martin
Hello Parisi School. I am a football player in high school and whenever I sqaut my heels come up and my coachsays I need to get them down. What is the problem here. Can I put a block or weight under my feet so they are level? Aaron R, Tennessee
Pictured is 2006 Parisi Combine member and 34th pick overall of the 2006 NFL draft D'Qwell Jackson. When you look at the position he plays in, it is easy to see where many football players have flexibility issues.
Aaron,
Thanks for writing in and thanks for the question. What you are experiencing is a common flexibility issue that we see with many of our young athletes here at the school. Generally, you are having tightness in the calf muscles behind your lower leg. More specifically, it is probably the soleus muscle which becomes tighter as the knee bends. This is a common case. If there is some pain in the front of your ankle, perhaps the ankle joint could be an issue as well, but I would first suspect tightness and see if it can be remedied with some stretching.
I would suggest that before you squat, you stretch out both the gastrocnemius and soleus (which are 2 of the 3 muscles of the calf). This can be done by stretching your calf with both the knee straight and bent. You can do this leaning against a wall, or you can stand on an elevated object and hang the heel down. You can hold for 15-20 seconds and repeat for 3-5 reps on each leg and both with the knee straight and bent. See if this doesnt help.
Also, putting a block under the heels may feel better, but it is just allowing the flexibility to go unchecked and will keep the muscles tight.
Above, in the picture, you can see the position many athletes play in. By being bent over and up on the balls of the feet, the hip flexors, calves, hamstrings and hip rotators are all shortened and can tighten over time. Make sure to be working flexibility in all these areas. Even when we get our highest level guys in, they are all still tight here and then when it comes time to run, they run the risk of getting hurt.
A little on top of a little eventually becomes a lot. Work it and it will pay off.
Martin Rooney
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Parisi speed school. Hi, I am Rueben Gabriel and I have been using the dynamic warmup now for the past 6 months. My flexibility and conditioning is much improved as a result. Thank you for the information it has changed how I train. My question is how many reps should I be doing now that I have done the warmup for some time? I do 8 reps of each like on the DVD and the warmup 3 days a week.
Pictured is Wille Reid of Florida State (foreground) and the some others of the 2006 Combine Class working on the Parisi Dynamic Warmup and their dynamic flexability. Even these high level athletes have seen great changes in their flexability with this method.
Rueben,
Thanks for writing in and I am glad to hear that you are enjoying (and using) the DVD. One of the secrets of training that most people want to ingore is consistency. Stay consistent, and you will see results as you are experiencing. All too often, people are so used to instant gratification that they make it only a workout or too and soon as they stop seeing immediate progress, they give up. Training is about the long run and you are doing a great job.
As for your question, there are a number of ways to add variety to the warmup. Now that you have experienced the warmup and have been consistent, you can start manipulating reps, sets, exercises, tempo and rest periods to create new stimuli. What I mean here is that you can choose multiple sets of certain exercises, raise or lower the reps, speed the whole workout up by taking less rest in between or slow it down. Either way, you start to develop your own style and keep your body fresh.
Keep us posted and we will help you further. Best of luck.
Martin Rooney
Parisi Speed School, I have been told that you only need the flexability that your sport requires. So I guess if I play football I dont have to do the splits. Is this right? Let me know and then I can stop trying to be Jean Claude Van Damme. Perry
Pictured is figure skater Veronica Panzera working on some dynamic straight leg kicks. Due to the demands of her sport, Veronica must be very strong but also very flexible at the same time.
Perry,
Great to hear from you and I have to say I got a kick out of your question. I can only imagine you trying to get out two chairs and pull off the Van Damme move he shows in every movie. The great news is that hopefully after this post, you wnot have to attempt that again.
I agree that the first requirement of your flexibility level is that it must at least or slightly exceed the demands of your sport. When I say this though, I am talking about functional flexibility, not static. I am talking about the range of motion that you can actually move your body through, not just sit and hold. That being said, you must also attempt to be strong in all the ranges as well. Oftentimes I see that there are athletes that have a lot of available motion, but not much strength to go along with it. This combo is always a recipe for a potential injury.
So the short version is, move your body through full ranges of motion like during our dynamic warmup and stay strong. As for the splits, I would give up on the dream.
Martin Rooney
Dear Parisi, I see in the flexibility section, I see that you work on improving an athlete's felxibility with dynamic movements without weights. Can you also improve flexibility when you are lifting? My coach says you cannot.
Pictured are Jessica Gomez and Vitoria Petruzella improving their hip and adductor flexibility with centered dumbbell side lunges. The further out you take this motion the more it will stress your flexibility.
Thanks for writing in, and this is a great question even though you didnt leave your name. I like to look at flexibility and movement like this: the human body is an amazing adaptive organism. When you do something over and over to it, it will respond to the stimulus.
Understanding this, if you are lifting weights and taking your body through a range of motion, you will be developing strength as well as flexibility in that range. If you do lifts with less and less range, you can lose that flexbility.
Knowing this, we use our dynamic movements in our movement skill training and take the athletes through full ranges of motion with our lifts as well.
The lift above is a great example. Try this one out for a few weeks and see if you see any differences.
I hope this helps.
Martin Rooney
Dear Parisi Speed School,
I have been reading the Q&A for awhile now and it is great. Thanks for the new site too! IT really shows what you are doing there. My question is on flexibility. What is an example of the dynamic stretch. I read that you dont do as much static stretches so what do you do? Thanks Maggie Dawson
Pictured are Andrew Ardnt and Robert Cozzarelli blasting out just one of the many dynamic flexibility drills that we perform here every day under the watchful eye of trainer John Cirilo.
Maggie,
Thanks for writing in and thanks for using us as a resource. Funny, but most people dont write in about flexibility. It is usually about speed or strength that people like to hear about, but flexibility is not only important as well, it is often more misunderstood. Dynamic stretching involves movement to take a part of the body through a full range of movement. This style, as opposed to static holds involves strength, speed and coordination of the nervous system. All of these are important things that must also happen during sport performance. So, what we have found is that by performing most of the movements during our dynamic warmup through a full range of motion, you actually increase flexbility.
If you would like to see the warmup in action, check out our Warmup Method DVD in the store on this site. Not only is it one of our most popular, it is also the foundation of our program.
Martin Rooney