Do your work at the edge of the envelope of function

This athlete is in the early stages of rehab for a right groin strain.  To be specific, a right rectus femoris origin strain.  Here we are using integrated integration as Gary Gray calls it; using top down drivers to influence the groin & enhance the healing process on both a myofascial & neural level.  In the first picture, the athlete is in a right stride stance, swinging 6 lb. powerballs from the hip to posterior @ overhead.  In the 2nd, he's doing alternating frontal plane swings, the emphasis on creating frontal plane pelvic movement.  In the 3rd he's again in a right stride stance doing R/L rotational swings @ shoulder height.  By selecting my stance & arm swing pattern I'm protecting the lesion from injury.  The athlete can be pretty aggressive with these without any pain what so ever. 

The lower extremity exercises I'm choosing are lateral lunges, right stagger squats, and right/left posterior lunges with a bilateral upper extremity reach anterior to knee height.  No need to be concerned with "proper firing patterns" here, the body is self selecting according to the task.  Because the exercises I chose are within the envelope of function, there is no need to be concerned with compensatory movement patterns.  Those who choose an isolated, open chain approach are a lot smarter than me.  Remember in function, an individual muscle may have to work isometrically, concentrically, and eccentrically all at the same time.  Not only at each particular joint, but in each individual plane at that joint.  My hats off to them.