Injury Prevention and Performance Tips for Ultimate Frisbee – by Vancouver and Burnaby Physiotherapist
Hey, my name is Patrizio, I’m a Physiotherapist at INSYNC PHYSIO, both at our Cambie and Burnaby locations. I’m here onsite doing Physio coverage for The BC Place Ultimate Frisbee tournament.
Today we are helping out a lot with Sports Injuries and Doing some First Responder work. We see a lot of injuries at these types of events. So what I want to talk to you about is also some injury prevention. It’s good to warm up to get some circulation going, get the muscles ready for activity and to also to cool down with some stretching as well.
So one of the big stretches we like to encourage is the rectus femurs stretch and the hip flexor stretch, as well as the piriformis stretch. And then doing some core work is always a good idea in between games like doing a lateral lunge to step up as well as the “Dead Bug pose” as well. And that should keep you going. Alright, Thank you!
Rectus Femoris Stretch
Prepare a nice cushion for your left knee to be on and a step stool to place the top of the foot on to have greater knee flexion. This will isolate the muscle stretch. Keep your posture nice and tall and imagine there’s a string pulling your whole spine upwards from your pelvis, right up your entire back and neck and up to the top of your head.
Then engage your inner core muscles tight below your belly button and keep your low back flat and contract your left butt muscles. Next, bend the right knee forward and keep your posture nice and tall without leaning backwards. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times for each side.
Hip Flexor Stretch
Kneel down onto your left knee. Then rotate it about 45 degrees past the midline of your body. To keep your posture nice and tall imagine there’s a string pulling your whole spine upwards from your pelvis, right up your entire back and neck and up to the top of your head.
Then engage your inner core muscles tight below your belly button and keep your low back flat. Next, bend the right knee forward and keep your posture nice and tall without leaning backwards. Then reach your left arm up pointing the fingers towards the ceiling nice and high and point your right finger tips to the floor. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times for each side.
Piriformis Muscle Stretch
Lie down on the ground with your right foot on the corner of a wall or door frame to stretch out the left piriform muscle. Start with your right knee at 90 degrees.
If you are really tight at the beginning then increase the angle of that right knee by moving further away from the wall or door frame. Cross your left ankle across your right knee and ensure that your buttock remain touching the ground firmly and your hips staying square to your body.
Stabilize your right ankle with your right hand and extend that ankle into dorsiflexion upwards. Then push your left knee towards your other foot while you keep your inner core engaged and your pelvis nice and stable. Hold this for 30 seconds, doing 3 sets on the affected side daily.
Side Step Lunge: One Arm Presses
Hold onto a 5 pound dumbbell with your right hand. Engage your inner core muscles and keep your posture in neutral. Do a side step lunge with your left foot to the left side and keep your knee pointing forward and over your ankle while you bring the dumbbell down towards that left foot.
Push back up through your left foot and bring your body weight over your right knee. As you flex your left hip, perform a 1-arm shoulder press with the right arm. Make sure your knee stays in alignment with your second toe, and over your ankle as you perform this exercise. Do 10 reps, 3 sets on each side. This exercise can help with progressive strengthening and rehab of your injured knee. It can help you become functionally stronger in jumping for Ultimate Frisbee like in skying the disc in those moments when you feel like you need a dynamically stronger core.
Core Strengthening: The Dead Bug
Hi everybody, just Simon here again. Just going to give you a simple core exercise to do just to strengthen the core. Core is very important like I said before because it creates a stable base just to power into the lower limbs.
So the start position for this is if you just lie on your back, sort of hips and knees at ninety degrees, and arms up like I am here now, and then you're going to extend out your bottom left leg and extend out your right arm, nice nice straight and steady. Then you're going to come back to the start position. Then you're going to do the same on your right leg, extend out right leg and extend back your left arm. Perfect!
Then you’re going to do 10 reps of each for three sets if you can.