Thor Core (Hulk Hug Your Spine)

I'm a high jumper.

Strength and Power Lifting? Plyometrics? Anaerobic Workouts?

That's my stuff.

The thing is, the type and amount of training I do puts a lot of stress on my back. Jumping alone is a ton of force on your joints. For instance, Jesse Williams generates forces of something like 8x his body weight during his high jump take off, according to ESPN. I'm not a scientist, but that sounds like a buttload. That's one of the reasons why jumpers train differently. Box jumps, depth jumps, plyos; these are all necessary training exercises to ensure our bodies can handle the large forces during a competition. And all those forces are absorbed by different parts of the body.

I normally get back pain all the time during my workouts, especially heavy lifting. I had X-rays, I saw a chiropractor (LOL), I would rest, heat, ice.. none of it seemed to do the trick. I tried to stand up more at work, stretch before bed, tweak my lifting form, and I even ordered a lifting belt. Finally, I bit the bullet and got an MRI. In a nutshell, things were wrong and I was sent off to physical therapy.

It was AMAZING.

I learned so much about everything. Exercises, stretching, anatomy.. the news was even on the TV most of the time so I got some glimpses of things that were happening outside of the rock I live under. I left physical therapy a much smarter individual. OH- and it worked.

After three months my pain was all gone. Surprising, as all I did was CORE! Who knew?

Ok, probably everyone knew. It basically re-stabilized my back. I loved how simple it was.

To keep up the core exercises, I like to pretend the muscles of my back, abdomen, hips and glutes are basically a big 'group hug' protecting my spine. I want to make my hug hulk-strong! I want my core to look like Thor's! And so here I site, my thor core hulk hugging my spine, happy as a clam.

So in conclusion, get to work on that core! Not sure where to start? Hit up a personal trainer, physical therapist, or even Google some ab workouts. Here’s a decent plan. Or like, just get down on the floor and plank. It'll help improve your posture, stability, back pain, and more! At the very least, you'll be on the floor, and you can take a nap or something.

-vivalakelc

#HIGHJUMP #INJURY #CORE #LIFTING #BACKPAIN #TRAINING