How to Incorporate (Ballistic)Power Training into Lower Limb Rehab

Therapists MUST improve the acceleration and deceleration capabilities of their patients to minimise the risk of injury !

Using Ballistic (Power) exercises are a great addition to your rehabilitation tool box.

Ballistic exercises are exercises where the patient or an external object is accelerated into free space through a full range of motion without a deceleration phase. Ballistic training is not commonly utilised in lower limb rehabilitation programmes by physiotherapists.

This is regrettable as programmes designed to rehabilitate return to heavy occupational work or sport will fall short unless this category of exercise in included. The ability to express force at speed is critical for team sports such as rugby, netball and football in which change of direction needs to occur rapidly. As well patients involved in individual sports such as tennis, and gymnastics also require the ability accelerate and decelerate at pace. However, while sport is an obvious example, it should be remembered heavy manual occupations also require the movement of objects at moderate to high speeds, for example the construction worker. The elderly also require fast explosive movements to prevent falls

Ballistic strength underpins all activities that require acceleration, deceleration and change direction at speed. This also relates to the the throwing of objects/ projectiles , be that the patient themselves , another person or an external object for example a construction worker using a sledge hammer!

For ease, it best to divide ballistic exercises into propulsive / acceleratory exercise and force absorption / decelelatory exercises.

In the video that follows I provide some practical examples of diffrent types of power exercises that can be used in a patients rehabilitation programme that require mimimal equipment.

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Further reading

Cormie, P., McGuigan, M. R., & Newton, R. U. (2011). Developing maximal neuromuscular power: part 2 - training considerations for improving maximal power production. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 41(2), 125–146. https://doi.org/10.2165/11538500-000000000-00000

McMaster, Gill, Cronin, & McGuigan, 2014)Cormie, P., McGuigan, M. R., & Newton, R. U. (2011). Developing maximal neuromuscular power: part 2 - training considerations for improving maximal power production. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 41(2), 125–146. https://doi.org/10.2165/11538500-

McMaster, D. T., Gill, N., Cronin, J., & McGuigan, M. (2014). A brief review of strength and ballistic assessment methodologies in sport. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 44(5), 603–623. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0145-2

Suchomel, T. J., Comfort, P., & Stone, M. H. (2015). Weightlifting pulling derivatives: rationale for implementation and application. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 45(6), 823–839. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0314-y

Spiteri, T., Cochrane Wilkie, J., Hart, N., Haff, G., & Nimphius, S. (2013). Effect of strength on plant foot kinetics and kinematics during a change of direction task. European Journal of Sport Science, 13, 646–652. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2013.774053

Suchomel, T. J., Wagle, J. P., Douglas, J., Taber, C. B., Harden, M., Haff, G. G., & Stone, M. H. (2019a). Implementing Eccentric Resistance Training-Part 1: A Brief Review of Existing Methods. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 4(2), E38. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk4020038