Originally written in 2011 after sustaining a hamstring injury and 2 to 3 month rehab
During the rehabilitation process from an injury, I always seem to discover limitations in my body that I was previously unaware of. While it is impossible to know for sure whether these deficiencies directly led to the original injury, I try to use this forced time off to improve and restore the imbalance of strength and flexibility that playing competitive squash seems to lead to.
In my case, in addition to being relatively tight almost everywhere, I have a particularly limited range of motion in my hamstrings, as well as my lower back.
The Romanian Dead Lift (RDL) exercise has been really good for me in this regard. This exercise forces your hamstrings to lengthen while strengthening at the same time. This is in contrast to exercises like the hamstring curl which in general I avoid because they can encourage your hamstrings to shorten.
In the past I had always struggled with RDL, as the technique is not easy. I had sort of avoided them, or just thought that for some reason I couldn’t do them well. During my hamstring injury rehab I have gotten significantly better at them, going from struggling to get near the top of my knee to well below my knee with the bar. The proper technique of hinging only at the hip and keeping the back extended and straight has also gotten significantly easier.
Another weakness I had exposed…You know that machine where you push your legs together in the gym that all the 50 year old women dominate on? That’s the one I really suck at! I think my inner hamstring has always done more than its fair share of the work while playing squash, and so my adductor is underdeveloped in comparison to the demands put on it. Good news with is that my strength has improved dramatically and very quickly. The first day I did about 100 lbs and was quite sore the next day. Three weeks later I am doing 140 lbs with no discomfort.
After doing some research, it appears that many NFL teams are increasingly into this type of functional analysis for their athletes. They have the players undergo a bunch of dynamic movement tests to figure out in what way the athletes bodies are too tight or have suboptimal range of motion, and then give them a score based on these tests. If they don’t reach a certain benchmark score they prescribe specific exercises to shore up those deficiencies.
Always be working on your weaknesses!
Good luck with your game
Julian