By LAPEREFITNESS
I have been a trainer for 6 years and have trained about 6,000 sessions, one big big thing that a lot of trainers and the general population tend to not do in the gym is ASSESSMENTS! Do you understand why your form doesn’t look like everyone else’s? Is it the right way? The only way to truly know why you can’t do it is understand the signals your body is sending to you through assessment. The 4 movements you can look at with your clients and yourself are the Squat, Row, Push Ups and standing shoulder press.
The Squat
When you’re looking at the squat no matter what variation it is, there is signals your body sends to you about muscles that are too tight and too weak. These simple signals can be seen on virtually any squat variation, but to keep it simple let’s look at the body weight squat (which should be perfect before doing anything else). Watching yourself in the mirror if you do a squat and see yourself start to fall forward it is a good indicator that your hip flexors or calves are too tight. The way you can help this is by working on your flexibility in your hip flexor and calves by either foam rolling or static stretching, while making it a point to work in foot curls and hip bridges. Another signal is if you can’t seem to keep your knees from falling inward it’s a sign that your hamstrings or hip flexors are too tight. Since we already covered the hip flexors, we fix the hamstrings primarily by making your mobility before and after exercise a priority so foam rolling and static stretching are very good ways to help the issue. One more signal with the squat facing a mirror is your feet, if they turn out your calves are tight (which if you wear heels all the time ladies that’s bound to happen!) you can fix it by not wearing shoes that are not elevated in the heel and doing the things we mentioned earlier. If you try watching yourself from the side, squat to parallel and watch your hips. If they roll under then your hamstrings are tight. Your glutes and lower back are more than likely week, so a exercise you can do would be back extensions or supermans to help the low back and tightening your glutes during the movement to get them activated. There is a lot more we can cover with the squat but those are some basic things to look for. Just remember if you can’t maintain good body weight squat form avoid the bars and jumping!
The Row
There is so many types of a row but for this we are going to look at the standing band row. If you look in the mirror while doing this and notice your shoulders tend to shrug upward and elbows flare out as you pull back, it’s a sign that your upper traps are too tight. Two ways to fix this is by focusing on squeezing your shoulder blades together for a couple seconds at the end of the movement and to static stretch your upper traps on a regular basis. If you watch from the side and see your elbows rotate upward at the end of the movement then it’s a sign your front delts are too tight. The way you can help that along with the pause and hold when you row is to static stretch your delts or roll them out with a lacrosse ball. If you see your head fly forward during the movement the muscles in your neck are weak so just focus on keeping the spine neutral and look straight ahead. Finding these problems and fixing them can help your workouts become much more effective.
Push Ups
Now this one is probably the most butchered exercise out there by clients, members and trainers! Doing these wrong can cause numerous injuries and horrible movement patterns. These tips can also be used on any of your chest press movements. Now either use a way to take video of yourself or have someone watch for you. You need to look at 3 spots with the push up: you neck, shoulders and low back. Ideally when you do a push up you should be able to keep a straight line from your elbow to your wrist when you go down and your hands need to be lined up with your chest. When your lowering your body you should be able to get your chest to the floor then back up. Going to 90 degrees in a push up puts more stress on the shoulder and if you can’t go to the ground start on your knees. While doing the push up if you head falls forward then the muscles in your neck are weak, to fix this try looking straight at something above the floor during the movement. With your shoulders look for your elbows turning out and your shoulders elevating. If this happens it is because your middle/lower traps and rhomboids (muscles in the middle of your back) are weak and your upper traps are way too tight. You can fix the middle/lower traps by doing a row with a pause or doing the floor cobra. You definitely need to make sure you stretch the upper traps statically on a regular basis to help them loosen up. Now watching your lower back when you go down if your lower back arches it can be tight low back, tight hip flexors or the most common one is weak core stabilizers, so to keep it simple make sure you work planks into the end of every workout to improve their endurance. Be sure to keep in mind that if you cannot do a push up perfectly then you need to stay away from the presses and if you can’t do one perfectly on your toes go to your knees or a elevated surface. Doing this will keep you safer and more efficient with your workouts and for trainers it will help your clients get better results!
Shoulder Press
These tips can be used on any type of press over head, but for this one we are going to just do a standing body weight shoulder press. Looking in the mirror from the side (should be starting with your hands lined up with your shoulders not at 90 degrees) watch where your ears and your lower back. If your arms are not covering your ears at the top of the movement it is more than likely your chest and delts can be too tight, along with the mid/lower traps and rhomboids being weak. This means you need to static stretch or roll out your delts and chest to loosen them and strengthen the mid/lower traps and rhomboids to be able to get your arms to hide your ears at the top. When you do a over head press you should not be pushing your head through because it puts more stress on the neck and can cause problems later. Now when watching your lower back, if it arches a lot and you feel it in the back it means you have tight hip flexors, weak glutes and weak core stabilizers, so try working in the plank at the end of each workout along with the hip bridge and foam rolling the hip flexors. If you cannot do this movement correctly you should not being things with heavy weight involved or it can be very very dangerous! Keep it safe by taking the time to fix these problems and you will be much happier later.
Number of Reps to see signals and frequency.
I would suggest up to 10 in each view for each of these movements, usually you can tell after 5 but to be safe give your body a chance to send the signals. If you’re a trainer you need to be watching for these constantly or your clients are at a big risk of getting hurt and they are losing out on what they can get in reaching their goals in a safer more efficient way! No matter if you’re a meat head or just someone who wants to stay in shape you should check this at least 1-2 times a month to ensure you’re not regressing but progressing constantly. I hope this helps everyone reading this if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to message me!
Source: http://laperefitness.wordpress.com/a…laperefitness/
