Recently my wife joined me on a nature walk and we saw a woman who was running, working hard and clearly challenging herself. While my wife’s reaction was one of how great this woman was out there pushing herself, my thoughts were more along the lines of "at what cost?"
As fitness clients of EQUIVITA know, once you start to learn about biomechanics you start to see movement dysfunctions everywhere. The drive of the body to find the easiest way doesn’t go away during exercise; in fact, exercise can often bring out this efficiency-focus of the body even more.
If you set a goal to bench press your bodyweight, the shortest path to that goal is to shift your position so that the bar is more in line with your shoulders and not across your chest. This shift places greater stress on the shoulders and doesn’t rely on as much muscle to move the weight. Of course, joints don’t tell you they are wearing out until they have and they don’t heal as well as muscle, not to mention the fact that you aren’t developing the muscle to move the weight. So, not as much benefit with the addition of wear and tear to the body.
Similar “cheats” happen with every exercise. Running is about alignment to keep the stress on the muscle, which is so hard to do especially if you are focused on maintaining a desired min/mile pace or achieving a goal distance. Prioritizing goals of achievement, or what you did, over how you did it, is easy to do and often encouraged. I can even agree that there are certain times when the performance is a higher priority, but consistently choosing what over how, is not aligned with longevity.
To maintain an active lifestyle requires conscious focus on how you are using your body, because your body is designed to consistently find easier ways. Some of our bodies are more gifted than others in this pursuit, but it is the nature of the body. So to ensure your body continues to be able to support the lifestyle that you want, keep the "how" high on the priorities.
And, as always, let me know how I can help.
Adam
As fitness clients of EQUIVITA know, once you start to learn about biomechanics you start to see movement dysfunctions everywhere. The drive of the body to find the easiest way doesn’t go away during exercise; in fact, exercise can often bring out this efficiency-focus of the body even more.
If you set a goal to bench press your bodyweight, the shortest path to that goal is to shift your position so that the bar is more in line with your shoulders and not across your chest. This shift places greater stress on the shoulders and doesn’t rely on as much muscle to move the weight. Of course, joints don’t tell you they are wearing out until they have and they don’t heal as well as muscle, not to mention the fact that you aren’t developing the muscle to move the weight. So, not as much benefit with the addition of wear and tear to the body.
Similar “cheats” happen with every exercise. Running is about alignment to keep the stress on the muscle, which is so hard to do especially if you are focused on maintaining a desired min/mile pace or achieving a goal distance. Prioritizing goals of achievement, or what you did, over how you did it, is easy to do and often encouraged. I can even agree that there are certain times when the performance is a higher priority, but consistently choosing what over how, is not aligned with longevity.
To maintain an active lifestyle requires conscious focus on how you are using your body, because your body is designed to consistently find easier ways. Some of our bodies are more gifted than others in this pursuit, but it is the nature of the body. So to ensure your body continues to be able to support the lifestyle that you want, keep the "how" high on the priorities.
And, as always, let me know how I can help.
Adam
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