VMO Activation Progressions

VMO Activation Progressions are a series of exercises that focus on strengthening and activating your Vastus Medialis Obliquus (VMO) muscle, which is critical for healthy knee function. These progressions range from basic exercises such as contraction holds, to more challenging movements like plyometric landings and single leg hops. The goal of VMO Activation Progressions is to build strength and stability throughout the hip and knee joints, which helps to prevent injuries and reduce

Transcript

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This is Brent coming at you with another
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progressions video. In this video we're
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going to do progressions of vastus medialis obliques activation or VMO activation.
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Now admittedly this is not one of my favorite activation exercises. I do
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believe that most knee issues come from either ankle or a hip dysfunction and it
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is more important to address those issues to ensure that the knee functions
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optimally, but most VMO activation exercises the VMO is still important. Do
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work on terminal extension all right, in that terminal extension that last few
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degrees of extension is very important to function. I'm going to have my friend
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Leanne come out she's going to help me demonstrate this exercise. The first
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thing we're going to start with is an exercise we actually already did in
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something called quad sets and progressions. We're going to do this just to
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start stimulating her quad before I take her into a more integrated movement
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pattern. Now if this is a progression, I'm working towards the end, I'm trying to
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get Leanne back to her tough mudders and all the other crazy races that she does.
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Alright I'm going to work on just that terminal extension. So the way we work on
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range of motion with quad sets because we put the foot up on a pillow or a dowel,
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or this pillow thing, we go ahead and put a little towel under their knee as a
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tactile cue, and now I have her try to squeeze the towel, and since this is
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raised up she works on that end range extension. To resist that this almost
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goes back to what I was talking about before with ankle and hip being more
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important to knee dysfunction. I'm actually going to resist her through
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tibial tibialis anterior activation and then the quad set, and just the whole way
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this lever is set up she will get some resistance on her quad. I'm going to have
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her use that 2-4-2 count all right. So she's going up for two, holding that
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isometric for four, and then back nice and slow for two. I'm going to have her do
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12 to 20 reps this is the first exercise. Then to get her further warmed up to
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start integrating this I am going to go ahead and progress that TKE, that total knee
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extension you guys saw in a previous video. So let's go ahead and flip this
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around.
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Now what Leanne's going to set herself up to do, is it's gonna look like she's
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setting up for that total knee extension exercise except I'm going to have her take
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a step back with this foot now, and she's going to set herself up for a static lunge.
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So it's that same exercise that still resisted terminal knee extension, only
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now I have her working through a larger range of motion and a little bit more
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functional pattern. A couple of notes here guys;
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notice that the band is not set up straight this way, I don't know if you
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can see that on the camera but I have a little bit of an angle this way
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to try to pull her into adduction and internal rotation. What that's going to
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stimulate is abductor an external rotator activation, aka glute stimulation.
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I want her to use her glutes as much as possible. Alright so we know that a lot
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of knee dysfunction happens from that inability to eccentrically decelerate
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that adduction and internal rotation force, we need as much glute activity as
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we can. So she's going to go ahead and reach down with this hand, touch that toe so
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she's lengthening her glutes maximally by internally rotating,
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flexing, now she's going to squeeze her glutes, squeeze her quad and lock her
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knee on the way up, making sure she's driving through this front leg. She's
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going to go ahead and do this let's say 19 more times, you got it in you? Sure. You
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guys can up the resistance on these bands, this exercise can be done with a
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fair amount of weight. I know my larger athletes use the cable column and we
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actually use it, if you guys have ever seen those straps for the the hanging leg raises,
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which I'm not recommending, we'll use those same straps put them around the
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lower leg, so that we can use a cable column machine and get up in a little
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bit more weight. I didn't say you could stop. Oh.
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Alright so this is our progression from TKE's
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to make sure we're getting more glute stimulation, we're making sure that we're
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activating the quad through a larger range of motion. We're getting better VMO
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activity, at least what we can throughout a larger range of motion, and getting
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Leanne more prepared for the activity she does, in this case sport being all of
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these adventure races. I guess you'd call them being the tough mudders and the
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zombie runs, and everything else she does. I hope you guys enjoy these progressions,