Does this sound familiar?
- Warm up and stretch.
- Execute 3 sets of 10-12 reps each.
- Divide each workout into body parts.
- Cardio 3 times a week, 30 minutes each.
- Now, lets get started.
Starting a training program that revolves around these cookie cutter rules sounds archaic, like riding a horse and buggy to work. Times change, and science reveals much about the muscular system. Why should we follow outdated rules?
Take a look around your gym. Witness identical movements, repeated in an almost robotic, thoughtless pattern, by different people with different needs and abilities.
Most of these exercises are copycat exercises found in a magazine, observed in another person in the gym, or taught by a floor trainer, who may prescribe the same one size fits all program to most that come through the door.
Joining a gym usually starts with a free personal training session. This is designed to give you the confidence to work out in that establishment, and with that equipment. This helps to retain you as a paying member.
To be clear, the strength of a gym should come less from the equipment and more from the training staff. Those individuals should be in charge of using the tools to properly progress you.
A seasoned, educated trainer can offer a much more diverse, apparently unconventional program. She may load movement patterns with cables, elastomers, med balls, and your own body weight. This encourages the body to do what it is designed to do: handle resistance in multiple planes and in many directions, corresponding to different muscle fiber alignments.
Adding resistance to the body without first identifying and addressing range limitations will re-enforce compensation patterns, and could open up a host of new issues. Exercise is meant to make you stronger and healthier. It is a powerful tool to keep us functional and mobile. Taking an educated approach is imperative.
Make sure that your trainer pays attention to your range of motion limitations before loading you up with weight. Your trainer should prescribe and progress the appropriate exercises for your specific limitations. She should create a program fit especially to your needs.
One of the foundational tools of a certified Muscle Activation Specialist is the comprehensive range of motion exam. This critical step is a standard practice of Muscle Activation Techniques, and no program would start without it. Your range limitations are identified, and only then will a safe and effective training program be initiated.
If your trainer does not offer a comprehensive range of motion exam, then look for a MAT Specialist in your area. Ask them to provide you with a summary of the results of your range of motion exam, so that you can coordinate with your trainer. The more information you can give to your trainer, the better your exercise program should be.
Here’s an example of a training map I provide to my clients at the Human Motion Lab. It summarizes the results of an example range of motion exam. It serves as the basis for a series of focused correctional training sessions.
