Tag: Corrective Movement

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Play – the most effective workout

In previous posts I brought up the idea Flow and how performance is heightened when there is a certain ratio of Skill : Difficulty – and how Flow is synonyms with Happiness.

PLAY is an activity that brings happiness or at least enjoyment.

This post will explore why Play should be adopted into your movement routine.

First the obvious : adding Play into your movement routine will increase enjoyment as well as improve the quality of your performance.

But the not so obvious is what goes on in the brain.

  • Play literally re-wires the brain.

Play will keep you healthy just as much as exercise. The two together compound and enhance the effect. Play uses less effort while providing higher gains, making for a more effective workout!

HOW you adopt Play into your Training is up to you.

What Play-in-the-workout will involve is getting in touch with how you move. That is the whole point of this kind of Training i.e. learning to move better.

Consider a Test – Play – Retest Protocol

Example:

Do a 5 reps of a Goblet Squat –

Play around with the ‘Squat’ movement pattern. Focus on whatever is the most challenging part of the movement for you.

Do 5 more Goblet Squats –

Then ask yourself: was the second set better? same? or worse? and then Learn from the answer. Anything that makes your squat easier can be used as a corrective exercise specific to you!

And isn’t that what we all want?

Thats all for now,

hope this has made you consider playing around more in the gym!

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Corrective Movement Strategy

Analyze + Correct + Retest = Improvement

A Corrective Movement Strategy (CMS) is an exercise/workout/movement program that is specifically designed to improve an individuals weaknesses and asymmetries.

CMS involves testing and retesting the athletes ability to perform certain movement patterns. Testing should be done by some sort of Functional Movement Screen (FMS).

These types of training sessions should be done either separately from, or just prior to harder strength training.

Major Asymmetries should be trained separately from or, or after harder strength training.

Exercise Selection should be careful to follow the Principles of:

i)Specificity
ii)Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand (S.A.I.D).

  • Which exercises you choose should be based on analysis of the athletes FMS and the coaches intuition as to what will work best for each individual.
  • Further assessments can be applied depending on the coaches knowledge and skill.

Basically,

> Whatever you suck at – do a few sets of 5 reps before your training session.

> If one side is significantly stronger than the other – do a few sets of 5 reps after your training session.

> If anything lacks mobility, get it moving before your training.

They KEY is balancing out your body through movement. If you are always in one position (aka sitting) then you need to move your body in the opposite direction. If you always move in a specific direction then you need to practice the other direction also.

Makes Sense.

But not as easy in practice!

This is because improvement is sometimes slow. Patience is needed. That being said, subtle improvements can be detected within a training session by retest the movement patterns in question as much as possible (multiple times a session).

Continuous testing and retesting should occur in order to determine which corrective exercise is producing the greatest results.

This process of testing, analysis, implementation of corrective exercises and then (re)testing is a great strategy for improving your movement.

Try it out, let me know what happens!

If you have any questions let me know

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Correctives and Asymmetries

IN THE GYM,

first you identify your strengths and weaknesses – the next step is Training them accordingly.

If you are not on a professional sports team, then the “sport” you should be training for is LIFE.

And in order to have a balanced life – just as in movement – you must first identify your problems before you can go about fixing them.

All sports create asymmetries in the body due to chronic use of a specific type of movement required by the sport. This idea of ‘chronic use of a specific type of movement required…’ can and should be applied to every day life.

What types of movement (or non-movements!) to you do every day? – sitting, walking, driving or taking the bus will require your body to move in certain, habitual ways through the environment – biasing and fatiguing certain muscle groups.

Once you have identified the types of activities you do every day, you can begin to train for them in a general way. The result is that you will be able to move through your every day environment with greater ease.

Since we are speaking of generalities,
The general way to identify if you have a movement issue is with a ‘Functional Movement Screen’

  • Your ability to perform specific movements (like the Squat), or tasks (like carrying groceries) will tell you what areas you need to work on

The important thing is that you treat any weakness or asymmetry as an ‘injury’ and ‘rehabilitate’ it to the point that it becomes one of your strengths. At that point it is time to start again and reassess your movement – identify any other issues, and begin the process again.

A NOTE ON Asymmetries
– this could mean any imbalance between pushing and pulling, left to right sides of the body or more commonly: and imbalance between the front and the back of the body. As a species, humans are constantly flexing the front of our bodies and neglecting our ‘posterior chain’ > All I will say in closing is this : Get Your Lats On!