What a Concept!

So, here's the deal. Like most people I have a few pet peeves. One for instance has to do with people standing directly in front of a weight stack and performing their exercises, thus making it impossible for anyone else to access a dumbell or two. That just bugs me.

A more agregious level of peevity (my word) would be the conceptual misuse of words. You know, things like "your going to get in trouble if you go threw that door." See the words aren't misspelled, they just are conceptually wrong. It hurts me that perfectly functional, red blooded Americans willfully abuse grammar and thus are never able to extract the desired result from their tortured attempt at communication.

The other night while I ruminated on a particularly tragic attempt at literacy with regard to a facebook status update, I had what Oprah refers to as an Ah Ha moment.

You see I am a fitness instructor. It is my job to see to it that individuals perform certain exercises, drills, movements, properly therefore reaping as many gains as possible. It doesn't peeve me when clients perform exercises "improperly" it just makes me sad. Everyone has the opportunity to glean the most out of every training session, but that requires one not just to listen to cues, but to hear them, internalize them and act on them...

Let's take the example of lateral flexion and extension of the torso with a load. If the torso or the core is where I'm trying to get my power and also the area I'm trying to target, the load does the most when it is close to the trunk (i.e. the Kinesis cable handle on the shoulder). Once the handle leaves the shoulder on the push the arm is simply following through. As the torso goes back toward the cable the handle just rests on the shoulder, it does not go down to the side. Why?

Well I'm glad you asked because that's where the conceptual thing comes back to play. You're not loading the bicep, you're loading the trunk! Yay! In fact the bicep has little to nothing to do with this exercise. It's about the C to the O to the R to the E. Remember that is the shoulder girdle, the hip girdle and everything in between. Always think of where your load is and what your force is. It's a concept that will allow you to garner the very most from your training sessions. Once you understand the concept, you will find that it just doesn't make sense to do things any other way. Okay, any questions? Let me hear them. In the meantime, Mary Mary and Happy Knew Year To! ( haha, just kidding;)