Josh Kennedy: [00:00:00] This is the Cricket Matters podcast, and today we're talking about three muscles every cricketer needs to release. What are we started with? Tenture. Tensor, tenture, tensor, fa. No. Stop. Top down. Let's go. Let's go. Top down you go. You're going Top down. Top down. Sorry. Okay. Okay. Shoulders first. Tear is major.

James Breese: Terry Terry. Terry's amazing is 

Josh Kennedy: our 

James Breese: number one now. You made me think Where the hell all these muscles. And you haven't done an anatomy before. Yeah. And that's okay. We're gonna help you. We're gonna help try and talk you through it all. And if you're watching on YouTube, we'll point. How about that? Yeah, we'll point to certain things.

Just locate the bits that hurt. Yes, and they will, for most people. I know you'll hate us for it, but he may love us for it at the same time. Yeah, we'll see. Hey, Mel goes to Josh, please. So why don't they. If that's what we're gonna do to begin with, but no. So it's important to have a distinction here now of three muscles.

Every cula needs to release. Because we're talk in terms of foam rolling to begin with, but guess what? You may need to have massage on this area. Maybe you need to get some dry needling to release these areas. So there's lots of tight muscles in the body. [00:01:00] But these are three things that I don't think cricketers do enough of and how much of an impact it plays on how we perform.

So we're gonna start with the Terry's major, which is kind of. Underneath Terry the armpit. Terrys, does it belong to Terry? Terry, yeah. Terry, yeah. Terras. Terry's major Te Terry. I think we should definitely 

Josh Kennedy: call it Terry's major from now on. I've 

James Breese: that Terry's major, right? So it's this area underneath the shoulder, behind the back of the armpit.

It's this big muscle for most cricketers sticks out. It's quite profound. It's like a big old lump here. A lot of cricketers, particularly in their throwing arm, their bowling arm, it sticks out and it gets tight. It gets gunky, it becomes a mess, but the other side is the same thing. It gets really tight and gunky on the other side.

But it plays such an important role. Now what we know is from baseball and people working at baseball and in cricketers, this becomes extremely overactive. It doesn't want to turn, it means it doesn't wanna turn off. [00:02:00] It's always on, which mean it stops the mu the muscle stops the shoulder doing what it needs to do, which is yeah, rotation.

Okay. And a lot of people get pain from it, okay. From doing it. So if I'm being specific here, if I pull up here now, this is quote the medical textbooks. It is located in the posterior shoulder at the back act as an adductor, extensor, and medial rotator of the humerus. The shoulder also contributed to shoulder joint stabilization, often working synergistically with the lats.

Right. There you go. It's the latter important thing as well, but it's this Terry's major in here that if it gets overactive, it pulls the shoulder forward and round, which what? You see a lot of cricketers in this sort of position like this all the time, which then causes havoc with the rest of the body, and we don't want that.

We want nice loose, stay loose. Muscles. Yeah. Stable, strong shoulders. 

Josh Kennedy: So as you 

James Breese: say, 

Josh Kennedy: medial rotation is where it turns in towards the [00:03:00] center line of the body. So, you know, you think about your shoulder rotating inwards, roll like this sitting forwards our phones and stuff. Well that's just 

James Breese: making it worse.

It does, and, and the more you rotate in, the slower you'll become when it comes to bowling throwing, you also get pain. And also like we keep saying about people's back shoulders in cricket when they're batting, it causes harrick with the hands going back and you can't get as much pat speed or as much swing with the hands coming down to strike the ball.

So as located there, the best way to do it is you line your side, get underneath the armpit literally, and roll up and down a little bit. But more importantly, you roll forwards and back on that one area and stay in that spot for a little while until you don't hate me quite as much. So. 

Josh Kennedy: Foam roller massage ball maybe might be needed to get in there as well.

As you say, if you can get an actual sports massage or dry needling would 

James Breese: be, aling is a big way, wouldn't it? Highly recommend doing that. So that's the first thing. So we're working top to toe. So the next thing down on that list, which is fairly simple, if you've got, if you've got a foam roller, buy foam rollers.[00:04:00] 

I've been wanting one of these bad boys for age. Just I don't sponsor brother. It's old roller. They're the best. This is a roll. This is the best foam roll out there. I use this in a rumble roller. Rumble roller is kind of too aggressive sometimes. But this came back to me from Belgrade, actually as a present from the, uh, from the, uh, organizers.

Yeah, no. So rolling down this line, you got the obliques, the powerhouse of the core. Would you say Josh? I think that's what Perry I would. A hundred percent. Yep. Absolutely. So this is all about trunk stability, right? The core stability. But guess what? It does also, rotation. And flexion. Right. And it plays a massive role in the core function and activities like breathing as well, and breathing's important.

'cause that stops everything here now. But most pit times, this is why we do our rotational tests. Cricketers can't rotate. They can maybe rotate one way, but not the other way. But one of the biggest causes we see is the, the obliques are so engaged and turn on doesn't mean they're strong, right? That means they're overactive.

Mm-hmm. And we've gotta release them. [00:05:00] We've gotta release them because they're working to stop you from turning. Which is why when people try and turn a certain direction, they go as far as they can and they've got all their breath anymore. 

Josh Kennedy: Yeah. I would say, and the oblique is probably not an area I.

People are gonna be foam rolling very often, if at all. 'cause everyone's, you know, does the, the shoulders and the T-spine and the quads and the hammies, glutes, et cetera. But obliques, no, 

James Breese: probably not. And definitely they don't go and dry needle them. So, as we've learned, so shout Sean Morris if he's listening in.

Uh, but we, like I said, you know, I. Can I suggest that he goes and sees an acupuncturist or sports dry, you know, sports massage therapist or somebody specializing in dry needling and he said, Hey, explicitly go and do these areas, but they didn't do them right, so he's going back again. Hopefully he can get this second time.

But a lot of people don't understand the importance of the obliques and how if they, these are overactive, it stops you from rotating and you can't rotate. It means you're struggling everywhere [00:06:00] else. It, it affects your breathing, it affects performance. It affects power. Again, you need to be able to rotate and that transfer of energy and weight when you're batting to hit the ball up the ground, even when you're bowling.

If these are on, when you're bowling and you can't rotate, what are you gonna naturally fall away? You try and make mimic rotation as you're coming down. Yeah. So again, you're gonna hate me for it. 'cause most of the time people have never done them before and it hurts like hell. Really hurts like hell. But get in there.

You'll thank me for it later in the long run. 

Josh Kennedy: Exactly. And uh, the last one, tensor Fascia Latte, which people might be familiar. TFL, they might be familiar with this one. 

James Breese: Ffl. So TFL not Transport for London. Uh, familiar. Who are familiar? It's like on the outside of the hip. Right. Is it a, it's not really a muscle, is it?

You, you argue It's like a bundle of fa bundle gives away, it's a fas fiber all along here. Yeah. But it plays a crucial role in hip and knee [00:07:00] stabilization for a lot of people with bad hips. Right. Uh, a knee pain, it's assists in like walking, running, climbing, but helps in hip flexion, abduction, and internal rotation.

So if it's super tight and you can't rotate hips, which need to be mobile, it becomes a massive problem. And we need all this to work together. But we can of go top toe for a reason. So the T ffl, you'll find it, find your hip, find a bony must fund and find the musty, not fatty bed, but like little bit along here.

Put your finger in it and you go, oh, that hurts. Yeah. That's the T Ffl. Yeah. What is it? Runners will be 

Josh Kennedy: very familiar with this one. 

James Breese: Yes. Yeah, so you gotta dive into that. So you've got that here now. But the other key thing is with the obliques, by releasing the obliques, it tends to release the hip. A lot of people have tight hips, 'cause the obliques tight.

The T ffl is tight, so you release the two of them together. Suddenly you, oh, I've got loosey goosey hips, like a mover, like crazy. And we [00:08:00] need that rotation in the hips. We need the rotation in the trunk and we need the arms. You'll get overhead a little bit. Now those are three things. Foam roll, whatever you want as well.

But those are three key areas that we wanna make sure we make sure our guys do it all the time because it loosens up the body and allows 'em to perform better. 

Josh Kennedy: Yeah, absolutely. And it's something that you're gonna have to do repeatedly. It's not just like, uh, do it once a magic pill. You never have to do it again.

You're gonna have to revisit these places, uh, all time, time, time again. Yeah. Which I've enjoy the pain. 

James Breese: I've been fucked up 'cause I've been in playing for such a long time. 

Josh Kennedy: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So there we go. That is, those are three muscles every cricketer needs to release. And, uh, that is it for today.

Please don't forget to rate, to review and subscribe. And if you would like our free training plan, then go to cricket matters.com/train. And remember, our goal is to make you a better cricketer.