A common challenge I observe people experience when undertaking a new workout regime is overcoming the myth that they should be able to exercise efficiently on day one. To improve your overall fitness level, there are movement patterns around which you should construct exercises. These patterns are:
√ Squat
√ Hinge
√ Lunge
√ Push
√ Pull
√ Rotate (that can also be anti-rotation)
√ Bracing (that’s fitness talk for core work)
I’ve written before about how during our developmental years (6 months to 2 years) we gain the ability to perform these patterns. Infants learns how to roll over from their back to their belly (core) at approximately 6 months. In learning to stand, a child will get into a ½ kneeling position and lunge up to a standing position (lunge into a squat). A motivated child will pick up the toy (hip-hinge) and carry it
(bracing) to a location to play with it. These are all examples of how we develop. Along that journey, life happens.
Years ago, a prominent Chiropractor from New Jersey, Dr. Perry Nicholson, coined the term “foot coffins” for shoes, due to the effect’s shoes can have on feet. He’s using this reference for dress shoes, that tend to be more for style and less about function. By limiting toe movement and being too stiff, wearing these type of shoes can decondition the muscles of the feet that effect the way we perform a squat.
If your big toe lifts as you descend into the bottom position of a squat, the muscles of the core tend to downgrade in firing. That’s not an issue for lowering yourself into a chair. The problem arises when you lower yourself into a squat while under load. Common examples of this are holding a barbell across your shoulders or a kettlebell with both hands. Under load, we want our core firing.
Another way that life gets in the way is our lifestyle. For the first 24 years of my 30-year coaching career I was solely a personal trainer. My day consisted of 7-9 appointments instructing and coaching people. The extent of my marketing was showing my competency as a coach in a “big box gym”. A person would watch me train someone and ease drop on my coaching. The next part is my assumption, but I would gather they would conclude, “He sounds like he knows what he’s doing, acts professional, and looks the part”. I did not have a payroll. There was no staff. I was it. There was no lease or facility to manage. Who needed operating systems? Outside of the actual training, my only other job was to read and learn as much as I could about fat loss and strength and conditioning. Then I got this crazy idea to open a studio and all of that soon changed. Now I can spend 2-3 hours a day performing administrative duties. Most of those hours are done sitting. Hello, tight hip flexors and piriformis syndrome. That is with only 10-15 hours of weekly sitting. In the post-industrial era, we have replaced assembly lines with desktop computers. In an article from Time magazine in 2018 titled: Most Americans Spend Way Too Much Time Sitting Down. Here's How to Avoid Being One of Them, they stated that one in four American adults sit for more than eight hours a day. This was from research compiled by investigators from the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC). I am going to assume that number has increased in the current state of dealing with COVID-19 and more people working from home.
When I opened the studio in 2015, I wanted to create a fun environment where people in the general population could have access to expert coaching in a semi-private format. From my experience, I know how to train someone around a back, knee, or shoulder issue. What I soon realized is that by having a membership base where 52 is the average age, everyone has some type of issue. It may just be arthritis in somebody’s hands or tight hips from sitting too much, but there are factors that must be considered when constructing their exercise programs. We’ve experienced and trained people with knee and hip replacements, metal rods in their spine, and torn rotator cuffs. The cool thing is that these people can, and do train, but there are some limitations. As I mentioned before, life happens.
Because of evolution of our society (shoes), life-style choices (sitting) and past injuries and experiences (take your pick), I watch people struggle while trying to perform exercises. Exercise is a skill. We develop the ability to lunge, but do not inherit the ability to perform it for 30 seconds. It is the execution of multiple sets of squats and rows that forces the body to adapt that creates the desired outcome we crave for. If I could provide one tip, it would be to move with intent when exercising.
Driving your feet into the ground, squeezing your glutes, and keeping your shoulder blades in your back pocket are a few of the common coaching cues you will hear at the studio. We use these because many people do not naturally drive down and root their feet to ground when performing squats, or intrinsically squeeze their glutes, which properly aligns their pelvis, when doing planks. The good news is that there is nothing wrong with your knee because it tends to roll in when you lunge, you must be aware and try to fight that tendency. Keep at it, move with intent, and I promise you’ll get better.
See you at the studio.