All too often, I find that people place exercise in its own separate category when it comes to improving. Compare this to learning to ride a bike, solve equations, and even learning to walk; we do it in a step-by-step method. Note that many learn these skills through widely varying methods. None the less, they learned a basic, yet important, component on the road to mastery that not only gave them practice, but also improved confidence and ability, think training wheels. This is something we forget as we are increasingly bombarded with advertisements for improved workouts, bigger muscles, and flatter abs. Instead of a continuum of increasing complexity and difficulty, we are told to believe we need a magic workout, perfectly timed interval, a particular gadget or even just to keep up with a generically prescribed program.
I am here to tell you that exercise, is a skill, and that is good news.
There is actually a continuum for movement progression. Just as there are well documented methods for teaching math systemically and learning to ride a bike in stages. There is no better exercise than the one that challenges you based on your ability to complete it safely. If a particular variation is easy and requires little effort, you might add more resistance/load or you may choose a variation with more or different complexity to challenge your ability to adapt. Here are the top ways you can leverage this continuum for your benefit.
1) Learn The Progression
Learn a particular exercise progression and regression, even a few variations. Choose an exercise, let's say a lunge, and learn about the progression of the lunge. Almost all progression in exercise follows these rules for progression: Stable before unstable, endurance before strength/progressive resistance, slow before fast and simple before complex.
For a lunge in particular, this progression could look like the following.
TRX Split Squat
Body Weight Split Squat
Kettle bell Goblet Split Squat
Body Weight Reverse Lunge
Kettle bell Goblet Reverse Lunge
Single Arm KB Reverse Lunge
This is a simple example of an exercise progression. There are additional variations not listed, but remember we are seeking progress, not variety. Beginning in the most stable, assisted environment and adding resistance before progressing to more complex movement. You can see how each skill builds into the next which allow us to collect good habits and quality strength with each new level of complexity.
There are many progression lists out there, feel free to find one, in which you recognize some, if not most, of the exercises listed.
Here is a link to Bret Contreras - Lower Body Progression, as an example. (see page 9)
http://bretcontreras.com/wp-content/uploads/List-of-Progressions.pdf
2) Challenge Your Brain
Who knew that one of the best benefits to exercise was brain health and function? It turns out that the area that control physical movement also coordinate the flow of attention.
"The cerebellum is a primitive part of the brain that for decades was assumed to be involved only with governing and refining movement. [...]But it keeps rhyme for more than just motor movements: it regulates certain brain systems so they run smoothly, updating and managing the flow of information to keep it moving seamlessly. In patients with ADHD, parts of the cerebellum are smaller in volume and don't function properly so it makes sense that this could cause disjointed attention."
As John J Ratey, MD describes in the book Spark, complex motor movements not only have a positive effect on our bodies ability, but also our brain. Ranging from a wide variety of mood improving hormones to improved focus and attention, gained by challenging the cerebellum to coordinate movement.
In fact, he notes that exercise benefits, not being isolated is one of the major reasons why exercise is not prescribed more frequently for various mental and physical health issues. With so many factors being affected, researching one isolated marker is quite difficult. However, we should not overlook the side effects of exercise. "In October of 2000, researchers from Duke University made the New York Times with a study showing that exercise is better than Sertraline (Zoloft) at treating depression" Our body is a powerful regulation machine that benefits from movement and challenge and atrophies from inactivity and boredom.
3) Avoid Setbacks
The lack of a progressive model is, I believe, one of the number one reasons people quit showing up to the gym. "Well it was going great until I hurt my..." this is often a sign of progressing too fast or not using progression at all. Your workout should be filled with, eventually, 80-90% of exercises that you perform with a high level of proficiency and mastery. If in every workout you are doing different exercises, it is unlikely you are reaching a peak benefit from your new-born-giraffe like muscles trying to figure out the technique on the fly. Competently challenging an exercise is where mental and physical strength comes from, so there is a balance to how much time you spend learning. The beauty and efficiency of the progressive training model is that when you progress your lunge variation, you already have a fairly high level of movement competency.
This means you can incorporate a particular variation for 3-6 weeks, building strength and improving technique before progressing to the next variation, increasing complexity. With this approach, you receive the body sculpting effects of strenuous exercise while reducing the risk of injury and setback be continuing to evaluate your performance at each variation before progressing.
4) Use Goal Specific Training
The S.A.I.D. principle is one of the first learned in the world of exercise science, and likely for a good reason. This principle really says it all: Our bodies adapt specifically to what stimuli they are presented with. Our ability to neurologically adapt is similar to our bodies ability to build strength, it requires repetition. Almost every goal physically is about, to varying degrees, increasing one's capacity of work volume. Now that looks different if you are a bodybuilder working to overload your biceps than if you are losing weight and working to improve your aerobic capacity. Regardless, you need to gain specific, not random, practice that builds the skills that are going to empower you to reach your outcome. This means Specific stimulus that causes Adaption to your progressively Imposed Demand. Your goals determine what specificity is important and your current ability determines the level of demand necessary to cause adaptation.
This means there is no generic right answer, perfect exercise, or prescribed weight that is required to create change, or rather intentionally, imposed demand that progresses in complexity over time. Make no mistake: fitness, strength, and healthy habits are learned progressively over time, so stick with it.
This is why knowing where you are on an exercise progression is so valuable, so you know how you can back off, regress, and when you can advance, progress. So you can adjust to how your body is feeling as well as avoid variations that aren't right for you, at least not right, right now. Fitness is not something in which you need to cross your fingers and hope. Rather it is a skill that you improve over time, as well as benefitting from today.
This all makes for a great reason to know where to start, which may be an opportunity to benefit from a coach or trainer. Most gym facilities, including here at Elevate Training, offer a screening to get started, many even utilizing the Functional Movement Screening (FMS) as we do. Get connected to a screening process that will access your current physical needs regarding joint range of motion and stability. The FMS is a great example, and can ensure the program you're following is going to benefit you.
The ability to assess and progress if fundamental to learning and mastery, and while on your journey to better health, 'movement mastery' might not have made the goal list; It will absolutely be a part of your journey and the sooner you start down the road to mastery, the sooner you arrive at your goal.
To learn more or schedule your movement screen , click here.
PS. I highly recommend checking out the book Spark, The revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain only $15 on Audible or $9.99 on Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-Brain/dp/0316113514
If you would like to learn more about progression - regression please send an email and I would be more than happy to answer any questions.