Common Sense Strength: Harness Your Natural Human Ability
I understand the power of the internet and the availability of information at the click of a button as well as anyone, but the truth is that too much bombardment of information seems to have the opposite effect on many people in terms of applying that knowledge to human movement and simple common sense training.
Today I’m going to dive a little deeper into this and try and get you to take a step back and think about a more simple everyday approach to your training in order to help you to acquire quality movement, strength, and the results you desire most.
The Complexity Of Complexity
I think the heading above pretty much sums up a lot of what I see online these days in the strength and conditioning community. I mean all I’ve got to do is log into my Facebook and scroll down my newsfeed and find article after article on how you need a Functional Movement Screening before you even think about taking a walk into your kitchen to bend over to grab a bottle water from your fridge.
Granted if you’re a regular follower to this blog then I know you’re intelligent enough to pick up on my sarcasm here. With the bombardment of information I’ve seen some coaches and trainers try to take on the role of a PT instead of understanding their role as a strength coach when addressing some of their clients. I think in many situations coaches and trainers get so caught up in working to assess and correct…and to correct and assess everything the individual is doing that in the larger scheme… zero strength and performance is accomplished.
The point here is that people that aren’t used to moving aren’t going to be moving well and the people that are used to moving poorly aren’t going to be able to move that well either. All I’m saying is that people just need to work at it and pay closer attention to performing movements and stretching in a more effective manner…on more of a consistent basis.
It just seems that after all these years several people believe they need a physical therapist for every little thing that happens to them. Granted at times a PT can be completely necessary after recovering from a traumatic injury, or some chronic issue that just won’t go away.
However, with some of these professionals on the internet you would think we all needed PT to just get through our daily lives to prevent some dysfunction of movement from crippling us for good. All I’m saying is that some of this is has just gotten a little excessive.
The complexity of this abundance of information has made the pursuit of strength more like a game of freeze tag for many coaches and trainers instead of an attempt at real progress when pursuing strength. This is the drawback from getting hammered with too much information. Remember an education in and of itself is nothing.
Common Sense Strength
As you can see in the video you don’t always need a clinic or a gym in order to learn how to acquire strength and to move well. One of the biggest things you can do is to learn how to mobilize and stabilize your shoulders and hips by performing some bodyweight drills that force you to pay attention to those areas.
For instance, many people sit too damn much these days and because of this the hips get tight and many people move poorly as a result. The key is to try and focus on performing moves to mobilize your hips and to do so on a regular basis. One of the biggest problems these days is that sitting (particularly with kids) has taken the place of much of the physical activities that we used to engage in more in society by being outdoors.
The following dynamic spiderman hip stretch is a great example of how to go about doing this and it’s also a fantastic drill to implement prior to squatting or deadlifting.
By working on correcting the shoulders and the hips we can eliminate a lot problems in terms of mobility. Granted there are exceptions to the rule and at times other factors are involved, but for the most part hip and shoulder mobility tends to be a struggle for a great deal of people.
When looking at working the shoulders you can also get by without necessarily having access to a gym by implementing some effective bodyweight movement to trigger some serious shoulder stability and mobility. You can also do this while honing your coordination. A great way to do this is by implementing this little shoulder pivot and hip extension drill demonstrated here below.
Of course you can eliminate the push up portion of the drill to get comfortable with the pattern. The key is to start in a crawl type position and to go back to that position with each transition from the right and left side. Start out moving slow and get a handle on your body control. Remember that quality trumps quantity.
The thing is that when you start moving just slow down and work to pay attention to the details of the given movement, or exercise. In a society where immobility is the lifestyle the solution for most is to start initiating more movement, period. Is that common sense enough for you?
I hope you enjoyed today’s post and if so then please don’t be shy about posting up in the comments section below! Stay strong, be better, and don’t be a victim.
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