CORE STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY TECHNIQUES FOR TEENAGE BOYS

My son plays rugby at his school. Clearly, they are very big on rugby and recently he came home with a vast document, outlining the training regime that they are expected to follow during the summer holidays. One of the recommendations was to join a Pilates class in order to improve their core strength and flexibility. This prompted me to speak to his rugby coach and to offer assistance in incorporating a stretching programme into their rugby training that could be done in-house.

Having qualified as a teacher of deep stretching and strengthening some years ago, I felt that I could help design a programme that could make a difference. I talked to him about introducing stretching techniques for the boys. Getting them to start lengthening the main muscle groups (ie hamstrings, quadriceps, shoulders, chest, gluteals and back) and to develop their understanding of the deeper core muscles. I told him that I passionately believed that by giving the boys a greater understanding of their own bodies and thus more control over their own body movements would not only improve their overall results, but would be hugely beneficial for their long term health and fitness levels.

He agreed with me and as a result, yesterday afternoon I found myself in a hot, sweaty room, attempting to teach twenty-five, 14 year olds how to stretch and strengthen their muscles. Their rugby coach gave a brief introduction, mentioning at some point, “an expert in the field” and I thought “oh who’s that then?”, until I realised he was talking about me! He introduced ME as an “EXPERT”. I couldn’t believe it. An “EXPERT”. I’ve never been called an “EXPERT” before. Actually, I will stop saying it now, because the more I say it, the more unappealing it sounds. “EX-PERT”, (which is definitely a better description – was pert once but thanks to gravity and three children having their evil way with my breasts, am no longer pert). Or even “EX-SPURT”, which actually sounds quite rude.

The session was challenging. I hadn’t taught 14 year old boys before and was quite worried about it. Prior to the session I spent quite a lot of time thinking about and researching my approach. I bought several books on rugby so that I could try to make it more relevant. I talked about how, if you do a shoulder tackle using your core strength (that is by using the strength in your legs to move through the body to your shoulder), then your opponent is more likely to feel the full force. If you literally tackle with your shoulder, you will crumple and fall and possibly injure yourself in the process. I talked about Johnny Wilkinson and even showed them pictures of how high his legs can go (whilst trying not to drool).

My main concern was how to introduce the idea of engaging the deeper abdominals. My son was going to be in the room and whilst I get a certain, sick pleasure out of being able to embarrass my children at any time, I was conscious that I could potentially ruin his entire future school life by saying the wrong thing. I had to somehow present the concept of “Pelvic Floor Muscles” and how to engage them, without causing havoc. Until I was pregnant, I hadn’t heard of “Pelvic Floor Muscles” and then suddenly, they became supremely important. I was lead to believe that unless I did my pelvic floor exercises daily, I was in serious danger of having all my internal organs fall out of my front bottom. Men have pelvic floor muscles too and although things won’t fall out, they are still extremely important in maintaining a supported body. Before I made my decision on how best to approach the subject, I canvassed some of my male friends. “no way, you can’t say that” was their unanimous response. None of them had heard of these muscles, one of them had heard of “core stability” and another one phoned me the next day and said “what the HELL is Pilates?” All of the above mentioned men have long-term back problems I hasten to add.

So, having thought long and hard about it, I decided that I was going to have to mention them anyway. It was important. We worked through the stretches, each one creating a cacophony of terrifying groans. At some point I made the decision to shelve the idea of introducing any deep breathing techniques. Not because I thought that they might not be able to concentrate, but because I was concerned that I might actually pass out from the smell of feet in varying levels of decomposition, if I had to inhale deeply.

I then moved on to the core muscles and told them to imagine that they had a string pulling their belly button to their spine. I told them that by engaging their pelvic floor muscles they would immediately engage their deeper abdominals and that the way to find these muscles (if they didn’t already know) was to imagine first that they were urinating and then to stop mid-flow. Obviously this caused general hilarity and my son went puce.

On the whole, I think it went well. They certainly need to be stretched. They are so inflexible. It really is a worry that we spend so little time keeping our bodies moving these days. I would love to think that this type of programme could really make a difference. And guess what? They gave me a round of applause at the end! I was amazed.

On the way home I asked my son what he thought. “It was fine” was all I got. “Yes, but was it normal for them to clap at the end?”, I asked, secretly willing him to say “never in the history of school life had he known that to happen. “Dunno”, he said.
So I try another approach. “Well, did anybody say anything afterwards?” “No”.
“What, nothing at all? Good or bad?”
“No”
“Are you sure?”
“Mum, they didn’t say it was crap or boring, so it was fine”.
But I persisted, I still hadn’t got a feel for how it had gone. “Well what did you think?”
“It was fine, mum”.
Not good enough, I thought to myself, so I tried “well, on a scale of 1- 10 how would you rate it?
After thinking for a moment he said, “Nine. It would have been ten if you hadn’t mentioned the urinating”.
“RESULT!”, I thought quietly to myself.

Although, it has just occurred to me that I didn’t clarify the “on a scale of 1-10 “ question. I should have added “with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst”. He could have meant that 10 was the worst and therefore it was really crap – will have to ask the poor boy later when I pick him up from school.