How Proper Form Helps Your Body
At my gym, I often tell members that my specialty is movement education. They’ll nod their heads and say that’s cool, casually wearing a blank “what the hell is he talking about?” look on their face. It’s the kind of look people get when you make a movie reference they don’t understand, but don’t want to make the conversation awkward so they pretend to know what you’re talking about. I don’t want you to have that look when you’re on here, so let’s talk about it.
I began my college education as a mechanical engineer. I like looking at structures, objects, etc. and figuring out how they work. After realizing fitness is a pretty sweet field, I changed my educational path, but the engineering mindset remained. At the end of the day, the human body is a structure. Just like any structure, there are correct and incorrect ways of using it. When we use it correctly, we optimize the structure’s efficiency. Conversely, when we use it incorrectly, we wear on the structure, eventually leading to a breakdown.
Analogies are kinda my thing, so here we go with the first of many on Einstein Training. Let’s liken your body to a racecar. Now, with Jeff Gordon in the front seat, you can expect fluid gear changes that improve speed, handling, and fuel economy. That’s how you win the Daytona 500. However, if your newly licensed nephew was driving, he’d race around in first gear all day. He’d be going slow as a snail, and eventually the transmission would blow out. That’s how you piss off a bunch of Nascar fans.
Jeff Gordon = Proper use resulting in optimal and efficient function, which creates better vehicle performance and longevity.
Your Nephew = Improper use resulting in poor and inefficient function, hindering performance and eventually breaking the vehicle down.
Your body isn’t a car (scratch if Optimus Prime is reading this), but the same principles apply. Using your body properly optimizes its performance and prevents its breakdown. Now, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this thing. “Proper use” relates to movement. If we look at the body as a structure, movement is what that structure is used for. Your body is essentially a machine that moves you through our environment, which means...
Moving Well = Proper use resulting in optimal and efficient function, which creates better physical performance and longevity.
Moving Crappily = Improper use resulting in inefficient function, which creates pain, injury, and poor performance.
As such, moving quality produces a continuum of outcomes that effects both injury and performance.
That’s my general point, but movement encompasses a lot, so let’s get a little more specific. When I refer to good movement, I am referring to optimizing our body’s biomechanics. Biomechanics are simply bone and joint positions as well as the muscular activations that support these positions. To optimize biomechanics, we must understand how to maintain good joint positions and what muscles to contract to support those positions. The reward? More performance and less pain. Pretty straightforward right?
That is why movement matters. If we want to train functionally, we must first understand how to move correctly without hurting ourselves, and then we can talk about effective programming to improve physiological capacity.
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