Have you ever considered if there’s something you could be doing to get more out of your everyday exercise? Well I’m here to tell you that there is! I’m talking about adding true purpose to your exercise.
As a Personal Trainer and Physical Therapist Assistant, I, Lucas Krubeck, have the opportunity to watch a lot of people exercise. Many of the mistakes I see people make can be attributed to one thing, just going through the motions. This has got to change! If you are doing the same exercises with the same resistance, in the same order and so on that you have for the last few months or years, you my friend are the definition of insanity; Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results! It sounds cliché but I truly believe that “A strong mind is a strong body and a strong body is a strong mind”. Adding a mind to muscle connection to your exercises will change your life, and of course your body. Doing so can give us purpose for that exercise, improve your motor control, limit and decrease your compensatory movements and it also has the potential to cut your exercise time down or in half. I have clients and patients tell me all the time, “I just got a better workout with you in 30 min than I usually get in 2 hours!” This is because I’m helping them create that purpose we’re talking about, it allows them the opportunity to have absolute control over their bodies and to get on track to building better versions of themselves.
So just a few ideas to consider when preparing for an exercise:
- Where do I want to feel this? In other words what muscle is my prime mover? Even if there is other muscles involved like with a squat, where do you want to feel it the most?
- What positions and postures do I need to maintain in order to feel this the way I want and more importantly stay safe and effective? Maybe it’s keep the knees out, maybe its keep your shoulders gently down and back, is more core properly engaged.
- Keep in mind that if you are doing a working set of 15 repetitions you want to feel it the way you want on rep 1 and 2 not only on reps 14 and 15; work to get the most out of every rep and every exercise.
- Consider your level of resistance. You need it strong or heavy enough to get your body past what you are use to but not so heavy that you can’t keep a safe and effective movement pattern.
Give these ideas some real consideration folks. Even I myself have to double check my exercises, my movement patterns and whether or not I’m giving purpose to them, as I should be. No matter what your fitness goals are you can and will benefit from Purposeful Exercise. Good luck!