The New Year is right around the corner, making this the perfect time to make a change in your workout routine, for the better. With the obesity rates in America getting out of control, I am absolutely in the camp that any kind of exercise is good exercise. If you are moving on a regular basis, I applaud you.
However, if you are working out on any kind of regular basis or you are thinking about starting to work out in the New Year, I will caution you that regular exercise done in the “wrong” way can lead to fairly serious injuries. Now that would be a bummer – you make the effort to workout, only to be sidelined by an injury. When this happens to people, they often never go back to exercising.
My goal is to keep all motivated exercisers healthy so they can keep doing what they love and keep new exercisers from doing more harm to their body than good. I do this by teaching them the correct way to exercise.
What is the correct way to exercise? Well, it’s different for different people. What is correct for you depends on several factors including your current posture, muscle weaknesses and imbalances, history of injury, bone density, the overall condition of your spine, and activities you like to participate in.
For an educated, professional trainer, this is not as difficult as it seems. There are several tests that can be performed, as well as general observation, during the first couple workout sessions that tell a lot about how to correctly design your program.
Many people have the same workout program goals. However, just because the goals are the same, it doesn’t mean the way to reach those goals is going to be the same. In fact, what might be a great workout program for one person can be a dangerous program for another.
For example, individuals have different curvatures of their spine. How your spine curves, at rest and in motion, can determine how much force it can take safely. Your spine and its curves are often determined by the tilting of your pelvis and the flexibility of your hip joint. A workout program that addresses your issues with tight hips or a tilted pelvis, weak glute muscles or outer thigh muscles is important for your body to function correctly. So, your workout program should not just include exercises to make you sweat and burn calories, but should address your individual issues that will help your body function better.
Another example might be someone’s core stability. If your core musculature is determined to be weak, then your program should address this. Your workout should not be designed just to give you a “six pack” abdomen, but one that strengthens your entire core (the 29 pairs of muscles that run from your knees to your chest). Maybe sit-ups are not wise for you, but abdominal bracing exercises are. Maybe rotational exercises are good, maybe not.
The point is, what you do in your workout matters for your overall health and the success of your program. Again, I would rather you be doing something than nothing, but if you do decide to exercise, why not take some time and make sure that you are doing what is right for you.
I’ve always said that exercise is not rocket science, but it is science. It does matter what you do and how you do it. Be careful jumping into new exercise routines on your own or classes in a group setting where no one is paying particular attention to you and what you should be doing. Be wary while surfing the web for info also; there is some good stuff out there, but it takes an educated professional to sort through the junk and pull out the good stuff.
So, as the New Year approaches, think about changing your workout routine to one that is correct for you. If you are new to exercise, then do yourself a favor and start from a position of education and knowledge.