indicating Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) protection
Recent research has clearly shown that balancing hamstring and quad development is crucial for all of us, particularly in contact sports.
It has been realised that recent training techniques had over- emphasised quadriceps development at the expense of hamstring development.
It makes perfect sense: the hamstrings and quads are designed to work as a team, so balancing their utilisation is clearly just another aspect of functional fitness.
On a fixed rowing machine, the hamstrings are almost ignored, and in fact receive a nasty jerk at the end of the stroke .
On the Indoor Sculler it is clear that they work smoothly during the recovery, drawing the mainframe back to the rower just as they draw the boat in a rowing stroke.
The passage below quotes Dr Geoff Thompson (Sports Physician for Australian Olympic & Paralympics teams). The research clearly shows that it’s not just a matter of developing the muscle and nerve patterns – there is a specific role in protecting the ACL.
For trainers and coaches in contact sports we believe you can put real faith in the Indoor Sculler’s action to develop leg strength and symmetry at the same time as developing cardiac reserves and even rehabilitation.
Already the Head Trainer at an Australian Football League club has found success for rehabilitating elite player (#1 ranked player in the club) using one-legged rowing on the Indoor Sculler. If you would like to know which club please contact us.
Thompson said there had been too much emphasis over the years on strong quadriceps muscles in the upper leg.
“People were forgetting about the hamstrings”
“The hamstring set of muscles do for the knee exactly what the cruciate does; holds the shin back against the femur and controls the rotation (of the knee), and that’s the role of the ACL.
So once they started balancing up hamstring strength with quad strength so the cruciate was more protected, that is helping to reduce the incidence as well as learning to land better ”
The Weekend Australian, May 19-20 Sports Section