New at the gym? Don’t make this common mistake!

Last week I made a video about the most common mistake or problem I see, when it comes to the execution of exercises. Since it was aimed at my Latvian audience on the Marta’s fitness FB page, it was in Latvian…. I know, not everyone speaks Latvian (go figure…), so I decided I will make a blog post about it.

So what is the mistake you might ask?

Lack of control

Simple as that. But now let’s dive in a little deeper.

Where does it come from?

So why is lack of control such a common thing? Don’t we understand that our body needs to be moved with purpose when we exercise? After all – we are performing movements that are not entirely natural to us. And we know that we should guide our arms and legs with a little bit more thought, than at any other moment, to achieve the goal of the exercise – muscle gain, improved endurance, alleviate pain, etc.

So how is it that when we end up picking up some dumbbells or even doing bodyweight exercises, we don’t try to guide our limbs with purpose and control?

You might disagree, but I believe that this comes from our years in school. We practiced sports, but due to the amount of pupils in each class, the teacher had no way of consulting each and every one about the proper way of executing exercises. And probably the usual teenage attitude also didn’t help… you probably know what I am talking about. I was one of those teenagers who didn’t know any better. And physical activity lesson (or whatever it was called) wasn’t my favorite thing at that time.

Aftermath

So now we are all grown up and facing problems regarding our fitness level, posture, back pains, you name it. And one of the solutions to this is regular exercise.

But what if you have never done any proper exercise with someone by your side who knows what to do and how: how to hold your body, how to extend your arms or legs and to what point. And of course – your joints might not be up for it either.

Then you decide to wing it and do something similar to what you have seen or have been showed. You perform something that doesn’t feel too hard, or you just don’t feel anything at all, really. Or – the other end of the spectrum – you feel it, but in all the wrong places and eventually – get injured.

Simple solution

The title of this paragraph asks for a simple solution to this common mistake, but is there one?

I could tell you that you just have to focus on your movements…. did that help? 😀

Or, I could give you an example of how to find the mind-muscle connection.

Ready? Let’s try it with a bodyweight shoulder press movement.

Lift your arms above your head and then lower them slowly pushing elbows out to the side, while trying to sense all the little (and not so little) muscles contracting to keep the arms aligned in a certain angle, without being wobly. Once your shoulders are at the same level as your elbows and your forearm forms a 90 degree angle with the elbow slowly lift them up again, while exhaling, and stretch them fully as if you are trying to touch the ceiling, so that you can feel the shoulder raising up towards your ears, for the sake of body awareness….

Did you try it? How did it feel? Did you feel your shoulder blades lifting and opening up a little bit? Did you feel the stretch in your arms and shoulders?

Now you can try a leg movement, or any other arm movements (to the side, in front, whatever) without using weights and just mark the feeling of these movements.

Once you have mastered the feeling of bodyweight movements in a way that you feel your body reacting to the movements and there is no or very small amount of wobliness in your limbs, you can switch to adding some weight or speeding up the movement.

Repetition is the mother of knowledge

If you have been one of those people who have had trouble with fully controlling your movements during exercise, I hope this post and the practice run helped you. And if it didn’t help on the first try – try again.

We have a saying in Latvian – repetition is the mother of knowledge (atkārtošana ir zināšanu māte) and also the best way to ensure muscle gains… so practice the basic movements until you get a hang of them and can perform them strictly and correctly. This will ensure the best workout outcome and reduce the possibiltiy of injury.

Good luck and take care! P.s. if you need help with this or you are just looking for a personal coach, contact me!