Looking to get in shape : Train Movement, Not Muscle
“Monday: universal chest day with triceps, cardio core. Tuesday: about 30mins to an hour of cardio. Wednesday: back and biceps. Who knows? Maybe a little forearm action, too!”… If you’ve joined a gym or read a muscle magazine, looked at bodybuilder.com, talked to the average weight lifting enthusiast, you’ve probably heard a similar plan mentioned. Our body is one unit. However, that doesn’t mean that everything moves as one. It means everything moves as one. Confused? Let me clarify. Movement at a particular joint activates a set of muscles. The movement at our ankle activates our lower leg muscles, muscles at the knee activate the upper leg and our hips activate our pelvic region muscles. If you walk, run, skate and don’t activate all three joints (ankle, knee, hip- triple extension) you won’t complete the most efficient movement. Muscles are connected and work in unison, like dominoes… well at least they’re suppose to.
Stop isolating! Isolation exercises are meant for pre-habilitation/rehabilitation and depends on the level of professional physique/ bodybuilder models. Training muscles in isolation is like completing just the red side of a Rubiks cube, you have only completed one side of the puzzle!
Movement training will not only get you to look good as you wish but it will also help you move and feel as you’ve always desired ;-)!
3 Reasons to train movement:
1.When running from robots or needing to be competitive.
Training for movement allows you to feel confident in your abilities. If you have a doomsday personality, know you will be able to out run, out swim and out climb the majority of people. Remember, if you’re being chased you only need to be faster than the next person. Joking- but it is true ;)!
2. Stop feeling 68 and start feeling like an athlete:
The days of poor technique, high pressure on joints, loss of movement (Because it is true! If you don’t use it, you lose it!), all will take a toll on your body. If you’re in your mid 30’s, you shouldn’t move like you’re twice your age. When you leave the gym, your knees shouldn’t hurt, back shouldn’t be tight, shoulder shouldn’t be sore. That is your body sending you signals for help. “Help Me!! We need to change something!”
Work on body weight exercises. If you can’t perform a proper technique push up, a non-arching squat or pull ups, why are you using weights? Yes, Weights are fun. Use them but use them with the proper movement of the joints. Don’t use a bar and do pull downs behind your head. Our bodies are meant to move as a team of power! Not just a bunch of individual muscles.
3. Perform
Carrying grocery bags, playing a sport, picking up a small child, getting off the floor are some daily activities. There isn’t one single movement in the example where only one body part is specifically activated during the movement. Soo… Why would you train your body that way?
Allow yourself the ability to enjoy life, not just get through it. If your friends are going on a ski trip, it’s ok if you don’t want to go. What isn’t ok, is if you do want to go but are afraid that you won’t be able to physically keep up.
If you focus on training movement, you will burn more calories, activate more muscles at one time, and allow your body to work well as a unit.movement training allows for the greatest mobility which in turn will get rid of back pain, knee pain and all those “arthritis” problems. Training movement is the way to not only solve the red side of the training Rubik’s Cube but all of the sides of the training Rubik’s Cube.
Written By: Kirill Vaks
Fitness Specialist
BA,CSCS,ACSM-cpt,NFPT-sns
Suggested Articles:
Is Muscle Soreness Always Beneficial
Are Carbs Equally Important as Protein?
Suggested Video:
Take action… Now!
Training Aspects Personal Training and Sports Performance:
Visit us:
Inside of the Flyers Training Center
601 Laurel Oak Rd.
Voorhees, NJ 08043
View Larger Map
Training Aspects’ personal trainers and sports performance coaches want you to accomplish your goals. You, as the personal training client, are a reflection of our personal training and group training methods! We are here to help you accomplish all of your personal training goals! Our main training focus are people looking to increase performance, lose weight , lose body fat and increase lean muscle. Whether you live in Cherry Hill, Haddonfield,Marlton, or any of the other surrounding areas we are here to help you Move, Look and feel as you’ve always desired…
