30 Day Football Player Mobility Challenge
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A Prioritization on mobility is a mission of critical piece to achieve peak performance as a football player. This 30-Day Mobility Challenge has been created to help you make mobility work a daily consistent habit. Prioritizing mobility in the hips, ankles and shoulders will help you run faster, jump higher and lift more weight in the weight room. The challenge consists of 7 mobility exercises that you will do 5x a day to improve shoulder, ankle and hips flexibility. When you wake up, midday, before your training session, after your training session and before you go to bed. -Upon Completion of this Challenge you will be able to • Run Faster • Jump Higher • Lift More Weight • Reduce Injury Risk
THE CHALLENGE - 10 STRETCHES 5X a DAY FOR 30 DAYS – Are you Man Enough?
Ankle Mobility Ankle Mobility is important for all athletes, but it is especially important for football players. The reason for that is because the more flexible you are, the lower you can get P.O.C (Point of Contact). Usually the player who is lowest at point of contact wins the hit, and wins the battle.
Ankle Mobility Drill - Front knee is in front of you, knee on top of the ankle, back knee is on the floor. Place front foot 3 inches away from Wall and rock back and forth without lifting the heel off the ground. *** Do 15 pushing the knee straight ahead, 15 to the outside (small toe), and 15 driving the knee past the big toe. Then switch legs ***
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Biggest Takeaways: Biggest Takeaways: 1) This is a mobility drill not a static stretch. You want to rock the ankle back and forth, not hold the stretch, 2) Watch the heel. It is essential that the heel stays in contact with the floor. Most people who have ankle restrictions will immediately lift the heel. I will often hold the heel down for athletes who I know have tight ankles until they get the hang of it.
Baseline Ankle Mobility Test Measure how close your knee comes to the wall. Make sure the heel is not off the ground when doing this measurement.
HABIT - Make Mobility Work a Habit. “Bad habits are hard to break. Good habits are hard to break too.” Chase Jackson One of the goals of this challenge is to make mobility work a habit. Make it something that you do in your day without even having to think about it, like brushing your teeth. Good habits are the engine that drives the peak performance we most admire: those people who consistently seem to crush it on the field, stay healthy, stay connected to their teammates and coaches, and do all of this while remaining calm and happy. The easy explanation for their success is to say that they’re somehow built differently or better than the rest of us, but if they are, it’s only because of one key thing: they are better at building and sustaining new habits.
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New Habits vs Old Habits New habits are things that you do, but old habits are things that you are. There’s a difference between waking up early and being an early riser, eating a healthy meal and being a healthy eater, getting some stretching done and being a mobility master. If you want to improve your mobility permanently, you must develop more old habits, which is done by creating new habits and sticking with them until they mature into old habits. You know that a habit has crossed that threshold when it becomes something that you subconsciously do, rather than something you must think about doing. Conquering this 30Day mobility challenge will make mobility a part of who you are. Mobility work will become old habit.
30 Day Football Player Mobility Challenge
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HIPS - I am obsessed with stretching the hips. For all athletes it is true that the looser your hips the faster you can run, the higher you can jump and the more weight you can lift. But for football players it is especially important. I learned from Urban Meyer that football is all about getting from Point A to Point B in the fastest time possible. The average football play is between 4 to 6 seconds and whoever gets to their spot first in that time period is going to have a distinct advantage. The looser the hips the more explosion you will have to get to point B before your opponent. I learned these 3 hip stretches from Speed & Explosion Specialist Tim Grover. Over the last 2 ½ decades Grover has personally trained Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade and Kobe Bryant among others. He is without a doubt the thought leader in the Speed
• Fire Hydrants – With your knees bent, lift one leg laterally as high as possible without tilting the pelvis, keep the hips and shoulders square to the floor. Your knee must be bent throughout the exercise, not straightened in back, so our heel stays close to your butt throughout the entire exercise. Lock into that position during the rotations. *** Do 15 times forward, 15 times backward, 15 times to the side. Hip Flexor Stretch – Front knee in front of you, knee on top of the ankle, back knee on the floor, hips pressed forward. ** Using the hand opposite the back leg, pull the foot towards your butt, leaving the knee on the floor. Raise the other hand with a slight side bend overhead. Keep your hips pressed forward until you feel the stretch in the hip area. Push your other hand as high as you can into the air. I tell my athletes to act like you are trying to press into the ceiling or the sky. *** Do 60 Seconds Each Side ***
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Biggest Takeaways: 1) Small Circles 2) Keep the Back parallel to the ground.
Glute Bridge - Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor shoulder-width apart, gluts tight, fingers pointed to the ceiling. Elevate your hips as high as possible. Pull one knee toward your chest, with the opposite foot on the floor, resting on your heel. Your toes are pointed up. * Raise and lower your hips in a slow controlled motion. Do 15 reps on one side and then do 15 reps on the other side.
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Biggest Takeaways: 1) Push knee as close as possible to chest. 2) Both toes pointed towards your head.
Hip Flexor Stretch – Front foot forward, knee on top of ankle, back knee on the floor, hips pressed forward. Using the hand opposite the back leg, pull the foot toward your butt, leaving the knee on the floor. Raise the other hand as high as you can overhead. Keep your hips pressed forward until you feel the stretch in the hip area. * Hold for 60 seconds and repeat on the other side
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Biggest Takeaways:
1) Get foot as close to your butt as possible 2) Reach as high as you can with other arm.
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WILLPOWER This 30- Day Challenge will require a serious dose of willpower. Are you ready? - All football players are born with the capacity of willpower, but some use it more than others. Football players who have better control of their attention, emotions and actions are better off almost any way you look at it. They are in more control of their thoughts, actions, and thus in more control of their play in the field. They are much able to manage stress, deal with conflict and overcome adversity. They even live longer.
5 Ways to Boost Willpower •
Meditation - Check out my E-Book on the 5 Reasons Why Meditation is Good for Athletes.
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Commit - Figure who you want to be as a player and how you are going to get there. Then every moment ask yourself “Is what I am doing right now making me a better football player?” And remember the more mobility work you do the faster you can run, the higher you can jump and the more weight you can lift.
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Slow your breathing down - Slow your breathing down to four to six breaths per minute. That’s ten to fifteen seconds per breath—slower than you normally breathe, but not difficult with a little bit of practice and patience. Slowing the breath down activates the prefrontal cortex and increases heart rate variability, which helps shift the brain and body from a state of stress to self-control mode. A few minutes of this technique will make you feel calm, in control and capable of handling cravings or challenges.
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Eat low-glycemic foods -“To boost self-control eat foods with a low glycemic index: most vegetables, nuts (like peanuts and cashews), many raw fruits (like apples, blueberries, and pears), cheese, fish, meat, olive oil and most Importantly lots of good fats”.
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Keep your residence, car and locker area clean - You may not care about whether your bed is made and your desks clean, but these environmental cues subtly influence your brain and your behavior, making it ultimately less of a strain to maintain self-discipline. Order seems to be contagious.
SHOULDER MOBILITY Shoulder mobility is an essential component of achieving peak performance in football. Football involves a ton of upper body pushing and this optimally requires a full range of motion and shoulder mobility is a necessity.
• Baseline Test - Raise one arm, bend elbow and reach down across back with palm facing upper back. Position opposite arm down behind back and reach up across back with back of hand against back. (As shown in photos above.) Execution: With fingers extended, try to cross fingers and upper hand over lower hand. Repeat with arms in opposite position.
• Measurements a Measure distance from fingertip to finger tip.
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Kneeling Shoulder Stretch
– On knees facing ply box, couch or bench approximately 3 feet away, place palms on box and drive chest down, brace abdomen and relax with straight arms.
Wall “Snow” Angel Stretch
- Sit upright against a wall with the feet together, torso upright and back pressed against the wall. Press both forearms into the wall with the hands flat and the arms locked out. Bring the arms back down once your start to feel them come off the wall.
• Biggest takeaways: 1) Back Stays against the Wall. 2) Arms stay against the Wall and are Locked.
REDUCE KNEE INJURY RISK • Couch Stretch – The Couch Stretch is a weapons-grade technique to open up the hip and open up some slack upstream of the knee. It can help alleviate some of the common types of knee pain that football players confront, like patella tendonitis and also help solve hip and back pain troubles.
1. Back your feet up against a wall, a box or against the upper cushion of your couch. If you are using a hard floor, put down a cushion for your knee. 2. Slide your left leg so that the knee fits into the corner where the floor meets the wall (or whatever corresponding corner you might be using). Make the shin flush with the wall and point the toe. IMPORTANT: Squeeze your glutes and your left glute in particular. Keep squeezing throughout the mobilization. This will stabilize your lower back and correctly position your hip joint. 3. Now draw up the right leg and post it in front of you with a vertical shin. 4. With butt squeezed, drive the front of the hip toward the ground. Maintain this position for at least a minute. 5. Now really crank the hip flexor by lifting up your torso (glutes still engaged) and hold for another minute. 6. Drive the torso upright, with glutes and abd ominals engaged.
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- I encourage you to embrace the mobility lifestyle as it will guarantee to help you reduce injury risk,to get you faster, to jump higher, and to be able to lift more weight. Learn more about how to Achieve Peak Performance at
chasejacksonpeakperformance.com
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Designed by: Gamal Eldien E-mail: Gamaleldientarek@outlook.com
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