HOW DO YOU MOVE?
Everybody is different. You may have natural strength, or perhaps speed and quickness have always come naturally. Then again, power, flexibility or balance may be your strong suit. What is true of almost everyone is that few of us have optimized our strengths and minimized our weaknesses. Furthermore, no matter how consistently you train, the workout you used last year or even last week may not be the best approach today. Your needs and capabilities change due to age, nutrition, training or injury and your workout has to evolve!
Evolve your workout with AGELESS FITNESS
Glutes and Lats and Ankles, Oh My!
Acknowledging past injuries and current pain is important in guiding you whenever you work out. For instance, if you chronically sprain an ankle look to your glutes. That’s right, we’re talking about your arse. Often increasing the activity and strength of your gluteus maximus and gluteus minimus will help your ankles function better.
“So how do I do that?” you may be asking. Try lateral walks with an exercise band as a great warmup and general glute exercise. Bridges, single leg squats and deadlifts (proper form is very important!) should also be included in your workouts.
An ankle you sprain repeatedly could also be attributed to tight hamstrings and hip flexors. Also, an overdeveloped latissimus dorsi (the big muscle on the sides of your back) can lessen the effectiveness of your glutes in doing their main job, which is extending the hip. Remembering that everything is connected, this could lead to the knock knees, overactive hip flexors and shoulder problems we’ve mentioned, not just a sprained ankle.
Yes, the ghost of injuries past may haunt you today, especially if you skimped on the rehabilitation. While the body may heal quickly, unless you are fully rehabbed and, honestly, keep it up after your PT sessions expire, you may not achieve the same pre-surgery performance.
Chronic disease conditions also have to be considered. Diabetes, for instance, requires you to be more conscientious about your diet and the timing of your nutrition. Of course, medications and even over-the-counter supplements may affect your performance.
Assessing your status and performance can also help you understand (and appreciate) the gains you make as you consistently train. The great news is there are no shortage of gadgets, gizmos and whiz-bang apps to help you do this. The point is to use the numbers to gauge your performance day-to-day and monitor your progress. Once you become more attuned to how it “feels” to exercise at certain levels, you can leave the devices at home. I bet you won’t.
So, what are the most important fitness factors you can measure? Your heart rate can be measured with a chest strap, a wearable or two fingers. Monitoring your heart rate during a training session is important in maximizing the benefits of cardio. Also, a higher than normal resting heart rate may indicate you are overtraining.
Body composition can be measured in a variety of high tech (Bod Pod) or low tech (calipers) ways and is a very effective gauge for the progress of your workouts and diet. In fact, measuring body composition is superior to the body mass index, which has limitations if you have more than average muscle mass. That being said, a high BMI can indicate a health risk, especially in the obese category. However, a healthy, muscular person may have a BMI in a high range while, a frail, inactive person may have a low BMI, but more body fat and less lean tissue than is healthful.
Lots of muscles won’t keep you from having faulty alignment. If your body is misaligned due to poor movement patterns, simple bad form or past injuries it will have a negative influence on your functional efficiency and may lead to injury. Postural and movement assessments come in several forms, but all are used to pinpoint less-than-optimal patterns you may want to address in your workouts. You can do many of these yourself, or, if you want to get an expert’s point of view, find a fitness pro who offers Functional Movement Screens orEgoscue Method Postural Alignment Testing.