Advice from a Fitness Professional You Can Trust:
We all have personal fitness goals, so our path to achieve them needs to be just as personal.
Each of us have different physical stressors and movement patterns. Each daily task, posture position and physical activity we do (or don’t do) impacts our physical health and function. Knowing which exercises to use and which to avoid can make the difference in working out and feeling motivated or working out and feeling discouraged due to physical pain.
Popular workout trends (machine workouts, group fitness or standard training) typically stress muscles that are already overworked and overlook muscles that can alleviate these issues. For example, someone who has neck tension and hunches their shoulders from working over a computer all day is predisposed to rotator cuff issues and should focus on exercises that will create stability in their upper back – along with stretches that will release tight chest and shoulder muscles. Exercises like chest press, push-ups, and/or shoulder press will further stress these overworked areas and increase risk of injury.
Other popular lower body exercises (like squats) tend to reinforce tight hip flexors, low back overuse and poor knee joint alignment. So, a person with a desk job should primarily focus on isolating their glute muscles and abdominal strength to increase the function of their lower body – then introduce a squat to their program. This method of training will decrease joint pain, allowing you to make progress faster with less physical barriers.
When you can exercise consistently and build on that a little over time, your result is a truly fit lifestyle. Overall, a good workout should address the areas of overuse (with stretching and other myofascial release), then focus on activating muscles that need to function better to correct muscular imbalances and joint alignment.
From there, any fitness goal becomes more realistic and achievable.
About the Author:
Mira Rasmussen, ASCM EP-C, NASM CES is the founder of Fitness Beyond Training, which specializes in functional training for the general population, athletes and those managing disease or physical limitations. Committed to promoting a healthy lifestyle, Mira has served on the Obesity Action Coalition’s (Founder of the Your Weight Matters Campaign) Education Committee and frequently writes for Your Weight Matters Magazine. For more information, please visit www.fitnessbeyondtraining.com.
