Listen Up About Proper Warm Up: the 11+ System

Preventing sports and work injuries has always been a topic of focus.  Sports injuries can cut short an active lifestyle, and work injuries can be expensive and lead to high employer work injury costs and lost productivity. 

Many of these injuries are back injuries, knee injuries, ankle injuries.  Of these, back injuries can be the most debilitating and costly. At Proactive Spine Care, we have see and help all of these injuries to the spine, knee, and ankle, and we excel at better functional rehab and training of these areas. 

A recent research paper published in the Journal of Sports Medicine (November 2015) has found that a proper warm up program can help cut these injuries, and, in fact, all injuries, by about half. 

So what is this proper warm up program? It's called the 11+ Warm Up.   This was developed by a group of international experts through the Federation of International Football (Federation Internationale de Football Association), also known as FIFA. This program also cut missed days by 1/3.  

The 11+ Warm-up System is a series of movements that emphasize proper movement control, alignment, and coordination. It is a complete program that should replace other usual warm-up programs prior to play and training. It was tested in amateur athletes over age 14, and emphasizes proper technique, control and core agility.  It also recognizes the need for various levels of difficulty in skills-based warm-ups for better performance and training. 

How does it work?  The 11+ Warm-up is a three part system: 1) running exercises, 2) strength/plyometrics/balance, and followed by 3) running exercises.  Within the 2nd stage (balance/strength/ploymetrics) are 3 levels of difficulty.  The entire warm up is estimated to take 20 minutes. The full program is intended to be conducted with a partner.

Part 1 - Running:   

1. Straight orientation
2. Hip Out orientation
3. Hip in orientation
4. Circling Partner (or cone)
5. Shoulder Contact. 
6. Quick Forwards & Backwards.

Part 2 - Strength / Plyometrics / Balance:   

1. The Bench (Plank)
2. Sideways Bench (Plank)
3. Hamstring inclines
4. SIngle Leg Stance (with graduating force control)
5. Squats (with graduated base of support challenges)
6. Jumping (varying difficulty)

Part 3 - Running:   

1. Running (with varying speed and varying base of support target changes)

The key point is this entire 11+ System is to use proper technique during all exercises, and paying attention to correct posture, and good body control. What is good posture, alignment and control?  That is proper body alignment from the spine through the extremities, and continuing proper alignment through movement and force control over time.  It is full body control + dynamic movement + endurance. 

This is exactly what we teach at ProActive Spine Care in our rehab programs.  The interesting thing is that we at ProActive Spine Care have been developing and teaching these types of progressive control, agility, and endurance-based concepts and approaches for spine and body core and general training and rehab of a wide range of muscle and joint conditions in the musculoskeletal system for years.  We have been developing and teaching better strategies that also cross over to better home care.  

Using these kinds of approaches, we have been able to better treat back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and rotator cuff problems, knee pain and injuries, whiplash, disc conditions, sports performance training, injury prevention and more.  We have set out to be the Tacoma chiropractor who provides the best care available. 

If you are looking for better care, including better home care, injury prevention, and a focus on functional fitness and stopping recurrent pain cycles, give us a call.  We are your 5-Star Tacoma chiropractor, and we have been helping muscle, joint, injury, and performance issues for over 25 years.  Call us today.  253-564-1288.