In every class at 306, you will hear a coach talk about movement patterns. How to move safely, effectively and efficiently through range of motion for a particular movement. As the points are listed there, is a hierarchy. First, we need to make sure you move safely. You can’t keep coming in to train if you are hurt. Second is effectively. You need to be effective in reaching a given standard (hip crease the knee in bottom of a squat for example) so you can repeat your efforts in the future and see progress. Then we want to improve the efficiency of our movement so we can do it faster, longer, further, etc; depending on the desired outcome.
I want to take a second to talk about the later two points there. Not to overshadow the first because I have wrote more than a couple blogs on the importance of moving safely and how to do that. Effectiveness and efficiency are important if we want to maximize our training and be able to perform to our fullest potential. Jason and myself are currently competing in an online qualifier for a competition. The workout I did today had thrusters in it. Because I have the video footage of it (for submission for scoring standards), I was able to watch my movement back. Time and results aside, I want to address why training with high quality movements is important every day. All the time.
Before I carry on, take a quick watch of the video as I’ll be referencing is specifically in the rest of the blog.
In the video, I am doing thrusters with the heaviest of an escalating weight barbell thruster, followed by bar facing burpees and then progressively harder rig gymnastics movements. No where to hide and no where for the heart rate to come down and recover. There were two things that stood out to me in the video. The thrusters are first. As I have said, this is the heaviest barbell after already completing 13 minutes of work. The only way I would have known this was the heaviest barbell is from watching the rest of the video. The movement standard and quality are essentially the same as the very first rep. This is certainly not to say I am not tired (we’ll address that after haha). The movement quality looks the way it does because I try to focus on consistency and good positions every day. The body learns these positions. When we learn these positions at less than maximal effort, they get engrained in our nervous system and when the going gets tough, we default to them and not whatever the body feels like doing at the time (not much at this point in the workout). The second thing that stood out to me are obviously the burpees. I am so tired at this point in the workout that I can hardly get my own body off the floor. I only bring that up because it speaks to just how tired I was at this point in the workout.
I don’t share this video because of the results in the workout. I share it because of the results in the training. Train with purpose! Move with purpose. Teach your body those default positions, motor patterns and muscle recruitment all the time. When a coach is cueing you for a technique adjustment, heed it. Once you learn to make these effective and efficient positions and movements your norm, the body forgets all the bad habits.
Move safely. Move effectively. Move efficiently. It really pays off in the long run!