Anthony P. Fiegen, MD

Anthony P. Fiegen, MD

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Man demonstrates a push up to activate your muscles prior to working out.Man doing push up to demonstrate how to warm-up your muscles for a workout or form of physical activity.

5 Exercises to Activate Your Muscles & Improve Your Workout

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Muscle activation exercises connect the body and mind to enhance your workout and optimize your results. Activation exercises are typically short, isolation exercises that target specific muscles to “wake them up”. Just like stretching, activation exercises increase blood flow to prepare the muscles for weightlifting, cardio, sports, or other physical activities.

We will explain these 5 activation exercises throughout the blog:

  • Superman holds to activate your back
  • Push-ups to activate your chest
  • Band pull apart to activate your shoulders
  • Monster walks to activate your glutes
  • Walking lunges to activate your quads

Click HERE to learn more about muscle activation.

How Perform Activation Exercises

Activation exercises only take a few minutes, but are extremely valuable. They can easily fit into your warm-up and require little to no equipment.

Perform each exercise at a slow tempo. Focus on the moving body part and the muscle that is being engaged during the exercise. This will ensure you are activating the right muscle groups.

To advance the exercise, contract the muscles at the peak of the exercise.

Some exercises require a resistance band. A resistance band will increase the difficulty of the exercise and further increase muscle activation. When using a resistance band, choose one that is not too tight or too loose and allows you to keep constant tension throughout each exercise.

Learn more about resistance bands HERE.

Perform the Following 5 Activation Exercises

Superman Holds Activate Your Back

Lie on your stomach with your legs straight back and arms stretched above your head. Your forehead should also be resting on the floor. Exhale and slowly lift your arms, legs, and head off the floor. Keep your arms and legs straight as you hover them over the ground. You should feel your back muscles and glutes engage and activate.

Hold for 5 seconds and repeat for 3 sets.

Push Ups Activate Your Chest

Begin on all fours with your hands shoulder-width apart. Extend you legs straight back so all your weight is on your hands and toes. Maintain a neutral spine from head to toe.

Before you begin, engage your core. Slowly bend your elbows and lower yourself down until your elbows are at a 90-degree angle while keeping your elbows tucked in by the side of your body. Contract your chest muscles and push back up through your hands to the starting position.

For beginners, perform the push up on your knees rather than your toes.

Do 5-10 push ups and repeat for 3 sets.

Band Pull Aparts Activate Your Shoulders

You will need a resistance band for this exercise. Choose a resistance band strength that allows you to get through the exercise while maintaining good form.

Stand tall with good posture and your feet shoulder-width apart. Start by holding the resistance band with an overhand grip at shoulder height with your arms extended out in front of your body. Your hands should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Maintain a slight bend in your elbows. Rotate your shoulders outward to engage your lats and upper back.

To initiate the movement, squeeze your upper back and begin to pull the band apart. As your arms begin to move backwards, your shoulder blades should retract and come together. When your arms are fully extended out to the side of your body, squeeze your upper back muscles, hold for a few seconds, and return to the starting position.

Repeat the exercise 10 times for 3 sets.

Read about how the Band Pull-Apart exercise can improve your posture HERE.

Monster Walks & Squats Activate Your Glutes

You will need a resistance band for this exercise. Choose a resistance band strength that allows you to get through the exercise while maintaining good form. Place the resistance band around your ankles.

For lateral monster walks, stand shoulder-width apart, keep your head, shoulders, and chest forward, and actively engage the glutes and your core. Keep a slight bend in your knees throughout the exercise.

Take a wide step laterally (to the side) with your right leg or lead leg, followed by your left leg or trail leg.

Continue stepping laterally for 10 steps and repeat on the other leg in the opposite direction. Repeat for a total of 2 sets in each direction.

Watch a step-by-step video about Monster Walks & Squats

Read more about Monster Walks & Squats HERE.

Walking Lunges Activate Your Quads

Start with your feet hip-distance apart. Maintain good posture with your torso upright and tall, core engaged, shoulders back, and chin lifted.

Take a big step forward with your right foot. Your left heel should lift naturally off the ground. Keep your core engaged as you bend your knees and lower your back knee toward the floor. Your knees should both make 90-degree angles. When you step forward with your left leg, your knee should not extend past your ankle.

Push through your right heel using your thigh muscles to rise to a standing position and lift your left foot from the ground. As your left foot comes forward, follow through with a big step forward. Keep your core engaged as you bend your knees and lower your back knee toward the floor. Your knees should both make 90-degree angles. Stop before your knee touches the floor.

Start with 10 lunges per leg and repeat for a total of 3 sets.

Summary

Muscle activation exercises are a great way to prepare your body for physical activity. Include these 5 exercises prior to your workouts or physical activities to optimize your outcome by encouraging mobility, joint stability, and safe, injury-free training.

Experiencing Joint, Muscle, or Bone Pain or Injury?

Are you experiencing pain in your bones, joints, or muscles? Make an appointment with Orthopedic Institute. Our orthopedic specialists will evaluate your problem and create a personalized care plan for your pain or injury.

Scheduling an appointment is easy. Click, call, or text us. Or self-schedule your visit.

  • To call, click 605-331-5890 and talk with our scheduling team.
  • To text, click 605-331-5890 and text APPT to us, and our chatbot will help get you started.
  • To self-schedule at our Sioux Falls office, click SELF-SCHEDULE, and follow the prompts.

       

Radial Pulse Therapy used to treat Plantar Fasciitis, Tennis Elbow, and other forms of Tendinitis at Orthopedic Institute.

The Best Treatment for Plantar Fasciitis and Tennis Elbow

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Michael J. Adler, MD

Michael J. Adler, MD

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8 Reasons Sports Medicine Is Essential for Active Athletes

7 Reasons Sports Medicine Is Essential for Active Athletes

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We all know how important exercise and physical activity are to good health. But if you’re an active athlete looking to up your game, it’s even more important to add specialized sports medicine care to your team. Think injury prevention, performance training … and a whole lot more.

Here are 7 reasons sports medicine is essential for active athletes. 

  1. Specialization: Unlike general practitioners or ER docs, sports medicine professionals are specially trained to diagnose and treat athletic injuries – especially when it comes to concussions and repetitive motion injuries.
  2. Rehabilitation: Most sports injuries will require a rehabilitation period with or without physical therapy. This process is vital to recovery, and should never be left to chance.
  3. Prevention: Sports medicine professionals understand how athletes practice and play, and can offer expert  advice on preventing injuries and avoiding re-injury.
  4. Personalization: It’s all about you! Sports medicine professionals – like our top-notch physical therapy team – can evaluate your anatomical strengths and weaknesses to make personal recommendations for everything from running shoes to training regimens.
  5. Strength & Mobility: A quality sports medicine program will help athletes focus on individual strength, speed, mobility and agility. Learn more about OI Performance in Sioux Falls.
  6. “Return to Play” Decisions: If there’s anything a sidelined athlete thinks about, it’s “When do I get back in the game.” Trained sports medicine professionals can help you make this all-important decision at the right time, to reduce the risk or re-injury.
  7. Teamwork: Active athletes need a sports medicine specialty team that works together – from physical therapists and athletic trainers to board-certified, orthopedic surgeons.

These days, student athletes start playing younger and younger. Wondering if yours needs to be seen for an ache or pain? Read the 4 Reasons a Walk-In Physician is Beneficial for Your Student Athlete.

4 Reasons a Walk-In Physician Is Beneficial for Your Student Athlete

4 Reasons a Walk-In Physician Is Beneficial for Your Student Athlete

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Being a parent to a student athlete makes for an exciting, busy and sometimes nerve-racking life. Watching your athlete run past home plate, catch the winning touchdown or spike the ball over the net is exciting—but when it comes to sudden injury, your heart probably skips a beat.

Luckily, the services of an orthopedic walk-in clinic can be a big help in remedying this. Here are four reasons why.

At-the-Moment Convenience

Having kids can fill up a schedule fast, but having student athletes can fill up a schedule even faster—especially when it comes to injury. Luckily, orthopedic walk-in offices are often available to you when injuries occur—after regular clinic hours. Orthopedic Institute’s (OI) walk-in hours range from 3 to 7 p.m., weekdays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Saturdays, so you can rest more easily that specialists are ready to care for you student athlete in a timely manner. OI also hosts morning student-athlete clinics on the third floor of its facility Saturdays through Oct. 21, 9-11 a.m. You can check in your student athlete between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m.

Prevent Emergency Room Bills

Having student athletes can get expensive—from paying for equipment to the gas to drive them to practice or attend games—but injuries don’t have to be. Emergency room bills are an expense you can sometimes cut by seeing a walk-in physician for non-emergency situations. Sprains and fractures are not uncommon for student athletes and can be treated by one of OI’s walk-in physicians and can save you the ER visit.

Cut the Middleman

While an ER is always available, moderate or non-severe injuries might not get preferential treatment on being seen when emergency medical situations are present in other patients. If you are not the highest-risk patient in the waiting room, you will likely see a longer wait time. And if your student athlete is referred to a specialist, an appointment may not be available for a few days following your ER visit. OI’s walk-in clinic is designed to handle these types of injuries and offer direct contact with an orthopedic specialist when you stop in. 

See a Specialist

Speaking of specialists… Two common injuries athletes suffer from are sprains and knee injuries—physicians at OI are specialized in sport injuries, with physicians that can treat ACL and other knee injuries, as well as foot, ankle, hand, wrist, elbow, back, neck, shoulder and knee injuries. When your athlete gets hurt, go somewhere that offers specialization to ideally see a faster recovery time.

Essential Strength & Stability Exercises for Female Golfers

Essential Strength & Stability Exercises for Female Golfers

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An average golfer makes roughly 50-60 full swings per round. Each swing puts our joints near their end range of motion, particularly in the shoulders, spine and hips. If one does not possess the range of motion or strength to do this, then we put ourselves at additional risk of injury – which is why 46% of women suffer from low back pain and injuries from golfing.

Reduce your risk of injury with these essential strength and stability exercises for all golfers—but especially women.

Working with many golfers, healthy and injured, I notice trends in the physical characteristics between male and female golfers. For example, women tend to have much better mobility while men typically possess more strength while lacking range of motion.

Because of this, female golfers usually benefit from strength and stability exercise routines to help their muscles better protect their body while swinging a golf club. A simple warm-up routine (before you touch a golf club) that activates these muscles will have drastic effects on your body’s capabilities.

Use these two simple exercises to increase stability in your back and core, and to help protect your spine while golfing. If necessary, I recommend a physical screen and swing analysis to determine specific areas of emphasis that can improve your golf game and keep your body healthy.

Arm/Leg Floor Stretch

  • Start in the quadruped position (all fours) with arms and thighs perpendicular to the floor.
  • While stabilizing your spine in a neutral pelvic posture, extend your right leg and left arm simultaneously.
  • Make sure your spine stays neutral throughout the maneuver and repeat with the opposite side.

“Y” Exercise Ball Stretch

  • Lie on your stomach on top of an exercise ball with your arms out in front of you as though you are making the letter “Y.”
  • Raise your right arm and your left leg in the air and hold for 5 seconds.
  • Repeat this with the left arm and right leg. Perform 10 reps on each side. This builds the important muscles in the back that will help protect you during your golf swing.

Adam Halseth is a Physical Therapist and Golf Medical Professional with a Level 3 certification from the Titleist Performance Institute. He specializes in sports medicine and golf rehabilitation, and directs the OI Golf Medicine Program. Adam graduated from Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences with his Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2014.

5 Pieces of Student Athlete Protective Gear for Outdoor Sports

5 Pieces of Student Athlete Protective Gear for Outdoor Sports

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The fall is just around the corner—the student athletes in your family might already have started practices to prep for the upcoming season. But when it comes to staying safe in outdoor practices and games, there are several ways you can outfit your athlete with the right protection.

Here are five pieces of protective gear you should keep in mind.

Eyewear

Athletic glasses aren’t merely for those students who wear contact lenses or traditional glasses in their daily lives—eye protection is a great option for vision safety in general. Ensure you’re using certified sports protective eyewear that meets the standards and rules of the sport in question. Not all sports eyewear is prescribed—you can wear this type of protection to prevent injury or impact and to block out over-exposure to UV rays.

Mouthguards

Their requirement in organized sports varies, but any contact-sport athletes should at least consider a mouthguard, whether it’s mandated or not. This level of protection can reduce your risk of tooth chips or breaks, and even cuts on the inside of your mouth. Just make sure that it’s been properly fitted to your jaw—have it fitted by a sports medicine professional for best results.

Properly-Fitted Helmet

Many sports, particularly high-impact ones, require use of a helmet for all or part of game time. But if your student athlete’s helmet isn’t properly fitted, it can’t truly do its job to the best of its potential. Make sure the pads inside the helmet, the chin strap and the face mask meet standards set by your state’s athletic board. As far as fit goes, a good rule of thumb is that it should fit relatively snugly without use of the chin strap. Make sure to check for a NOCSAE (National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment) sticker—it’s the organization that regulates the safety of helmets.

Padding

Depending on the sport, joint protection could be critical for you student athlete. This may include the standard elbow and knee pads for resisting injury from tumbles and contact with competitors. Hip and tail pads are required for high-contact sports such as football or hockey and can provide protection from contusions.

Sun Protection

Depending on the time of year, one piece of protective gear that may be easy to count out are those that screen out sun exposure. Whether it’s visors or billed hats to keep sun out of eyes in outdoor events or proper application of sunblock, student athletes spend a great deal of time in direct sunlight in practices, games and meets. Reduce the risk of skin cancer and other related complications by planning ahead.