Today’s Topic: Contraction Types
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Following surgery, acute injury or a tendonitis it’s important to have a thoughtful approach to progressive overload to ensure that we restore load bearing capacity and overall functionality to the athlete while also avoiding excessive loading.
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In my experience working through various contraction types can be simple way to ensure progress with minimal chance of re-injury.
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1). Isometric: Static exercises like split squat holds are a valuable early training intervention because they can stimulate the nervous system and local tissues while causing no inflammatory response or excessive joint movement.
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2). Eccentric: Many of you reading this are probably familiar with the research demonstrating the benefits of eccentric training for tendon rehabilitation. Following the isometric phase I‘ll often program eccentrics to aid in tissue remodeling and yielding strength at the site of injury.
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3). Concentric: After establishing that the athlete can decelerate effectively I would progress to traditional strength training variations that target the affected area. We should also keep in mind that long term success of the athlete will hinge on optimal function of the entire kinetic chain so the program should focus not only developing the target tissues but also on developing overall functional capacity.
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4). Dynamic: Once the athlete can normal sustain loading I‘ll begin introducing dynamic drills like jumps, hops, bounds and skips. Following rehearsed, unidirectional progressions I would l move toward incorporating multi-directional and reactive drills.
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