Does Your Movement Teacher Make Sense?
Shuffling my way down the stairs this morning, I was acutely aware of multiple areas of muscle soreness – in my legs and arms mostly. The reason for this turn of events is that I took a “Body Pump” class with a friend on Friday morning…something I haven’t done in over 10 years.
The class was heavy on the “go for the burn” theme, and light on the “how to move correctly” theme.
On Friday morning, as I sampled Body Pump Number 73 on the fill-in-your-club-here hit parade with a room full of (mostly) women of all ages and abilities, I wondered who was behind this particular brand of torture. And I also wondered about the level of training and education of our instructor.
Our warm-up consisted of standing with our feet “hip distance apart” with a weighted bar in our hands and bending over – presumably from our hip joints – and “using the hamstrings” to bring ourselves back to standing.
There’s so much just in this warm-up routine that doesn’t make sense from a healthy movement perspective, I don’t even know where to start!
But I’ll give it a go >>>
First, if I don’t know exactly where my hip joint is located, I can’t stand “hip width apart”. To give our instructor credit, she did point out that the width of our pelvis was NOT the hip joint, but didn’t follow up and help the class locate their hip joints.
AND…she didn’t use this information to explain the importance of using our hips, and not our back, to successfully perform the dead lift. Pity – it was a great opportunity to help prevent the inevitable back pain that results from doing this exercise incorrectly.
Second, if I’m not able to fully embody my hamstrings, I’m not going to be very successful at using them to stand up from a forward bend with weight in my hands. I get that using the hamstrings is the purpose of a dead lift, but understanding the mechanics is critical to performing this exercise effectively without blowing out your back!
And finally, any class involving movement should always begin with a quick “status quo” - a self-assessment – and some sort of internal focus so that you’re tuned in and present to the experience. This doesn’t have to take a lot of time – 30 seconds of breathing and noticing your current status are a pretty good way to start.
It’s the mental preparation for movement that helps prevent injuries, not just the movement or exercise itself.
All this stuff was going through my head in the first minute of the class…and what occurred to me over the next hour+ was that a lot of what our instructor was saying just didn’t make good sense. Not because she wasn’t enthusiastic about our health, not because she wasn’t well-intentioned, and not because she was an idiot…she simply didn’t have enough information about how your body is designed to function.
I’m going to suggest something that you should consider when you give your precious body over to someone else – no matter who they are – does what they’re telling you make sense?
If their instructions aren’t logical, or if you don’t have the foggiest how to find or use “your hamstrings”, “your lats” or “your abs”, there should be a way to learn what you need to know so you can move successfully and without injury.
If you’re serious about fitness, exercise and getting or staying healthy, you owe it to yourself to become as informed about how you work as possible. Here are a few things you can do >>>
- Take advantage of any Franklin Method workshops in your area – if you can get to a Franklin Method workshop, or find a Franklin Method educator, you’ll learn a lot
- Find out as much as you can about the education and training of your movement teachers – based on this information, do you trust that what they’re telling you comes from their ability to evaluate and understand YOUR body?
- Pilates teachers in the US are certified by the Pilates Method Alliance, and their standards for certification require a minimum of 450 hours of training – far more than the “average” Pilates teacher. You can find a list of PMA certified instructors here
- Question what your exercise and fitness teachers – including me – tell you. Do they make sense?
Keep in mind that what your movement teacher doesn’t know can hurt YOU.
To your healthy, happy movement,
Lindy
Leave a Reply