Hello,
I hope the fall is treating you well wherever you may roam. Here in the Northeast, US, the fall is turning into bright colors and chilly mornings. A sweater in the morning and a t-shirt by the afternoon hours...
I heard they are predicting a cold winter...I personally hope they are right and that I can attach those slippery boards in my feet and go down the mountain slope more than once this winter.
Are we trying to out-think the body?
I have made a few interesting findings during my "career" as a trainer, some of them at least partially through the method of trial-and-error. Well, learning by both successful and unsuccessful events of life is said to be the key to constant improvement.
So, what are some of these trial-and-error expericences?
Mostly they are birthed by the concept of out-thinking the body.
I my own work I have utilized exercise techniques that have worked well for myself and also for my athletes. Based on those positive experiences I have elevated those specific exercise techniques to a very high position in the hierarchy of movements.
Can you guess where the problem emerges?
The problem appears when I end up over-using one technique or movement over another.
Examples of this include:
1. Glute training: Don't get me wrong, activating and strenghtening the gluteal family is super-important, but I ended up going overboard in the other end of the spectrum and causing unnecessary gluteal over-training. This caused piriformis issues among other things. I reached this state by doing exercises that emphasized hip action in single leg stance and split stance...excessively. Too much of a good thing, right?
2. Spinal extension: Yes, too many of us have a bad posture, mostly in the form of spinal flexion etc. So, I focused too much on the form on spinal extension forgetting that the body doesn't move like that in real life. Muscles around the spine need to lenghten to load to be able to unload and produce force. Constant extension in the spine doesn't allow loading to occur and now other problems can be expected.
The training industry elevates certain exercises and objectives to a "final solution"-position and some of us simplify the concept and forget moderation and individuality in all exercise prescriptions.
The next areas that could become a problem if overempasized too much are in my opinion:
3. Scapular retraction: Maybe the focus at the moment is slightly too much on concentric retraction of the shoulder blades instead of first creating a proper loading (eccentric) response prior to retraction motion.
4. Abdominal wall activation in static from: Tranversus abdominis and other core stabilizer muscles are dynamic in function. Overuse of only static stabilizing is not enough to prepare abdominal wall for true movement needs.
These are just my own experiences. I try not to out-think the body any more but to understand it better and respect its proprioceptive ("thinking") capabilities.
Have a great day!
Tommi
"What I dream of is an art of balance."
Henri Matisse.
