PJF Blogs Archives - PJF Performance

Building a Springy and Healthy Patellar Tendon (Jumpers Knee Key)

Ashley Fabritz — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:08:01 +0000

These exercises are often the missing link for building a springy and healthy patellar tendon!

The majority of patellar tendon injuries like tendinopathy (jumpers knee), comes from spring loads (that’s when the tendon stores and releases elastic energy rapidly).

Building strength is a good thing, but no amount of slow strength training prepares the tendon for spring loads.

Your tendons are kind of like springs but there’s one major difference: A spring can be compressed and held for a long period of time and it will still release the same energy. Tendons, however, cannot absorb/hold elastic energy and release it. The energy begins to dissipate if the storage and release isn’t rapid. This is why no amount of squats or deadlifts would prepare you for energy storage/release. The point of reversal has to be fast.

This is why plyometrics is so important for performance enhancement and injury reduction. The issue is that athletes usually don’t utilize low level knee dominant extensive plyo’s, which is a great way to introduce the tendon to spring loads.

Human tendons can withstand insanely high spring loads. We just aren’t patient enough to actually start at a tolerable level and gradually overload!

This advice doesn’t just apply to active athletes. If you want to run around with your kids, casually hop out on the court, etc. you need tolerance to spring loads. Traditional fitness/strength training, flexibility, etc. are a great first step but we need tolerance to rapid spring loads in order to safely run, jump, cut and play. If you want to play like a kid for as long as possible, this is a great thing to add into your workout! Check out more workouts like this with Durability Code!

The post Building a Springy and Healthy Patellar Tendon (Jumpers Knee Key) appeared first on PJF Performance.

Build Your Springs! Achilles/Foot Strength, Elasticity and Stability Drill

Ashley Fabritz — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:04:54 +0000

Want the full plan? The Durability Code includes a tendon and foot strength program built around drills like this one.

Use this full TEST + PROGRESSIONS for best results!

Perform 3-4 sets of 20 seconds each leg. 3-5 days per week.

If you are nowhere close to being able to do level 1 of this exercise, check the last portion of the video for the beginner level options. There’s always a pain free starting point! Find it, stay consistent and watch the gains stack up!

So many performance limitations and injuries stem from common foot/ankle issues such as ankle instability, overpronation, inability to pronate/supinate, lacking foot and ankle mobility, weak arches, etc.

I’ve seen athletes who have spent years doing short foot exercises, calf raises, tibialis raises, and any other isolation exercise you can think of with poor long term results when it comes to real ankle stability and building that “pop” you need in the lower leg for performance and health. For rehab purposes/muscle imbalances, these isolation exercises CAN be a good STARTING POINT. But the real magic happens when we start building the foot/ankle with single leg hops, challenging multiple force vectors!

The post Build Your Springs! Achilles/Foot Strength, Elasticity and Stability Drill appeared first on PJF Performance.

How to Improve Your Ball Handling With a Metronome

Ashley Fabritz — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 23:59:02 +0000

This drill is a cheat code for ball control and PACE!

Set a metronome at around 70 bpm (the slower it is the more difficult the drill becomes). Every time the metronome beeps, the ball should be hitting the ground.

This is far more than rhythm… it’s forcing you to slow down and show that you can control the ball against a defender operating at a faster speed. This forces you to learn how to use your body as a shield, use your off arm for protection, manipulate your dribble to avoid getting stripped, etc.

Most ball handlers can be easily sped up with some ball pressure and the main reason is: it’s TOUGH to have ball control at slow speeds.

The majority of players never get exposed to these necessary skills because anytime they feel ball pressure they either 1) Speed up or 2) Dribble lower and/or turn their back to the defender and lose sight of the floor. A lot of players get by with these compensations at the lower levels and never learn real ball control tactics until late into their career.

It’s not easy to hang your dribble wide, use your body and off arm while keeping eyes up to see the floor!

Get a free metronome app, start around 100bpm and have someone reach in to try to get a steal. Try to go 1 min without losing the pace or getting a turnover. Then gradually work towards 70 bpm.

If they have to carry the ball to slow down the dribble, they may need to speed it up a bit (70bpm was a bit too slow for Elijah because of hand size).

Improve your handles and more in our new Unranked Basketball Academy! Click the link below to get started.

The post How to Improve Your Ball Handling With a Metronome appeared first on PJF Performance.

Training Your Feet and Pelvis for Decreased Pain and Improved Posture

Ashley Fabritz — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 23:51:23 +0000

Feet = Your Foundation

Pelvis = Centerpiece of Your Body

Often times we see knee pain, back pain and tightness/mobility limitations caused by sub optimal foot and pelvis function. That doesn’t mean poor function automatically leads to injury, but in sports we consistently see trends in poor function increasing the risk of pain and injury (particularly in conjunction with relatively high workloads).

For people who have lost optimal function of the foundation/centerpiece, there’s good news— we can get it back pretty fast. After all, you probably had it at some point in your life but may have lost it due to inactivity/excess sitting, sport specialization, lack of variability in an exercise program, etc. We don’t have to teach something that’s brand new to your body… we’re just helping you RESTORE your natural movement brilliance.

@conor_harris_brings a lot of value in this area on our program— The Durability Code

Through a combination of “correctives” along with progressive full body strength training, we’ve seen our clients move better, become less restricted in their movements and decrease pain throughout their body.

Let’s build!

The post Training Your Feet and Pelvis for Decreased Pain and Improved Posture appeared first on PJF Performance.

Build a Better Vertical Jump with This Squat Variation

Ashley Fabritz — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 23:46:33 +0000

This squat is one piece of The Vert Code, our bodyweight vertical jump program. See the full program and what is inside.

Here’s a vertical jump exercise that we use in a lot of our programs!

A few key points to consider:

Band tension should be high. If band tension isn’t high and you feel like the bar is light enough to jump with, you won’t get the benefits from the exercise. In that case you would be better off just doing a loaded jump. I’m using the new extended length PJF Fabric Band (which is on Amazon Prime).
The focus has to be on reversing out of the bottom fast. If you have enough band tension/weight it will be tough to get out of the bottom, but not so tough that you look like you’re stuck in quick sand.
In the Mac McClung Jump Program we give different options and demonstrate this with a Smith Machine vs. Trap Bar. These (along with other squat machines like a hack squat) are my favorite options because of the added stability, which allows us to increase neural drive while staying safe. However, this can be done with a regular barbell if you’re advanced and have great squat form and stability.
You don’t need these if you’re a beginner. Milk the lower intensity methods first. Build general strength in the weight room while using jumps to build your power.
Stop yourself and reverse out at your jump specific knee angles. For most people that’s around 90 degrees. You could even go as low as thighs parallel to the floor at times (deeper than jump specific angles). However, I wouldn’t use this method with deep squats. A full range squat has its place when building general strength, but you wouldn’t want to try to build high reversal strength with deep squats as you will be relying more on passive elements at the bottom of the squat. Also, bouncing out of the bottom of a full range squat causes quad or patellar tendon pain in a lot of athletes and the risk to benefit ratio probably isn’t good enough for the majority of people.

Go build.

The post Build a Better Vertical Jump with This Squat Variation appeared first on PJF Performance.

The King of Hip Mobility Drills

Ashley Fabritz — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 22:40:48 +0000

I believe the king of mobility drills (for most people) is anything that leads to improved ability to flex one hip while extending the other hip. This hip dissociation is often locked up, which leads to compensations in walking, running and sprinting.

This doesn’t mean you need to go crazy with your stretching and try to achieve the front splits. We just need REQUISITE mobility in order to walk and run optimally.

This hip dissociation also won’t come from squatting, deadlifting or even single leg squats. But we can begin building this dissociation mobility with split squat variations.

The split squat won’t all of a sudden make you a good runner… but it can give us the requisite mobility through the hips, and also the toes on the back leg (if toes aren’t flexible enough we can’t achieve hip extension + risk many other compensations).

From there we can make it more dynamic and add speed into the picture… and eventually the real magic will happen through running and sprinting itself!

If you’re looking to take your movement quality and durability to another level, check out our new online program—The Durability Code.

Go build.

The post The King of Hip Mobility Drills appeared first on PJF Performance.