Nick Lancaster - Sports Scientist

20/09/2022

As an athlete how do you prepare for your sport?

Often strength & conditioning can be an oversight for most as what happens on field will always be seen as superior.

For those returning to play after this offseason it is imperative to have the right people and approach to support your needs athlete or not.

Our approach will always be treating the person in front of us not the sport.

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14/01/2022

Let’s not confuse muscle definition and size with function. Bodybuilding is about form - size and symmetry are the goals. Sport is about movement.

🧐To be successful in weightlifting, powerlifting, Crossfit, football, soccer, basketball, etc. you need power, control, coordination, speed, and stamina. The goal of training for sports is not to change how your body looks but instead to improve how your body moves.

This means if you want to get better at your sport, you need to focus on training movement patterns rather than isolating individual muscles. When it comes to the core, this means using exercises that improve your awareness & control of spinal mechanics. Movements like the single leg RDL, bird dogs, or zombie front squats all enhance movement control. Don’t spend all of your core training time doing endless crunches IF you truly want to become a better athlete.

📝Identify an end goal & work to have every exercise you perform be a pillar that helps you reach that. Our FOCUS must be on training movement, a great physique is a by-product of training.

24/12/2021

An important cog in the Performax model is our emphasis on developing coaches.
The learning curve between university and working in the industry is steep an often scares graduates off ever starting their career.
At Performax our mission is to help bridge that gap and create coaches that not only go on to be successful, but leaders of the industry going forward.
Because at the end of the day coaches need coaching too.

01/03/2020

☝️Ankle Mobility
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Many things can be limiting ankle dorsiflexion and mobility which can ultimately limit and impact the way we extend our hip!
The two most common being 1️⃣Calf muscle tightness or 2️⃣Ankle joint restrictions. If you have been stretching and rolling your calf for weeks with no improvement in range, more than likely you have a joint restriction.
🔥Try this banded ankle mobilisation technique.
1️⃣Tie asuperband around a pole and put your foot through it with the band underneath your malleoli and on your shoe laces.
2️⃣From here make sure you have a box with some height to provide the joint with some distraction as we are going to be actively stretching the joint capsule ultimately allowing us to acquire more range.
3️⃣Now keeping your heel on the box push your ankle into dorsiflexion.
⏰Mobilise for 45 seconds 15-20 reps. Remember after mobilising you need to follow it up with movement that uses your new range. If your limitation was through a squat drive your ankle into as much dorsiflexion as possible.

10/06/2019

🔥We are Hiring🔥

Very fortunate to be in a position that we can now offer a full time position for an Accredited Sports Scientist/ Exercise Physiologist‼️

Click the link for more details or to apply ✅

• Full Time Sports Scientist/ Exercise Physiologist • Learn from industry leading Allied Health Professionals • Structured career progression

05/03/2019

Full Body Mobility Drill👉🏻
🎯This mobility drill is one of the best bang for your buck movement patterns to optimise mobility through the hips, thoracic spine and shoulder complex.
1️⃣Hip opener: try to keep your back leg as straight and extended as possible in order to stretch the hip flexors. For the front hip, drive your elbow down to open up the hips into flexion.
2️⃣Thoracic spine rotation via the shoulder: build tension in the shoulder girdle and use your down arm to protract your scapula and rotate your torso towards the front leg.
3️⃣Hip flexor stretch: reach up as high as you can additionally bending away from the leg that is to be stretched. Lunging into the front leg will ensure the pelvis is locked out avoiding any low back compensation.
4️⃣Hamstring stretch: try and keep your knee as straight as possible.
📊Ensure this is followed up with an activation drill relative to the programmed day ahead!

03/03/2019

Building strong and stable hips👉🏻
🍑This is one of my favourites for improving hip stability and function. This gluteus medius wall lean will mimic the single leg stance required for functional movements through walking, ambulatory stairs and running. When the gluteus medius is weak it can lead to injuries such as IT band syndrome, medial knee pain, trochanteric bursitis, low back pain, achilles tendinopathy, shin splints and plantar fasciitis.
1️⃣Start with your feet hip width apart.
2️⃣With your knee closest to the wall elevate and push your knee into the ball.
3️⃣Avoid leaning over to your stance limb allowing your trunk to be in a neutral position.
The stance limb will fatigue and feel the burn first, give it a try it is more difficult than it looks!

17/02/2019

🙌Hands down one of the best lower body movement patterns from both a lean tissue and strength perspective🙌
Can be regressed to any split squat variation and progressed to any deficit or barbell. Either as an accessory to your compound lifts or use it as your main lift and focus on tempo and mechanical stress.
From a programming perspective through size, strength and mobility it would be to prioritise these at the forefront.
Today instead of doing 12 per side I did 2 cluster sets of 6 to keep reps more consistent allowing greater loading capacity.

16/02/2019

🍑Why perform Glute Isometrics?🍑
Why should we train the glutes isometrically❓
Not only will this help increase your corticomotor excitability but it will also increase area in the primary motor cortex which is the area of the brain we use to activate muscle fibres.
Here are 3 non-weightbearing exercises improve your glute activation!
1️⃣FireHydrant
2️⃣Side lying hip abduction
3️⃣Clams
Hold each for 2 x 30 seconds and you will feel the burn! This is also a great way to start a patient on a lower extremity strengthening program prior to loading in a closed chain position.

16/02/2019

💥Rotational Landmine Snatch💥
✏️When working with athletes it is important to remember the end goal; to be fast, powerful and explosive relative to the sport.
📝The demands of the sport first need to be defined in order to implement a programming approach that suits the human body in front of you as well as the task at hand.
➡️This Olympic lift variation encourages both rotation and strong overhead positional power making it a great stepping stone to progressing into Olympic style lifting.

16/02/2019

Serratus Swiss Ball Push
A weak serratus anterior can lead to poor scapulo-humeral rhythm and shoulder impingement
Here is a great way to stabilise and strengthen the entire shoulder girdle including but not limited to the rotator cuff
1️⃣Set yourself up with your feet hip width apart and one arm supported on the Swiss ball in front of you.
2️⃣Push away your shoulder blade (protract your scapula) and walk back until you feel a challenging distance for your shoulder musculature, the more you walk back the greater the demand.
3️⃣Add a dynamic component and begin performing circles clockwise and counterclockwise.
📝To make this exercise more functional you can rotate your body 30 degrees away from your stabilising arm putting your shoulder in the scaption plane to achieve optimal muscle length through the shoulder stabilisers!

16/02/2019

⚽️Sling work for footballers⚽️
Think of the Posterior Oblique Sling as a full-body slingshot with elastic bands. An essential component in any athlete development program
‼️Dysfunction in this system puts the brakes on any power, strength and acceleration needed for optimal performance‼️