Morgan Talevich, who lives in Louisiana, was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) in 1994 at age 6. She demonstrates a lying gait drill, working through key lower-body movements such as hip flexion, quad extension, hip extension, and knee flexion.
Disclaimer: The information in this video is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or other trained medical professional before beginning any new exercise program to ensure it is safe and appropriate for you.
Transcript
What’s up, guys? Coach Damon V. here with my girl Morgan. Today we’re going to show you guys another rare move.
This one is the lying gate drill. You’re going to see it standing, or you may have seen it standing. Today we’re going to show it lying down. So it’s going to look like this. I’m going to go ahead and assist Morgan on the way down. I’ve got a SandBell for her head. Right here for her to rest her head on.
So there’s four parts of the gate drill — work in every action, or work in the main four actions of the hips and the knees. The hip flexion, quad extension, hip extension and knee flexion. All right? So it’ll look like this. First thing I’m gonna do — “Morgan, I’m going to squeeze my hip flexor and bring my knee to my chest.”
Another note is this is a really important one for maybe my FA athletes who aren’t ambulatory anymore and aren’t walking anymore. We still need to train those patterns because it’s just some motor pattern that we need to know. So it looks like this. Knee’s going to come to the chest first. Hip flexion, “Ready? Go. Perfect. Just like that.” Second what we’re going to do is the quad extension. So she’s going to kick her foot to the sky, gonna feel her quad engage. “Go. Very good, Morgan. Extend, extend, all you. Very good.”
Third one is the hip extension. So she’s going to engage her glutes and her hamstring and bring her heel to the floor. “Let’s go. Foot, yep. Down, down, down. That’s it. Perfect job. Go, go, go.”
And the last one which is always the most challenging for FA athletes is that hamstring curl. Right, so give yourself some grace on this one. “Push your foot to the floor, Morgan, and try and scrape that ground. Under. Down. Curl, curl, curl. Under. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The better. Yep.”
All right. Let’s try it again. That’s all good. Firstly ready and hip knee to the chest.” This is our hip flexor. “Very good quad extension with this guy here. Nice. Yeah. Nice. And glutes. Yep. Hip extension. Push to the floor. Yeah. Yeah. Keep going all the way. Keep going. Yes, Morgan. And then hamstring curl underneath. Very good.
And in again. Knee to the chest. Very good. Quad. Almost there, girl. Very good and glute. Let’s go. Nice hamstring. And again go fast. That’s into it. Yes. Go one. Yes, we go nice Morgan and curl One more, gotta roll. Go. Knee to the chest. Quad. Quad. Hamstring. Yep, yep, glute. yes.
Rest that you got into a flow right there, girl give me some!”
