Self Progression

04th Nov. 2015

Further to the recent Self Observation blog article, where I spoke about the importance of monitoring how you feel after eating and exercising. I am going to follow on from that and discuss some ideas that may help you to develop further and hopefully give you some topics to spark further reading on your own.

So lets start from scratch, basing this example on a medically healthy person assuming the usual office hours are being carried out, the usual stressors that follow with it and a common goal of losing a little bit of weight. If I was going to recommend a starting point it would be squats, now I have chosen squats because as a base for clients I am a big fan of teaching primal movements. Primal movements are pulls, pushes, squats, presses. These are great bases to start with (unless you start with assessments) as they are usually more practical in your everyday life, they create a platform to develop into more complex exercises and from these you can spot any areas that need special attention. An example is one side not being as strong on a pressing movement as the other side etc. Using this visual analysis amongst other individualised assessment methods make a programme specific to the individual. If you spot any visual issues, you can incorporate some specialised exercise work into future programmes and look at correcting the issue. Primal moves are also compound exercises which mean that they stimulate multiple muscles and joints in one movement. Compound moves fit perfectly into the body fat reduction routines as well as pretty much every other exercise category. I see lots of gym goers doing exercises like shoulder raises and bicep curls with the aim of burning body fat, these exercises focus on singular muscle groups and when compared to the effect of a correctly performed compound move pale in comparison in relation to their effectiveness for the general populations short term goal of losing some weight or toning up. So in my opinion squats are where to start for that particular area.

When you first attempt to squat you will more than likely find it tough to achieve a full range of motion, as a rough guide, a full range of motion is achieved when the hip drops below the joint of the knee as close to the ankles as possible. Now having a full range of motion is great but start to notice the smaller details like foot positioning, also more technical points, like are you leaning forward too much, are your shoulders rounded, do your knees buckle in as you go down or up, do your heels come off the floor, how vertical are your shins? These are all signs to look out for so that you can aim to correct these before moving on. Now before I start with how to perform this exercise, it's important to remember that there is no such thing as a perfect squat, we are all built differently and some of us will have much more complicated issues that require a lot more than a basic tutorial to fix the problem. So do not become disheartened if this doesn't work for you, it's all part of your self observation journey.

Starting position, where do your feet go? In my opinion for the purpose of optimal health and training goals a stance should be taken similar to one that you would take if you were going to jump forward, from this you should be able to stimulate all the correct muscles to support the movement assuming you have no postural problems. So lets say just inside shoulder width. From here you want to squat down in a controlled manner with a steady tempo as low as you can whilst maintaining a relatively upright torso. (Tempo will be covered in depth in coming blogs). For now in brief it's the speed at which you perform the movement. So tempo for this drill is to lower down for the count of 3, any faster and you won't be getting the optimal training response from this movement at this stage, so stick to it! Do this in front of a mirror and look for the technical points I have mentioned above, listening to how your muscles feel, and also observations like does your back, hamstrings or calves feel tight etc. From here, assuming you have spotted an issue, expert advice is needed or if self research is your route then you will need to put it into practice now. There could be multiple reasons why an issue occurs, spotting it is one thing, correcting it is the skill. If doing it yourself is more practical for you then start by learning the names and roles of muscles. You can then start to put names to the muscles your feeling tension in when your performing a squat and research ways to stretch or mobilise the areas. Does that fix it? If the answer is still no then maybe you need to strengthen the muscle? So do more reading on particular exercises targeting those muscles and re-check your range of motion on the movement again.

Addressing these problems are essential because progressing, regardless of incorrect form or ignoring signs that you're not functioning as efficiently as you should is like building a structure on unstable foundations, you just wouldn't do it, so don't do it with your body. These are some basics and hopefully you get an idea of just how specific your exercises should be, and just how valuable a competent professionals knowledge can be in assisting you with your goals. This is just my opinion and hopefully sparks you to make the right choices for you, not just doing what new fad is being promoted or wanting to break a sweat so you feel you have "exercised". Make the correct choices.

Jamie Farrell is a Yazoomer community Premium advertiser. Check out details of his personal training and fitness company here