Ideas for movement

[clevermanka]

I'm ready to start lifting heavy things (namely, my ass) again. Resistance training resumes next week. These tips on moving like a fit person, from my good friend and yours Scott Sonnon, arrived in my inbox this morning. Good timing, Scott.

1. Decompress the specific joints to be used. Joint mobility is great. So is dynamic flexibility. Great warm-up activities. However, if you bring a scalpel instead of a pickax, you'll accelerate your results and distill your warm-up to the exact movements you require. Whatever movement youʼre about to do, circle the joints to be used 10 times in both directions before starting. Smoothly and slowly. Tension to extension. Exhale into the tightness. Shave off the tension a little at a time.

2. Activate the core. Perform four 1-minute sets of front, side, other side, and rear plank holds after your specific mobility warm-up. Effort comes from the core outward (called proximo-distal trend by the neuro-geeks), so if you start with an exercise not to condition the core, but to "switch it on," you'll see greater output in your exercise. And with only 4 minutes, this guarantees that you'll invest the time on bringing all of the body online for your exercise.

3. Vibrate the muscle pattern used during the exercise, in between sets. Don't stand around between sets of exercise. Turn off the muscles you just used to their resting length. A shortened muscle produces consecutively lesser force the more it shortens (remains tight). So in between sets, shake off and out the muscles you just used and get them (including and foremost, your facial muscles), so that you come back with greater strength on subsequent sets, rather than diminishing strength which is the norm.

4. Put effort into the technique, not into the repetition. This mantra isn't some cliche regarding focusing on "form." It's a very specific "structural alignment" issue from biomechanics. The goal isn't to get from point A to point B, but to increase the strength around the joints needing to be stabilized, so that the joints needing to move do so with greater strength and precision. So, each time you begin a set, visualize what you want to strengthen, and if you don't know, it's usually the joints adjacent to the joints you want to move. For example, instead of trying to curl a dumbbell, pull your shoulder blade down, fix your wrist in place and flex your lat and pec at the same time, as you exhale tightly. The dumbbell magically floats upward.

5. Roll out tension like pulping a grapefruit. Okay, many people are starting to use foam rollers to remove tension, but most trainers miss the primary concept. Fascial density - the thick leathery straps which prevent nutrition from reaching the area that needs it, from giving you resting length (and as a result strength, see #3), and from allowing you ease of activity - doesn't just break up when you roll non-specifically. It only "pulps" when you extend the tissue to it's maximal length. So, whatever you want to roll out, stretch it and keep it expanded, then roll. For example, if you want to roll out your erectors, arch forward rather than fall backward over the roller (and better yet, use a small ball rather than a roller).

Comments

[miischelle.livejournal.com]

DOOOOOO EEEETTTT!!!!!

Yay!!!

[femfataleatron.livejournal.com]

2. I've been experimenting with this . I started doing pre-activation stuf for various movement patterns and found it really worked. Weirdly enough it works for mobility too.
4. I would put this a bit differently... When you train you are really training your nervous system as much as any muscle. This means that the movement pattern (form) (is this a cliche?)is critical. even tho a movement may look like an isolation it is not, it involves activation of multiple support muscles, consciously or no. ...If you curl enough weight the pec and lat will engage no matter what, being aware of it is beneficial tho. (floating dumbells? pick up a 120!)

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I SHAAAAAALLLLL!!!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Cool to hear that pre-activation is working for you. That's encouraging! What, specifically, have you been doing for which movements? If you don't mind sharing...

Regarding 4, yeah, I agree with you that this isn't worded so great. I am going to think about it as moving with intent, and an awareness that every part of my body is connected in some way. And of course, compound movements are always more effective than isolated ones.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

I love the joint decompression pointer, and the notion of shaving tension away. As I've gotten older (there, I said it), preparing my joints for action feels even more important than getting the juices flowing through large muscle groups.

I already do a lot of the core start-up movements, but I tend to think of them as "waking up my spinal column."

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I tend to think of them as "waking up my spinal column."

Great visual!

top secret pre-activation work out scheme

[femfataleatron.livejournal.com]

I start out the workout by doing a dumbbell snatch, which is a kind of full body activation, because it uses everything. Buy everything I mean that you use a lot of muscle fibers in almost every part of your body in order to do this. Then I do some planks with my feet up on a bench (I would like to use the suspension trainer but I don't want have to take it to the gym every time I go). Then I do whenever squat or deadlift variation I'm going to do. Sometimes before I do squats I load up the hack squat machine with about 20% more weight than I plan on doing on the squat, and do a static hold, meaning that I just support the weight rather than trying to lift it through a full range of motion. I will also do a similar thing, loading up the Smith machine, before I do a benchpress or overhead press. A I have yet to think of a way to preload a deadlift, or else I would try to do that to. I've also found that by doing hip extensions with 100 pound dumbbell balanced on my hip bones, which really activates the glutes and hamstrings, it actually gives me a few more inches in my hamstring stretch, prior to stiff legged deadlifts or Romanians.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_luaineach/]

+1

Re: top secret pre-activation work out scheme

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

That's a really interesting and cool technique for the squat preparation.

doing hip extensions with 100 pound dumbbell balanced on my hip bones...gives me a few more inches in my hamstring stretch, prior to stiff legged deadlifts or Romanians

That's awesome.

Thank you for sharing!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

This is something I've been learning over the past couple of years of physical therapy: It's all about intentional movement, focusing on the areas that need the most work, and doing the movements that enhance support and develop the interstitial structures. Slowing things down does wonders!

Of course, sometimes a person just wants to see how many one can do, but those aren't as satisfying on a workout level so much as a woohoo! level ;-)

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I wish our schedules aligned better so we could do exercises together.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Smart! Thanks for the image.

[bluetourmaline.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice; that's very interesting.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Let me know if any of them work for you!