Let’s face it, in today’s day and age, personal training is a luxury item. It simply is not a necessity when it comes to the short-term things the “normal” everyday person . In this face paced society, people are looking for quick fixes and solutions to their problems. When we aren’t feeling well, pharmaceutical companies have created medications for us to quickly fix what ails us. What we overlook is that everything in this life is give and take. What we don’t nurture and care for now can yield higher stakes later down the line.
This is the perfect perspective as to why personal training, self care and human movement and biomechanics are an integral part of everyday life. Many of us are familiar with the pain an suffering involved in acute injuries (ankle twists, car accidents, any injury). That being said, we often overlook the severity of pattern overload.
Pattern overload occurs when the length tension relationships in your muscles are out of balance. This leads to a condition called synergistic dominance. When synergistic dominance occurs, your prime movers for a movement pattern are no longer doing the bulk of the work. Instead, your weaker muscles that are meant to star in a supporting role are forced to be the prime movers. If you are in this condition for too long, you begin to develop pain. Although this pain starts to come on over time, the end result could be just as painful and detrimental as an acute injury. Some consequences of pattern overload include but are not limited to:
The benefits of having a certified personal trainer are countless. You can read some of the advantages of having a personal trainer with you below.
It’s no secret that when you have a personal trainer pushing you to hit the right amount of sets and reps that you will perform better. Imagine being in the gym by yourself or having someone counting over you while doing push ups. Which do you think yields better fitness results? The funny thing is no matter how advance the athlete, even superstars like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and the late great Kobe Bryant thrived with hiring some of the best strength trainers in the business. In Tim Grover’s book, Relentless, W1NNING Is Everything and Becoming Bullet Proof, he outlines some of the trials, tribulations and victories his famous and most successful athletes endured. So if goats like MJ, Kobe and Tom Brady all have hired personal trainers, what makes you think you shouldn’t!?
Personal trainers that do things the right way will do a number of things for your fitness routine.
WARM UP
1. You should always have a proper warm up routine specifically designed for your needs. This may consist of foam rolling (a form of myofascial release), stretching programs, recumbent bike or tai chi. The point is, no workout should start without the proper warm up. What your trainer designs is his call
COOL DOWN
2. The antithesis of your warm-up is your cool down. If you’re spending any amount of significant time at the gym, you probably should have some sort of cooldown period. Usually, this can address some of your overall needs such as muscular imbalances. Since restoring proper balance to your muscles takes time, including a static stretch for different muscle groups in your body is a great way to round out a well balanced workout.
PHASES OF TRAINING
3. Your workout routine should include regressions and progressions of exercises based on your skill and ability. In addition, trainers should take into account the phases of training when designing your fitness regiment. These include the often neglected stabilization phase, the every popular strength phase and the seldom scene power phase. The principle behind these phases of training include that you should not walk before you crawl or run before you walk. That being said, if a person is not well versed in the stabilization phase, he or she most definitely should not be introduced to exercises that fall under the power phase. Power exercises include more highly skilled and explosive movement patterns. If a client is unable to have proper balance in simple, yet challenging stabilization exercises, there is no need to have them doing box jumps. This is where a personal trainer comes in to guide you through the proper progressions and regressions so that you are doing the best and safest exercises for your body.
PLANES OF MOTION
4. Similar to phases of training are planes of motion. Humans move front-to-back, side-to-side and rotationally. Hence, you should strengthen yourself in all three planes of motion in order to be as healthy a mover as possible. Being proficient in all three planes of motion not only increases your performance in certain activities but also helps you avoid injuries when performing simple day-to-day tasks. These include getting in and out of your car, or when being called upon to do bigger jobs like carrying objects or even moving into a new house. Scientifically the planes of motion are defined below:
Now, your training program may already include these but the rational and expertise is kept from you in order to keep things in laymen’s terms. That being said, if your training program doesn’t even begin to sniff some of the things we mentioned, you might want to consider switching trainers! Iron Bodyfit has a multitude of locations in South Florida including:
