Oct 13, 2017Lower Body Power
Andrea Hudy, MA, CSCS, USAW, LMT, is Assistant Athletics Director for Sport Performance at the University of Kansas where she handles the strength and conditioning responsibilities for the KU men’s and women’s basketball teams. We asked her to share her ideas and approaches to lower body training.
What is your philosophy on training the lower body?
Hudy: We train the lower body at least four days a week using non-linear periodization. We vary the intensity on each day and instead design our training–whether it is resistance training or conditioning–based on synchronous or asynchronous activities. I define synchronous activities as those that require high muscle recruitment for muscle power-max effort training and asynchronous activities as more muscle endurance-submaximal effort training done over a longer period of time.
For example, on a Monday we might condition synchronously using plyometric activities and short acceleration and agility drills, then we will resistance train asynchronously using a total body work capacity circuit. The next day we switch, but always start with the synchronous activity. We perform a high power output synchronous resistance-training workout, then an asynchronous conditioning activity.
What lower body deficiencies are you seeing most often in young athletes who enter your program?
Hudy: Our basketball roster is comprised of many different body types, so we deal with different types of deficiencies amongst all athletes. But generally speaking, with the amount of lateral movement that occurs in basketball, I like to put an emphasis on the external rotators of the hip. I believe that mechanically, the external rotators can help athletes maintain good body position. By strengthening the external rotators we can also improve knee mechanics. Hip, groin, hamstring, and posterior chain strengthening are also at the top of our list of target areas.
What lower body corrective exercises do you use most often?
Hudy: We have a lot of movement variations and intensity changes in our system that allow us to implement a high number of super, complex, and/or compound exercise sets. This provides us with a high degree of variability, so we have the opportunity to examine movement in each plane. We perform as many ground-based movements as we can while understanding the importance of specific hip, groin, hamstring, and posterior chain strengthening. Exercises such as fire hydrants, hip circles, poor man ham curls, and hypers are implemented daily.
What is your preference for lifting splits when addressing the lower body?
Hudy: For us, it is not about splits, but rather intensity. Monday is our higher volume day, and what we do on Mondays can change from one week to the next. On a daily basis, we are implementing sagittal, frontal, transverse, and multi-planar lower body exercises. Tuesday is a high load, low volume day. Thursday is our strength day, and Friday is our speed-strength day with low to moderate loads.
For example, with basketball athletes, on Tuesdays we’ll start with squat jumps with a bar and pair it with rapid fire box jumps, then do a basketball movement using resisted cables. So we’re getting an explosive movement, a plyometric exercise, and a basketball movement in our superset. From there, we’ll move to snatches and do in-depth jumps and an overhead rip–which is a basketball movement. Then we’ll go to cleans and do more of the same thing along with front squats, incline seated rows, and raises.
Where does flexibility training fit into your program?
Hudy: With proper resistance and movement training, one can increase flexibility or gain functional flexibility. All of our workouts follow a progressive warmup until we get to the heart of the work. If our athletes want or need to increase flexibility, they come in pre-workout and stay post-workout. There is a minimal amount of static stretching.
What role does balance training play in developing the lower body?
Hudy: I usually get players pre- or post-practice so they are already wearing ankle braces, which are required in our program. So performing exercises on an unstable surface might not be as beneficial at that point. We do, however, implement balance exercises on a balance beam and perform many single-leg rotational exercises using our functional power-speed cable columns.
