24 Oct The Importance of How
One thing I have noticed more in the past few weeks is the borderline complacency with some of our finer movements (i.e. Trap 3 raise, Jack Knife, etc)
What I mean by this is that people get focused on getting themselves to a specific spot (raising the hand to a specific spot, just getting the legs up off the ground?) rather than focusing on how we get to these spots.
It boils down to the “how” we do things.
With my pitching clients I have a phrase I have used for years that works well: “The process produces the result.”
Shifting our focus to how we get into positions rather than just shooting to hit a spot will have a dramatic impact on the efficacy of our training sessions.
Let’s use the Trap 3 for example.
People tend to focus on just getting the arm up as high as they can. This causes them to shrug their shoulders rather than retract and depress, rotate their trunk to help them elevate the hand to the spot they determine as the end point (outcome based).
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Extended and Rotated Spine
This incorporates different muscle groups into the activity that we want to keep inactive for the most part.
To get the most out of the exercise (if I’m going to make you do it, you might as well get everything out of it right?) the chest should stay flush to the bench with a neutral alignment of the spine (maintain the normal curvature without extending through your lower back or causing any extra rotation of the upper body) and the shoulder girdle (think ball and socket joint + the scapula) should do all the work.
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Flush to the Bench and using the shoulder girdle to move rather than the spine.
Maintaining the proper alignment forces the right muscles to work and speeds up progress, and a stronger, properly functioning lower trap will assist in correcting posture, shoulder mobility, and help improve other exercises and may even cut a band or two for you and open up some new exercises for you.
When I was playing baseball, I had a manager tell me this about “negative” comments in meetings: “If you think they are talking about you, they probably are.” So if this resonates with you, think about HOW you are executing your movements with me and if you need help let me know and we will iron it out!
As always let me know what you think and if there is something you want to know more about, tell me and I may just turn it into a blog post![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
