Teachmovement

The Dark Side of Intense Training

admin — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 03:57:01 +0000

“I’ve been training so long. It’s second nature to push myself to the limit”. – Ronnie Coleman,

There’s a dark side to training intensity that surprisingly few fitness professionals acknowledge.

We look at amazing and inspirational images of professional athletes, elite practitioners, or people like Ronnie Coleman doing this lunge.

Their ability to perform physically at such a high level is inspiring and naturally we want to emulate their training styles, workouts, and attempt to do what they do.

However, it’s far too common for people to try short cutting the work curve in an attempt to get faster results in unrealistic time frames.

As Ronnie Coleman’s quote states…he’s been training for “so long”. Literally decades.

Over this time Ronnie (and other elite athletes like him) has built a foundation of form, function, movement skills, mindset, habits, resilience, and an outstanding work capacity.

The public, as well as many trainers, tend to forget this fact.

In an effort to “sweat’, “work hard”, and “get gains”, common sense, rationality, and science often go out the window.

Dressed in the guise of intensity, people end up driving themselves to injury and/or dysfunction.

It’s so easy to do. I’ve done it a number of times myself in the past.

Many trainers perpetuate this cycle by “kicking peoples’ asses” in classes and training sessions, often with only the most basic attention to form.

If you think I’m being overdramatic, take a moment to look around the gym next time you are there. Pay particular attention to the large disconnect between effort and form.

Now, it’s not that I’m against intensity. I think it’s a fantastic tool in your training toolkit…for those who are physically, neurally, and mentally ready for it. And for those whose results it will benefit. Many times, the WORST thing you can do with a person is an intense workout (specific injuries, high stress loads, poor concentration levels, lack of relevant movement skills, medical conditions, poor breathing/bracing patterns, etc.)

So what’s the answer?

First is to assess the client’s current status in the following areas:

Movement skills (quality of movement)

Coordination levels (kinaesthetic awareness and skills)

Program goals (what do they want to achieve?)

Program phase (systemic load, etc.)

Training age/history/experience (more important than chronological age)

Mental preparation (mindset)

Additional metabolic demands (medications, stress levels, sleep patterns, recovery level)

Once you have a clear understanding of a person’s current standing and their goals, you can best determine how and when to introduce intensity into a program.

The goal is to have your training maximally benefit the client. If red flags come up in any of these areas, intensity is likely to do more harm than good.

Most fundamentally, doing every movement with correct alignment, breathing, and bracing is the most important physical foundation for intense exercise. Without this, every rep, set, and workout is a race towards pain, injury, and frustration.

Despite lots of fitness education and certifications, most fitness professionals (and almost NO members of the general population) have been taught to move correctly, particularly under load.

Sure, we all know how to squat, lunge, and do pushups, but this is at the most basic level. Understanding the importance of nuances within a movement pattern is critical to ensuring that any exercise provides the desired benefits while minimizing injury risk.

Can you clearly understand, explain and communicate the biomechanical impact of moving a loaded joint a cm or two in one direction or another when a client is exercising in real time? 99% of fitness professionals have not received the education or training to do this.

The situation gets even more difficult when we consider group fitness instructors.

They often have less education than personal trainers, yet are tasked with managing dozens of “clients” simultaneously.

The great news is that the skills are simple, and easy to learn. It just takes opening your mind to the possibility that there’s more to the “basic” exercises that you currently “know”.

If you are ready to take your movement coaching to the next level, register for our Level 1 Functional Movement Coaching (Primal Pattern Analysis) Certification.

It’s online, at your own pace, and will elevate your knowledge, coaching skills, and ability to get greater results for your clients. Visit www.teachmovement.com/learn to try it out for free.

Image Taken From: https://www.gymposters.com/ronnie-coleman-gym-poster

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Lunge Technique: The #1 Mistake 99% of Trainers Make

admin — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 09:29:15 +0000

The lunge is one of the most common movement patterns out there. In my humble opinion, it is also one of the worst exercises for technique.

I’ve always been interested in WHY certain exercises are done in a specific way, and the lunge is at the top of my pet peeve list. Perhaps it’s because of my sport background and then transitioning into the world of fitness,

To me, fitness has taken a very useful and effective movement pattern and turned it into something unrecognizable that injures people every day.

Ok. Now that I’ve had my little rant, let’s dive into why I believe this, and if it makes sense to you.

Recently, I did a Google image search for the keyword “lunge exercise”. Here’s a screenshot of the results.

What do you notice about these lunge images?
First, they all have the same basic technique. I call this version a “90/90” lunge since both knees are typically at 90 degrees.Looking at the lunge pattern images below, do you notice a difference?As shown in the images above sporting and dynamic activity environments (such as most fitness classes and “functional” exercise programs) create strong, stable, loading of body weight over the front leg. When we look at the facts, lunging is an extremely common, naturally powerful and effective athletic position that’s seen in virtually every sporting active pursuit in life.Looking back at the fitness examples in the Google search, it’s easy to see that in every instance, weight is evenly distributed between both legs, and the person’s torso is vertical.By splitting the weight distribution, we are put in an inefficient and biomechanically disadvantaged position. This means that the alignment of the body is not set up for effective joint stability or force production.A 90/90 knee position creates unnecessary shearing forces at the knee when trying to move forward out of this position, because only a small fraction of the largest muscles in the leg are inactive on the propulsion (back) leg.

The primary alignment cues for squat and lunge are the same:

Feet flat on floor
Toes and knees pointing in same direction (ideally forward)
Sternum over arch of foot
Neutral spinal posture with effective bracing

Satisfying these four factors will solve the lion’s share of lunge and squat issues for almost every related exercise.

What most people do for a lunge is equivalent to a hack squat. Sure, it’s a documented exercise, but only loosely related to the real life biomechanics and firing patterns of an actual squat (or lunge).

Here is what I believe a proper lunge should look like. Note that when the weight is over the front leg, it doesn’t matter how far out, or what position the other leg is in!

I won’t get too deep into the science and details, but hopefully this has helped you rethink how you are lunging (and squatting), in addition to how you are coaching your clients to perform a lunge (and squat).

Want more? Here’s a video to see this new perspective in action.

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What’s the BEST Fitness Equipment For a Personal Trainer and Clients?

admin — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 09:25:14 +0000

This is one of the most common questions I get asked as a fitness professional. After I resist the strong urge to roll my eyes, I calmly and cheerfully provide an explanation. Generally, I have two answers to this question. Both are related, and both often surprise people. Which one I decide to use depends on how cheeky I’m feeling at the time.

My comedic (but no less true) answer is that the best piece of equipment is “the one you actually use on a regular basis”.

My typical follow-up comment is “In fact, the best fitness tool ever created is your own body. Unfortunately, few people know how to use it properly”.

When they laugh, I say…”No, SERIOUSLY!”.

People are often so caught up in trying out the latest fitness tool or gadget that they forget to master the use of their own body.

This is why I like athletic style training and typically avoid machines and isolated exercises (except in very specific and temporary situations).

I see our job as a Personal Trainer or fitness professional to move people through “The Movement Spectrum”. When we do this effectively, it provides the greatest possible positive impact on their health and longevity.

Learning to move properly doesn’t require any equipment. We simply need our body and enough space to do the movements we desire. Of course, we still have to move well, but describing all the nuances of that is different post…well, actually a full certification, but you get the point.

To help you see this from a different perspective, here’s a video on how to properly teach a squat, plus a bonus one on the biggest mistake personal trainers make when teaching lunges. Both are performed incorrectly most of the time…even by fitness professionals and personal trainers.

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Personal Training Education Tip: Become a Personal Performance Coach

admin — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 09:17:38 +0000

My Training Problem

I can remember the year my Personal Training Education took a massive leap forward. This was the year I transitioned from a Personal trainer to a Personal Performance coach.

My clients were getting stronger and more fit, but they still weren’t meeting many of their other health and wellness goals. Losing weight, happiness, fulfillment, work/life balance, and stress management were among the goals we were failing to achieve.

My previous Personal Training Education hadn’t prepared me to deal with these factors. The importance of these goals in a client’s overall results was an eye-opener for me.

Personal Training Education Tip: Trainers work for the circus. Coaches build better humansMy fitness training skills were pretty darn good (if I do say so myself). I was beginning to make a name for myself in the local community as an innovative, science-based functional training specialist. People knew that I made exercise fun and helped my client get fit while avoiding injury.

Despite this success and recognition, I considered myself a failure.

Don’t get me wrong, I was doing a great job on the fitness side, but felt that too many people were falling through the cracks.

The question I kept asking myself was…”Why wasn’t I able to help these people reach their other goals?”

This question forced me into some deeper reflection about what it would really take to help clients realize their potential inside and outside the gym.

After much contemplation and discussion with clients, I had a lot more clarity about the barriers they faced every day outside the gym.

Your Personal Training Education Solution: Become a Personal Performance Coach

When I distilled the many barriers my clients had down to the base level, the challenges fell into 4 major categories. Roughly, these categories evolved over time into my 4 Pillars of Personal Performance. In order of importance, the pillars are:

Mindset
Habits
Movement
Fuel

What YOU Can Do…

This coaching approach is much more common today, but 25 years ago, it was completely new.

It’s true that more people practice their craft from a coaching mindset these days, but it isn’t as common as it needs to be.

Far too many trainers are still approaching clients with an overwhelming fitness bias (particularly the intensity side of fitness). This happens every day in gyms and studios across the globe.

To be truly “client centric” and provide the knowledge, skills, and coaching they need to live a healthy, fit, and vibrant life, we must address each of the 4 Pillars of Personal Performance in order (Mindset, Habits, Movement, Fuel).

I encourage you to take your Personal Training Education to the next level by incorporating this approach. Following this 4 Pillars framework will make accelerate your client results, satisfaction, loyalty, referrals, and be a boost to your bottom line.

Happy Coaching!
Tim Borys
Author, Speaker, Coach, CEO
FRESH! Wellness Group
www.timborys.com
www.thefitnesscurveball.com
www.teachmovement.com

I didn’t ignore the nutrition and lifestyle aspects.Please keep in mind that until this point, I simply had a “trainer’s mindset. It’s sad that very few fitness or Personal Training Education courses delve into these pillars.

Most trainer mindsets are almost solely focussed on providing (great) workouts. Everything comes through this “exercise” or “workout” filter.

I was definitely discussing nutrition and other lifestyle habits with my clients, but these were typically as an afterthought. Like most trainers, the workout was the first priority for me.

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The Easy Way to Teach a Squat

admin — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 04:12:47 +0000

Before any load is added, a person must be able to get them selves in the correct body alignment, and properly activate the correct sequence of muscles to stand and sit. While this will likely seem easy to the trainers and fitness professionals reading this, it is remarkably difficult for many people.Part of this challenge comes from the fact that most people (including many trainers) have never been properly taught to squat. Sure, most people THINK they know how to squat, but few do it correctly.

This fact is seen every day in gyms all over the world. Clients and trainers are engaged in a constant dance of trying to produce fitness improvements on a flawed movement foundation. The sad reality is that injury is not just a possibility, but an inevitability.

The great news is that squatting is VERY simple. Only FOUR key points are needed:

Heels Flat on the Floor
Toes and knees tracking in the same direction
Sternum vertical over balls of feet
Neutral, braced postured maintained throughout full body-specific range of motion
That’s it. Nothing fancy or complicated.

From here, it’s simple to progress or regress the exercise variations. Add load in many forms (front squat, hold weights at sides, bar on shoulders, vary speed, ROM, balance point, time under tension, etc.). The key is to ensure people are maintaining those 4 points at all times, including effective bracing.

Watch a few people squat today and you will see how few people can check off each of these points. Do a few squats yourself. Are you able to maintain form?

Watch the video and let me know your thoughts!

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