Thinking about “movement first” will pay off big time — over time.
To be ignorant of motion is to be ignorant of nature. – Aristotle
You don’t need to be an Olympic athlete or compete with anyone other than yourself to benefit from using the methods of world class performers. By focusing on movement, you’ll not only perform better, you’ll minimize injury and increase longevity and durability at the same time.
Think about driving your car from Columbus, Ohio to Malibu, California with your wheels way out of alignment. That’s 3000 miles of uneven wear and tear on your tires — not good. Now imagine you’re in the gym squatting, benching and using a few machines with poor movement patterns. Just like the road trip, you’re going to have uneven wear and tear throughout your body — this is preventable.
When kids do not pass the minimum standards in school, they don’t move to the next grade. If someone cannot pass the minimum standards of movement they should not be able to move to more complex exercises. We have a simple screen for this that only takes 10 minutes. Move freely, without pain before you move on to the next level.
Are you performing the movement properly?
Proficient movement and technique — the core of a good strength, conditioning and fitness program.
One of the first goals is to increase body awareness in a slow progressive manner — we like to start with body weight exercises. Think of this phase as “learning to move.” Even those with more experience sometimes need to re-groove bad patterns.
Coaches, if your student athletes cannot perform a few perfect push-ups, why would you tell them to drop and give you 20?
If the trainee performs 20 ugly reps (of any exercise), you’re going to get 20 reps of ugly, not to mention setting the stage for injury. Even worse, allowing kids to bench press and squat when they cannot perform these movements with their own body weight. This sounds logical, but it’s done all the time. Kids are resilient, but let’s build strong bodies, not break’em.
Does it have a purpose?
We’re told to have a plan — then work the plan. When it’s time to train do you create something on the spot or have you spent the time planning? Maybe you work with a coach or trainer — do they explain what you’re doing and the “why” behind your exercises?
The sets, reps, and circuits you do — the miles you run, should all have a reason for being in your workout — “purposeful training.” Many people get their workouts out of a magazine, DVD or see something that looks cool in the gym. That’ll work (sometimes), just make sure to check the gauges, meaning is it working…and is it safe? Make sure nothing hurts (never train through pain). Also, remember that everything works, and nothing works forever – - and some things work better than others. And then tweak it till its right, if you don’t know how, ask me!
Is it fun?
Long-time friend and mentor, Jim Wright told me years ago, “if it ain’t fun, it ain’t done.” Being a hard-core strength coach I used to kinda snicker at that. Making sure my athletes were having fun was not a priority. Many years and thousands of training sessions later, I get it. So what’s fun to you? The folks over at MovNat make fitness look more like play than work. Friend and client, Lori Crock had a blast at MovNat telling us, “we were taught to jump, throw, catch, balance, run, hike, climb, lift, carry, crawl, swim, defend and generally move outdoors.” Read more about Lori’s experience at MovNat.
To me, fitness is fun, especially when we combine movements from different disciplines or methods like MovNat, martial arts, Olympic lifting, Kettlebells, endurance sports — the possibilities are limited only by our imagination.
First and foremost, learn to move with proper form. Set some goals and make a plan, and then work the plan — remember to be flexible, things change. Progress slowly, make adjustments — learn something new and repeat.
Let me know how I can help -
JT