One of the warm-up's I do with clients who have spinal cord injury or sensory struggles to help alert and organize the brain and prepare the body for movement is rolling the areas of the body we will use with a lacrosse ball. I use moderate intensity of pressure through my hands, depending the sensory input the client states as needing. If the client can roll the ball themselves, then I coach them how to do it on their own body. The goal is to increase sensory input, to help the brain focus, and to increase self-control of the body before we start moving weights.Here I roll the ball over Raiden's shoulders, neck, upper back, biceps and triceps before we work into the upper body strength portions of our workout. In our experience, I've observed Raiden has more control over his arms when he lifts them after completing this lacrosse ball warm-up prior to lifting. We do this several times during a workout session.
I will be providing more cues, workout ideas, and programming tips as part of my Adaptive Fitness Specialist trainer course coming soon.You can read one of my articles on this topic here: Training Clients who Have AutismFor more information about sheSTRENGTH Adaptive Fitness programs, fill out this information below:[gravityform id="20" title="true" description="true"]
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