Using a flywheel device for cost effective assessment by Gilson Sampaio Pereira
[Gilson Sampaio Pereira is a master's student at University of Stuttgart, Germany, and Sport Performance Coach. He is currently in the Coaching Mentorship Program at Athletic Lab] In this blog post I will present a simple and cost effective method of assessing concentric and eccentric strength/power during hip extension. Lower limb asymmetries can also be assessed in the same test. The test is a hip extension exercise, with a flywheel device (FD) to generate an eccentric overload. The FD is gaining popularity on the S&C and athletic development scene because it exposes athletes to high loads with minimum equipment. Additionally, there might be superior gains in strength, power and hypertrophy with flywheel training due to an eccentric overload, when compared to traditional resistance training (Maroto-Izquierdo et al., 2017). First, a little background Let's begin by stepping into the literature to better understand why testing hip extension strength could be of value to athletes and coaches. Hip extension is a basic functional movement. The major hip extensors are the spinal erectors, gluteus maximus, biceps femoris (long head), semitendinosus, semimembranosus and adductor magnus. First, compared to knee extension, hip extension is more important in running speed (Schache et al., 2011), jump height (Lees et al. 2004) and back squat (Bryanton et al. 2011). Therefore, the role of hip extension becomes more significant when athletic movements are executed with a high intent. As a logical consequence, a sound S&C coach should favor the development of the hip extensors in their preparation and maintenance phases throughout the year. This was backed up by a study from Contreras et al. (2016) that showed a greater effect of horizontally than vertically loaded hip extension training on sprint acceleration (e.g. hip thrusters). [...]
