Basic stretches and glute activation
Welcome to Week Three!
This week, we are introducing two new elements into the daily routine. A basic stretching routine and a short glute activation series.
Week three also brings a change to the structure of the program. You will continue with the daily routine, but from now onwards you will add a strength training and movement skill workout three times a week. We suggest you have at least 48 hours rest between each of these workouts to allow for recovery.
NB: From this week you will now complete the Knee Isometric holds only during the workout three times per week. You do not need to do these with the daily routine any longer. The daily routine will now consist of the foam rolling, basic stretches and glute activation.
Let’s get started!
Stretches: the Crouching Three
This static stretching routine helps rapidly growing teenagers and children to loosen off their tight muscles and deload their growth plates.
Static stretching is often overlooked by athletes because it’s painful, boring and for many athletes, it’s the broccoli of sport.
Despite this, consistently stretching is one of the most high-value things you can do for your durability, recovery and vertical leap. For Osgood, it’s a brilliant way to help your tight muscles keep up with your growing bones.
To maximise your results, each position should be held for a gentle 30-second stretch. You should feel a light stretching sensation in the muscle but never any joint or back pain.
WARNING: Make sure you use a soft, thick cushion to protect your knees. These stretches should always be comfortable.
Always do this stretching routine after your foam rolling and prior to any strength training exercises. This routine takes approximately three minutes to complete.
A couch cushion, folded up yoga-mat or thick pillow are typically more than adequate to protect your knees when kneeling on the ground. If this still give you some pain, try a higher density foam cushion. We recommend this cushion as it is quite thick and has a handle to be easily taken with you to sporting events/practice.
Stretches instructional video
This short video below explains how to perform the stretches. Our free interval timing app has a pre-built timer for this routine to help guide you.
Exercise: glute activation
In a perfect world, every muscle would do its job all the time. Unfortunately, not all of us are biomechanically perfect, and most people have some degree of faulty muscle activation.
When it comes to Osgood, inactive and weak glutes will alter running, squatting, jumping and landing patterns and can lead to an overload of the knees and quads during sport. By maximising the activation of the glutes during movement you will create an active deload whereby the ground reaction forces of sport will be diverted away from the knees and distributed evenly through the lower body musculature.
You should perform this glute activation routine directly after your stretching.
Glute activation instructional video
The video below shows instructions for how to perform the glute activation routine. You only need to perform one set of each exercise in the series.
Exercise: the glute bridge
Glute bridges are a great exercise for building up hip and core strength without much loading or stress on the knees.
Glute bridges will be a big emphasis for the next few weeks of the program. Not only will you do 10 reps of them every day with your daily glute activation routine, but three times a week, you will need to do extra glute bridges as part of your strength workout.
Glute bridge instructional video
Check out the video below for some form pointers, and pay attention to the reps on each day of the workbook, as these will progressively increase. Take your time with these and do not rush the movement.