Weak Links Need Strengthened

Chains are only as strong as their weakest link.

I've got a youth athlete that is an absolute beast -- Fredy is a freshman in HS, plays on the junior varsity baseball team for a private school in Nashville. The kid can move FAST and EXPLOSIVE... He is able to generate massive amounts of power quickly and that is a great thing. Unfortunately, he's also got a weak link that holds him back -- for now.

That weak link is his low back. He's 15 years old and spent the last two years in the lockdowns unfortunately not moving that much and yet still growing. So while his legs and torso got bigger and stronger, his low back didn't develop with it -- so he's essentially got a 13 year old low back trying to do grown ass man things.

Doing traditional hip hinge movements like deadlift or hamstring focused movements like bulgarian split squats fatigue his back QUICKLY and he's hampered the rest of the workout.

Avoiding the problem does him a disservice because he uses these muscles and movements every day and in his sport. Eventually, his compensation patterns will give out and he won't be able to keep up with the competition.

Lots of questions here though. What muscles need to be strengthened? How can I strengthen them while still getting him stronger? When can he go back to "lifting normally"?

Muscles that Need Strengthened

The main muscle I think that needs strengthened is his quadratus lumborum (among his spinal erectors, his lats, and glute muscles (yes, glutes help stabilize the low back)). The QL attaches at the bottom of the ribs to the lumbar spine and the top of the hip.

If that's not firing or under developed, there's not a great connection between the hip and torso, when force is transferred between the two or the body acts as a hinge, that area gets a lot of stress added to it.

Another main muscle that needs to be developed are the glutes. The glutes help stabilize the pelvis to the legs and to the lower back. If those are under developed or if there is a lack of mind-muscle connection there, the body will compensate through the quads or through the low back. Definitely not great for an athlete trying to be dominant.

I had my athlete try to perform a simple hip bridge this morning and he could only feel it in his quads and the front of his hips (his hip flexors). That told me his body was doing two things: 1) his quads were doing all the work of extending his hips -- they do some but not all extending and 2) his hip flexors were so bound up, he couldn't "feel" his glutes working.

So I had him hit the couch stretch, video below:

After the couch stretch, we went back to the bridge and he could FINALLY feel his glutes working. Once he knew what they felt like, our next super set included single leg glute bridges off the bench. These were extremely challenging for him for multiple reasons, but primarily because his glutes were too weak to be able to lift his body up for more than a few reps. I didn't capture video of it, because I was busy coaching :(

Exercises to Strengthen QL

For the QL, it's tricky. It's part core stability, part hip extension, part back strength. So there's lots of ways to hit. Here are three that I'm working in on a regular basis.

Bird Dog Row

In this movement, the QL needs to work to support the pelvis while in hip extension (as well as the glute working on hip extension, a double whammy). The rowing adds instability, forcing the core and stability muscles of the hip and shoulder to work to keep the athlete from falling over.

GHD Hip Extension

This movement is great because it lengthens the QL and glutes, then forces contraction of those muscles. It does this all while keeping the spine relatively neutral.

Rotational Med Ball Throw

The rotational med ball throw is awesome because it forces rotation of the upper back, lower back, and hips. The lower back doesn't have a lot of rotation, but it's important to work those lower back muscles in rotation as they'll need to do it in sport (think throwing a pitch or hitting a baseball or swinging a tennis racket).

Opposite of this would be an anti-rotation movement like this from my friends at Performance Care Clinics

Strengthening the Glutes

So now we've covered the QL, what can we do about the glutes? Well, I like to do things that extend the glute, but keep the spine in a neutral position like lunges or bulgarian split squats. Here are a few videos of those.

These are excellent to lengthen the glute without compromising the lower back position relative to the hips.

In fact you can see in this video how this athlete's glutes are under developed relative to the rest of his body. The glutes should be more pronounced. You can also see how his pelvis rounds under a bit when he steps -- this is because of the lack of low back strength to keep his pelvis in place when the muscles on the underside of the pelvis are lengthened (hammies and glutes).

Bulgarian Split Squat

I really like the bulgarian split squat for the same reason I love lunges. Works pelvis and leg posterior chain without compromising back muscles too much. This video shows them done with barbell, but they can be done with dumbbells or just body weight if needed.

The HS athlete who is the focus of this article actually feels bulgarian split squats in his low back. This is a function of his hip flexors being tight and the low back not being able to resist the undertuck of the pelvis from these muscles being stretched out.

How Long Till "Regular Lifting"?

So how long till the athlete can lift without worrying about it? That's a great question and one I wish I knew the answer to. It'll be a combination of continuing to strengthen the back and testing that strength with traditional movements.

The "traditional movements" aren't absolutely necessary to being a beast, understanding how to move your body is important to being a beast. There are workarounds for any muscle group to get a stimulus -- maybe we'll never really do deadlifts and that's OK. We can hit them with lunges, split squats, GHD hip extensions, single leg RDLs, single leg med ball throws, step ups, sled sprints, hamstring curls, nordic curls.

CONCLUSION

Fredy has a ton of potential and because of the work he is putting in in the weight room, he is going to excel to greater heights than he otherwise would have without hammering more strength into these weak chains. Keep up the good work Fredy, I look forward to watching you compete at high levels!!