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Outside Magazine, January 2007

New Year's Resolutions
The Best Offense...

By Katie Arnold & Ryan Brandt


	Illustration by Mark Matcho

Nothing halts your journey to athletic greatness faster than an injury. The trick to avoiding them? Don't fall. But if you do, your odds of walking rather than hobbling away will be much better if you've built up essential support and stability muscles. Bryan Diekmann, who sees some 50 new injuries a week during the winter as a trainer at Vail, Colorado's Steadman Hawkins Clinic, one of the nation's top sports-medicine centers, offers four exercises* to strengthen your defenses.

1. External Shoulder Rotations
WHY: Prevents dislocations, sprains, and tears.
HOW: Works the oft ignored muscles behind your shoulder, which provide socket support during a wipeout.
> Lying on your side, with your top elbow locked at 90 degrees against your hip and a rolled towel in your armpit, rotate a small dumbbell (under 20 lbs) away from your body.

2. Trunk Extension
WHY: Helps avoid lower-back strains and sprains.
HOW: Builds those muscles so you can withstand the sudden lurches of impact sports.
> Holding on to a weight bench and resting facedown on a Swiss ball placed under your hips, raise both legs so that your body is completely straight, then lower (20 reps).



	Illustration by Mark Matcho

3. Resistance-Tubing Squat
WHY: Boosts overall lower-body endurance to avoid those last-run-of-the-day-type injuries.
HOW: Develops all essential leg muscles in coordination to put some power in your balancing skills.
> Start with your legs bent roughly 30 degrees, standing on a taut resistance tube held at shoulder height; squat to 70 degrees (25–50 reps).

4. Side Ball Crunches
WHY: Helps you stay physically centered so you don't biff in the first place.
HOW: Builds obliques, which run alongside your torso.
> Lying sideways with a Swiss ball under your right hip and your feet crossed where floor meets wall, raise your torso toward the ceiling (20 reps each side).

*For all exercises, do three to six sets, building at your own pace.

KATIE ARNOLD is the magazine's managing editor.

Writer RYAN BRANDT, a former Division 1 collegiate basketball player, lives in Berkeley, California.

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