Strength Training with Kathie
All great houses require a healthy and safe foundation. And so it is when it comes to building your muscles via strength training.
Every single one of us needs some strength training so our bodies can work efficiently. But when it comes to strength training there are two very important foundation points to consider.
These two points are why and how we strength train. I will link this article to every muscle group we discuss.
The two foundation points are this:
Posture is everything
It is all about balance
▶POSTURE
Always pay attention to your posture. Perfect posture is so important and is actually the baseline of strength training.
If you strength train and your posture is out of alignment you run a high risk of injury. This creates posture imbalances that affect your entire body.
What is perfect posture?
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Toes facing forward.
Place your arms behind your back and cross them above the hips. This places the shoulders in the correct position.
Slightly tilt your pelvis forward.
Pull your chin up and have your neck directly on top of the spine.
That is perfect posture. Get familiar with how that feels. I tell my clients that are new to posture alignment to practice this stance all the time. Once you are familiar with the perfect posture you can get into alignment at any time.
The one time you must pay attention to perfect posture is when strength training. It is imperative.
For example, let’s say you are doing a chest press on the machine and you tilt your head slightly. You can easily pull a muscle, pinch a nerve, or cause a crick in your neck that leads to more injury.
You can also practice perfect posture while sitting. In fact, this should be practiced often as well. I am sure you have noticed that when working at your desk, on the computer, or even while reading this article your posture is out of alignment. This is a cause of shoulder and back tightness and actually puts your chest muscles out of balance. Put your posture back into alignment and continue reading!
Why is strength training about balance?
As we age we start to lose balance. This is the number one reason for falls. But did you know that we don’t have to be older to lose balance?
As mentioned above our chest muscles go out of balance and our back gets stronger. Why? Because we hold our tension in our back. This causes the shoulders and chest to move inwards.
Causing an imbalance that looks like this picture.
Here are 8 benefits of balance training for your fitness.
#1. Reversing the age-related loss of balance.
Balancing is a complex skill that involves the brain, muscles, and parts of the inner ear. If you don't practice and maintain balance, the coordination between these three systems can deteriorate over time, making it harder for you to stay upright and maintain proper posture.
Practice, however, keeps everything working as if your body were much younger, helping you to stave off some of the balance issues that might accompany getting older. Dancing is a great way to work on balance.
#2. Building better posture.
See I told you posture was important! Thanks to a poor movement form, a focus on a narrow range of movement patterns due to injury, and an ever-more-sedentary lifestyle, the average person has terrible posture.
Many people develop limitations like hunched shoulders, anterior pelvic tilt, and reduced upper-back mobility. Part of the problem is that, as a population, we don't do the balance exercises necessary to counteract the adverse effects of our lifestyle.
Improving balance is excellent for posture. It teaches you the static and dynamic positions that are natural to your human form. Outstanding balance requires good posture: the two go hand-in-glove.
#3. Allowing faster recovery from injury.
Many people who train athletically suffer injuries, especially to the leg and ankle. Much of what is known about balance comes from research on people with lower-leg injuries. What that research shows is fascinating: the more balance drills people perform, the faster they recover from their injuries. Balance drills may also prevent injuries in the first place. 😉
#4 Preventing falls
Balance drills help you to control your core and limbs. Not only does this help improve the elegance with which you move, but it also helps you avoid falls.
When you have good balance, you can more quickly adapt to changes in body position, adjusting on the fly to unexpected variations in elevation or rocks that you didn't see underfoot.
Avoiding falls not only helps you avoid physical damage like broken hips; it also boosts confidence. When you have good balance (and posture), you no longer have to worry about whether you might fall every time you leave the house.
Even if you're young, having this unconscious awareness allows you to feel more confident in your environment.
When your balance system is working optimally, you can more quickly react to slips, making it less likely that you'll fall. This is why we train our muscles at all angles. For each muscle group, I discuss this! Pay close attention to muscle weaknesses and add extra exercises for that group to help it catch up!
#5. Maximizing your workout time
Most people doing weight training in the gym spend much of their time sitting around, doing nothing, while their muscles recover from the previous set.
I train almost all of my clients using supersets. A superset is two exercises back to back, then you rest. This is a great way to balance out those muscle groups, build endurance, and have those feel-good hormones released like endorphins and growth hormone.
Big muscle groups burn the most energy and calories. For example, train chest and back together is a great way to do your superset. You can also train big and small muscle groups together like this. For example, chest and triceps.
#6. Improve coordination
Humans should have excellent coordination, just like other animals in their natural habitats. But, modern civilization prevents many of the physical tasks that we would have been forced to do in the past. This sedentary lifestyle means that we rarely have to practice balance. One effect of this development is our generally poor coordination.
Balance exercises, especially dynamic balance drills, like balance walking on railings, help to relegate balance to the category of reflexive response. Ultimately, with good balance, you should be able to intuitively adapt to practically any situation, without having to think about it.
#7. Improve your running and walking technique.
People with poor running and walking techniques can experience all manner of injuries, from shin splints to knee pain to hip problems. Poor form results from a lifetime of not having to run daily and not understanding the dynamic position of one's body. People with poor balance will often develop a sub-optimal gait to compensate. Picture the guy who walks with a limp due to pain in his knees.
Dynamic balance drills can help you to assess your center of gravity better unconsciously. Then, when you do go for a walk or a run, you'll feel more confident making more significant strides, opening up your hips, and turning your feet forward. With additional balance drills, you'll also learn how to swing your arms to counteract the rotation of your hips while striding, thereby reducing the strain on your core.
#8. Increase muscle power.
Balance can strengthen your muscles, quickly increasing their power output. The more force they can exert, the faster you'll be able to sprint and the higher you'll be able to jump. Balance can help in practically any sport that requires short, sharp, and powerful movements, like boxing, and can help build all-around functional strength.
In closing, as you can see posture and balance are two very important factors we must consider when strength training. I will always link this article to all muscle groups. Why? Because this is the foundation of strength training!
