it seems as if life consists of being sidelined with one injury, returning to play, and shortly thereafter picking up another injury. What can we do to prevent soccer players from getting injured so often?
That is a complicated question that comes down to several factors. Genetics, biomechanics from pre-natal development/inherited structure, lifestyle factors such as narrow shoes or prolonged sitting, hydration status, training volume, weakness, tightness, etc. While I will cover all of those in the book The Ultimate Soccer Body, in this post I go over a two principles and one powerful stretch that incorporates them to give you a huge bang for your buck.
Staying healthy and preventing injuries in soccer players requires flexibility and mobility. Flexibility is defined as "the ability of a muscle or muscle groups to lengthen passively through a range of motion", whereas mobility is the "ability of a joint to move actively through a range of motion". To have good mobility, you need adequate flexibility, but you also need muscular strength and stability to express movement through the joints.
A simple example of the difference between flexibility and mobility is to stand up straight and lift your knee toward your chest as high as possible. Your ability to actively lift your knee is your mobility. Next, use your hands and pull your knee closer to your chest. This represents flexibility of the muscles acting around the hip. Having flexible muscles makes it easier to lift your knee up, but without stability in the standing leg and strength in the flexors of the hip, you would not be able to express mobility in the knee lift action. That might hint at why flexibility alone does not guarantee reduced injury or improved soccer performance unless the muscles are also STRONG in the particular range of motion. Think about how this applies to situations in soccer like lunging for a tackle or taking a shot on goal from a weird body position.
To optimize flexibility and mobility with training we need to consider two protective mechanisms built into our muscles - one called a Muscle Spindle (MS) and the other a Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO). The actions of muscle spindles and GTOs are essentially a feedback system that aid in the lengthening of a particular muscle through sensory control in response to change in tension and length in muscles. With the stretching method presented, one can manipulate the feedback systems of Muscle Spindles and GTOs to improve range of motion and thus performance. With the use of tension we can minimize neurological safeguards that inhibit mobility and progressively convince the brain to release its protective stronghold on tissues.
The muscle spindle is a sense organ (proprioceptor) that receives information from muscle, sensing the length and speed of a stretch. The endpoint of a stretch is the muscle spindle sending a signal to your spinal cord to create tension, thus contracting the muscle to protect you from stretching farther and hurting yourself. The muscle spindle can also inhibit the opposing muscle (the antagonist to the muscle being stretched) to prevent it from contracting so that it can’t contribute to any further stretching. The relaxation of the antagonist that occurs simultaneously when a muscle spindle’s contraction of its associated muscle occurs is called reciprocal inhibition.
The Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO) is another proprioceptor that senses tension in the tendon. When your muscle produces force, the GTO is the sense organ that signals how much tension the muscle is exerting. If there is too much muscle tension the GTO will inhibit the attached muscle from creating force (causing relaxation) to protect you.
The muscle spindle and GTO work together. During a prolonged stretch of >10 seconds, the increase in muscle tension activates the GTO, which temporarily inhibits muscle spindle activity (thus reducing tension in the muscle), and allows for further stretching. Through a stretching method known as Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) we can manipulate both the muscle spindle and GTO to increase strength and flexibility. By contracting a muscle before a passive stretch, it reduces muscle spindle activity within its associated muscle (the muscle that is about to be stretched) so that the brain more willingly accepts an increase in range of motion during the impending stretch.
These days there are many versions of stretching related to PNF that take advantage of the muscle spindle and GTO activity. One of them is called Loaded Progressive Stretching. Loaded Progressive Stretching (LPS) is the act of loading a movement in an effort to improve one's range of motion (ROM). It usually involves the use of a weight such as a barbell or dumbbell, or positioning oneself in a way where the weight of one’s body pulls the person into an end ROM.
Remember, the muscles contract as a protective mechanism by giving you the sensation of "stretch" to prevent you from going any further. This perceived limitation needs to be overcome and by using an external weight or loading a movement with clever contortion of your bodyweight you can push past your comfort zone and be pulled into a greater end range stretch. Loading elongated tissue develops strength at the end range of motion while simultaneously inhibiting the muscle spindles and GTO. Careful though, too much load can actually have the opposite effect and active the receptors or even damage to tissues. The load should be light enough to allow you to easily get in and out of the end range in a controlled manner.
For all loaded stretching I suggest beginners start with 2-4 sets of 4-8 reps per set for each exercise, 2-3 days per week. After about a month or two you can move on to 3-6 sets of 4-8 reps, 2-4 days per week. You can also combine LPS with static stretching. On the last set of each rep you can hold for 10s, and/or on the final rep of the last set you can also hold the stretch for 10-60s. If you are doing the stretch as part of your warm up I suggest keeping the repetitions dynamic. If it is part of your cool down then the longer holds make more sense. Let’s get to the stretch…
The Diagonal Stretch
Ido Portal doing the Diagonal Stretch
This one was popularized by Ido Portal. It is a fantastic stretch for the quadriceps, hip flexors, tensor fascia latae (a major culprit for common movement deficiencies and lateral knee pain), big toe mobility, obliques. Here are some of Ido’s reasons why it is a great stretch.
Benefits * Modulating the whole anterior chain and spiral/diagonal line without promoting laxity and passivity * Alleviates back pain (but when done wrong can induce it - mind the details) * Prehab/rehab of various knee issues, especially stemming from patellofemoral stress. It bulletproofs the knees! * Of great benefit for those who suffer the consequences of sitting a lot (almost everyone) * Improves posture & Gait * Of great benefit to athletic performance and specifically throwers, pitchers, javelin, sprinters, etc * Of great benefit to fighters, punchers, kickers, helps open and facilitate kinetic transfer * Of great benefit to those looking to arch better - back bridging, acrobatics, dancers, gymnasts, etc
1. It is LOADED. Good stretch = not a stretch only. It builds strength in the extreme range of motion, hence its safe and efficient. (Muscle plasticity is far from the limiting factor in mobility as many have led us to believe, it is more dictated by the CNS)
2. It is PROGRESSIVE. A couple of stages here: A. Front knee bent as well (in the picture the front is straight) and touch the back of the knee. B. Front knee bent and touch the mid calf. C. Front knee bent and touch the heel. D,E,F. The same progression with the front leg straight.
3. It is UNSTABLE and requires active balancing action to keep in the position - isn't that how real life movements with extreme ROM are? Can you spell 'joint integrity'?”
Here are his instructions on how to perform the Diagonal Stretch. I suggest watching the video below as well where he points out common mistakes:
A. Stand with your heels together but toes out with 90-degree angle (45 off the center line on each side) between your feet.
B. Align your right foot toes behind your left heel and glide backwards on an imaginary line drawing out of your left heel. You will achieve a lunge position with the front foot in External Rotation (45 degree off center line) and back foot with raised heel and on the toes, not rotated any more - but straight forward on the center line. (examine the feet orientation in the photo) C. Put your right hand on your heart and let the elbow relax on the body.
D. Take the left hand and reach behind you towards your desired target - back of the right knee, mid-calf or heel. Arch back and rotate but don't bend down to reach for your target.
E. Perform reps and/or finish with a hold for 30-60 sec.
As mentioned above, you have options here about reps and sets depending on your level and when you are including the stretch.
You can apply these principles to other stretches as well. In the Virtual Coaching program as well as the upcoming book The Ultimate Soccer Body we incorporate these types of exercises to help soccer players stay healthy so they can constantly improve instead of being sidelined with injury.