 |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Movement Screen, Body Scan Add Individual Focus To Off-Season Program
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Noah Herron undergoes a Lunar iDXA Fan Beam Densitometer scan. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Mike Spofford, Packers.com
posted 03/16/2007
Last year Head Coach Mike McCarthy's goal with his initial off-season program was to change the atmosphere and environment surrounding the workouts, creating a team dynamic that may have been lacking in the past.
This year, McCarthy and his staff are taking things a step further. With genuine optimism coming off a four-game winning streak to close the 2006 season and another increase in attendance expected for this year's off-season program, the Packers have added some significant individual components to complement the team aspect.
The highlights are two types of screening exams the players will undergo on Monday, the first day of the off-season program - a movement screening administered with the help of the Athletes' Performance Institute (API) in Arizona and a body scan using cutting-edge medical technology - both of which will be used to track players' progress throughout the duration of the off-season.
"We catered more to the group last year," McCarthy said. "It was the importance of working out together and creating the atmosphere. We're improving this year because we're getting more specific to the individual athlete."
The first step in doing so is with the movement screening. It's a test that has been administered to individual players in the past by the team's strength/conditioning and medical staffs, but this will mark the first time the entire team will be tested.
With the help of API to screen all the players in one day, the testing will involve putting each player through a series of seven fundamental athletic movements (squatting and lunging are two examples). The strength/conditioning and medical staffs will be looking for any weaknesses the players display in going through these movements, such as any trouble with balance or posture that could indicate a muscular deficiency in a certain area, like the hips or the hamstrings.
By identifying these weaknesses, the staff can give the player a menu of corrective exercises to include in their workouts to address the deficiencies. The corrections can help a player get in better overall shape and also prevent injuries that could crop up if specific weaknesses in their body structure aren't addressed.
"The imbalances will vary from guy to guy, but once those are recognized, after the screen you focus on the corrections," strength and conditioning assistant Mark Lovat said. "Hopefully we're cutting off injuries or addressing them in a 'pre-hab' way instead of a rehab way."
It's also reassurance for the players that they're doing workouts that will truly help them get in better overall shape, maintaining a healthier body over the long term.
"It's another way to reach out to them individually, to say these are the things you need to do to get better, to avoid injuries, and to stay strong during the season," strength and conditioning coordinator Rock Gullickson said. "That's going to be done the first day they get back."
So will the full body scan, which will utilize a state-of-the-art piece of medical equipment the Packers are the first in the NFL, and perhaps the world of team sports, to have.
Called the Lunar iDXA Fan Beam Densitometer, the machine takes seven to 12 minutes to scan the composition of the entire body, producing not only a measurement of a player's overall body fat, but a differentiation of fat mass versus lean mass in every area of the body.
"If you look at the tissue density, the machine can say this is bone, this is fat, this is lean," head athletic trainer Pepper Burruss said. "It's more of a direct measurement than anything else that's out there."
The Packers began using the iDXA machine last season and learning its benefits. It will help the strength/conditioning and medical staffs not only during off-season workouts, scanning players at periodic intervals, but also with helping players recover from injuries.
"The thing that is very, very exiting to us is the fact that you can 'segmentalize' the body, so that we can tell your left arm versus right arm, left leg versus right leg," Burruss said. "You can see the implication for rehab."
Like the movement screening, the full body scan will specify which areas of the body need the most work during the off-season workouts. A player might want to decrease his body fat by a few percentage points, but knowing he has more fat in his lower body than his upper body will help him focus on the most valuable exercises to achieve his gains and keep his body properly conditioned.
"To me, it will be great for motivation," Gullickson said. "Sure, the players will be able to tell they're lifting more than they did before, they're running faster and jumping higher.
"But to actually see in black and white, this is where you were and this is how you've changed your body, that's a real significant way to help motivate guys this year that we haven't had in the past." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
