How Functional Is Movement Training For Fitness & Performance?
With the rising emergence of “movement training” in both the fitness industry and high-performance athletics, it begs the question… Does movement training actually produce results?
With the rising emergence of “movement training” in both the fitness industry and high performance athletics, it begs the question… Does movement training actually produce results?
Here’s why you should probably take the hyped up movement training trend with a grain of salt, especially if you are focused on improving fitness and function. There are better ways to get fit, fast, strong and powerful, and they don’t involve becoming a functional training guru.
Defining The Un-Definable “Movement Training”
In order to clearly evaluate the benefits and pitfalls of movement training, we must first define the term. Unfortunately, there is no conclusive answer. The definition of movement training will differ from coach to coach, trainer to trainer, and athlete to athlete. Some may consider movement training the motor patterns and exercises specific to their respective sport, while others consider it the ability to express your body freely by adopting a multitude of complex movement patterns.
One of the most polarizing movement training specialists is of course Ido Portal, coach of UFC superstar Connor McGregor. So, what does he have to say about movement training? Ido describes movement culture as a “contemporary paradigm shift in physicality, moving us away from main culprits in movement and fitness as well as the separation between health, aesthetics, performance and art”.
Athlete and former UFC Interim Champion Carlos Condit has also been working with MovNat post-ACL injury. MovNat, much like the Ido Portal Method, believes in a “mindful approach to the full range of natural human movement abilities”.
Lastly, Naudi Aguilar from Functional Patterns is another name I can think of that falls under this category of “movement training”. I think we all know Naudi’s name by now after his explosion onto the scene after a rather fire filled exchange with the glute guy Dr. Bret Contreras a few short years ago.
Why’s Movement Training So Damn Popular In The First Place?
Movement training is becoming more and more popular in athletic performance and fitness mainly because:
Trainees are getting bored with traditional weightlifting exercises such as the squat, bench press and deadlift and seek more variation in their training
Trainees and the general population are buying into the touted benefits of movement training
Trainees have been convinced that traditional resistance training and rehabilitation exercises are “nonfunctional”
Let’s admit it. It looks pretty cool. People are drawn to ideas that are polarizing, different, flashy.
The Truth About “Functional” Training
Although it’s unfair to group the Ido Portal Method, MovNat and Functional Patterns together, they do have one thing in common. They do not believe that the current paradigm and landscape of movement is sufficient for sport performance and health.
The principle of specificity always plays a role when discussing anything performance or health related. Gurus who preach that movement training is all you need and anything in the sagittal plane sucks, is most likely trying to sell you a product by downplaying their competitors.
Many traditional weightlifting and bodyweight exercises (squat, presses, deadlift, cleans, snatches, pushups) all occur in the sagittal plane, but have been shown to be very effective for muscular growth and strength. In addition, these gurus often claim that these exercises are not “functional”.
This naturally leads us into the discussion of functionality, and the question…
What is functional? Do we really need to be rolling around on the ground or balancing on a wobble board?
Too many times have people defined functional training as exercises on a Bosu ball or on a balance beam. While these exercises may serve a function, functional training should be defined as exercises that meet the demands of a specific goal.
Balancing on a bosu ball may be functional to one population, while completely useless to another. For example, balancing exercises on unstable surfaces have shown to be effective for developing stabilizer muscles in injured populations or post-stroke patients. However, may be completely useless to a power athlete looking to improve strength and power as exercises done on unstable surfaces actually reduces force output and does not carry over to the field, court, or platform.
As Mel Siff once said “There is no such entity as a truly functional exercise, except for the actual sporting or daily movement that we are trying to enhance by training”.
So why train at all? The answer is improving skill transfer.
The point is to perform exercises that have a high amount of transfer to the movement or quality we are looking to improve, whether it be biomechanical, neuromuscular or metabolic. With that said, let’s evaluate how well movement training transfers to different populations, which populations can actually benefit from movement training and which populations should stay away from movement training.
Movement Training In Sports Performance
Athletes must practice and be able to perform a variation of movement patterns in order to prevent over-use injuries, and to develop weaknesses to improve sport performance. While I’m a believer that athletes should aim to progress beyond the traditional lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift, power cleans, power snatches), I’m not convinced exclusively performing movement training is the perfect solution.
The amount of movement variation that is required by an athlete depends on factors such as previous and existing movement base, type of athlete and type of sport. As an athlete, how much time should be allotted to movement training (if any at all…) and how much time should be allotted to sport-specific training and traditional strength & conditioning.
Optimizing sport performance is about pushing the human body and mind to the upper limits, as well as experimenting with different training methods. It would be foolish to state that movement training is completely useless or has no place being performed alongside a smart strength & conditioning protocol.
Contact Sport & Mixed Martial Arts Athletes
Running as a form of recovery or long slow distance (LSD) training is often utilized in various sport performance programs. However, the large eccentric component of running unnecessarily stresses the lower body joints and can hinder recovery. This is especially true for athletes in contact sports like MMA and rugby, or in sports that already have a large running component to them, such as soccer.
For this reason, water-jogging/running, swimming, cycling and other activities with concentric-dominant muscle actions are preferred over running. In this case, I propose that: movement training can replace road-work (running) as a form of integrated aerobic and mobility training.
Here’s How To Implement It With This Population:
Use a heart rate monitor (chest-strap preferred). Find or develop your own bodyweight movement routine that focuses on low-impact, and mobility-focused exercises (deep lunges with a chest-stretch/opener, Spiderman/alligator crawls, shoulder rolls, transverse plane rotation drills, etc)
Keep heart rate at 50-70% of your Max Heart Rate, for most people this is a heart rate of 100-135BPM (lower end for recovery, higher end for aerobic adaptations).The key is to keep heart rate under lactate/anaerobic threshold.
Perform this for 30-60 minutes, 1-2x a week. After training sessions and/or on rest days.
In this application of movement training, heart rate and work output is low enough not to interfere with recovery, all while challenging proprioception and putting muscles through a full range of motion. Movements utilized do not have to be specific to the sport, as we are only aiming to improve general aerobic adaptations and promote recovery.
Strength Athletes: Powerlifting, Olympic Weightlifting, Strongman
Powerlifters need enough mobility to hit depth on their squats, be able to bench press and deadlift safely. Olympic weightlifters need a good amount of mobility and flexibility to be able to catch barbell snatchs and clean & jerks in a deep squat position. Strongman competitors need enough hip mobility to pick up heavy stones as well as possess decent shoulder mobility to overhead press safely and effectively. Outside these exercises, strength athletes are not required to practice a plethora of movement patterns. Because of this, movement training can come in the form of maintaining joint and muscular health.
Here’s How To Implement It With This Population:
Movement specialists Max Shank and Hunter Cook have great routines for post-lifting or on off-days, which is comprised of taking all your body’s joints through its full range of motion.
Since the goals of strength athletes are so specialized – pack on muscle, improve strength and power on the main lifts, performing movement training may be a waste of time.
When it comes to cardiovascular conditioning for strength athletes, low intensity cyclical aerobic training like cycling or the elliptical machine may be the better option. MetCons can also be utilized for Olympic weightlifters and Strongman competitors.
Endurance Athletes: Triathletes, Runners, Swimmers, Cyclists
Many endurance sports are cyclical in nature, therefore implying low movement variation in competition and in training. Rather than utilizing movement training, endurance athletes should perform resistance training in conjunction with their endurance training program.
It is a common misconception that resistance training is detrimental for endurance performance or it somehow adds unneeded muscle mass to endurance athletes. However, it has been shown that resistance training can improve peak power output for short-event, anaerobic-endurance athletes as well as improve average power output and movement economy in longer-event, aerobic-endurance athletes.
General Health and Fitness Population
On the other hand, improving physical health and fitness is about reaching or maintaining a healthy lifestyle in a safe and efficient manner. I stress the term efficient because people who fall under this category most likely are not professional athletes, therefore training needs time-efficient. Can movement training improve bone density, blood lipid profile or other health markers? Yes. Can movement training improve these measures as effectively as traditional resistance and cardiovascular training? I’m not sure it can.
For populations looking to improve overall fitness, lose fat mass and put on muscle mass; movement training exclusively, will likely not yield the same results as performing a combination of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. Stick to multi-joint, compound exercises, while carefully selecting isolation exercises to improve your weaknesses or fix muscular imbalances.
Here’s How To Implement It With This Population:
The following movement patterns should make up the bulk of a well-designed resistance training program:
Hip Hinge Pattern (Deadlift, Kettlebell Swings)
Squat Pattern (Back Squat, Split Squat)
Lunge Pattern (Forward lunge, Lateral Lunge)
Horizontal Push (Bench Press, Push Ups)
Vertical Push (Overhead Press, Landmine Shoulder Presss)
Horizontal Pull (1 Arm Dumbbell Row, Bent Over Barbell Row)
Vertical Pull (Pull Up, Chin Up)
Loaded Carries (Farmers Walk, Sled Pull/Bear Crawls)
Isometric Core Exercises (Forearm Plank, Side Plank)
Anti-Rotation Core Exercises (Pallof Press, Bird Dog Variations)
Performing variations of these exercises will help you develop stability, muscle mass, strength as well as build a well-rounded physique. Familiarize yourself with these movement patterns, progressively overload them, and form a solid base before dabbling in more complex movements like muscle-ups or dragon pistol squats.
When it comes to cardiovascular conditioning, 30-90 minutes of steady state aerobic training at 50-70% of your Max Heart Rate (100-135BPM for most individuals) as well as 10-20 minutes of moderate to high-intensity intervals can greatly improve cardiovascular health and aid in fat loss while performed in conjunction with a resistance training routine.
I say in conjunction because I believe everyone should strength train. Strength training puts on muscle mass. Muscle mass plays a role in whole-body protein metabolism, preventing pathologic conditions and chronic diseases such as sarcopenia, and is associated with longevity and lower mortality rates.
The Bottom Line About Movement Training
In terms of building muscle and strength, and improving overall fitness: progressive overload is king. The lack of clear cut progressions in movement training, the inability to load certain movements safely, and the inconclusive definition of the term itself makes it hard to implement effectively in populations seeking to improve general health and fitness.
Should we as humans aim to improve our flexibility, mobility and movement? Yes of course.
Should we spend time touching butts at the park (movement training reference) at the expense of exercises like squats, presses and deadlifts that have already proven to be effective for fat loss, muscle gain and strength? Probably not.
Movement training should be reserved for populations that already have an athletic base, whom are looking to promote recovery, improve mobility, balance and overall movement variation whether it be out of personal interest, or part of a strategically designed strength & conditioning program. For trainees looking for a safe and effective method of increasing their fitness and improving their health, stick to the basics.
Guilt and Shame: Motivation For Exercise and Gym Attendance?
Let's talk about exercise motivation and habit formation for a minute.
Photo Credit: Psypost.org & U.S Pacific Fleet
Today, I came across this article: http://www.psypost.org/2016/09/mens-hidden-guilt-shame-body-fat-can-fuel-gym-attendance-study-finds-44867
Body image, expectations and attitudes towards exercise is usually a topic for women in mainstream media. However, this article/study examines how feelings of guilt and shame in men affect their exercise habits and gym attendance. These are my thoughts:
"The researchers found that men worried about body fat were more likely than others to undertake spontaneous, unplanned work-outs – and warned that these ‘sporadic’ exercise patterns tend to be difficult to sustain over time."
Sporadic exercise patterns are better than no exercise at all. Some people/trainers may say: there is no harm in feeling a bit guilty for not hitting the gym, whatever gets you up and moving. I generally agree with this. In my experience, many guys need a little kick in the ass to get them started. Whether these exercise patterns can be sustained should be addressed AFTER someone has already started exercising. It is then a matter of habit formation, support systems (friends, family, workout partners) and most importantly whether they're seeing results or not.
"With the recent growth of ‘selfies’ and the return of muscle-bound Hollywood hero icons like Vin Diesel and Hugh Jackman, there’s a real risk that males may be more influenced to attend the gym more regularly and workout to a point where it becomes dangerous or detracts from their wellbeing."
Looking and feeling like Superman is a "real risk" I believe people shouldn't be afraid of taking. How many people do you know where their well-being is being threatened by regular exercise? Please note that many middle-aged celebrities are on some sort of testosterone-replacement-therapy. A guy in their teens, 20s or even early 30s can build a healthy physique and improve their health and well-being naturally. Exercise is also about balance. How can you fit exercise into your life without detracting too much from other areas such as work and family?
For others that have struggled with their body image and their fitness, I urge you not to take the role of the victim. Find a trainer, watch some Youtube videos, ask a friend to go to the gym with you. For the first few weeks, its okay to let the feelings of guilt and shame motivate you to get in the gym, on your bike, in your running shoes; or whatever gets you moving. Those feelings will go away as you start to change your perspective on exercise. A lot of people seem to forget exercise improves mental health as much as it does physically. What starts out as a sporadic exercise schedule will develop into what I hope to be, a healthy habit.
Thanks for reading!
Link to the study mentioned in the article: http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2016&issue=09000&article=00024&type=abstract
P.S. One of the best articles I've ever written is on habit formation, and how to take advantage of your environment and support systems to reach your fitness goals. This article has a special place in my life as it combines my experiences with science to demystify the motivations and steps required to form a healthy exercise habit. Its all about stacking the odds in your favor.
Check it at my fitness colleague's website:
http://www.fitnesspollenator.com/2015/10/surprising-reasons-youre-not-reaching-your-fitness-goals.html
The ULTIMATE Guide To Building SUSTAINABLE FITNESS Habits
Article originally posted on Travis Pollen's website: http://www.fitnesspollenator.com/2015/10/surprising-reasons-youre-not-reaching-your-fitness-goals.html
Through years of experimental and observational research on human physiology and biomechanics, science has dictated the optimal way to train for specific fitness goals. The problem is, the most efficient route may not always be the most enjoyable -- especially for people new to exercise.
What often happens to beginners is that they begin to find their routine boring and monotonous. These people eventually fall off and stop working out all together; whether it’s due to boredom or a lack of progress/results. Now, much like science, where adherence is an important factor in experimental studies, adherence is also a crucial part of a beginner's long-term fitness success.
The Dual Process Approach
In order for a person to adhere to an exercise program, they must first have the intention of working out. Psychologists theorize that the strongest conscious predictor of behavior and adherence is intention (1). Does the person have an intention to lose weight? To get stronger? To run faster? The first step to exercising is being conscious about wanting to change their behavior. Psychologists have also proposed that the greatest unconscious predictor is habit (2). Habits are said to be automatic actions or responses to a specific cue. Together, they form what is called a Dual Process approach to exercise habit and behavior formation (3). The Dual Process approach proposes that both conscious and unconscious processes of the brain work in conjunction in order to successfully form a behavior.
Setting Goals – Intentions
Do you have a clear, conscious thought about exercising? Great, you have already formed an intention. But let’s get more in depth to make sure you take your first step towards exercising: setting goals.
Step 1) Evaluate your current lifestyle, what don’t you like about it? What areas in your life are problematic?
Step 2) Set long-term goals. This is what you dream about, losing 30 lbs of fat, putting 50 lbs on your bench press, being able to run a full marathon. Whatever your goals may be, write them down!
Step 3) Set a couple short-term goals. The word “short-term” can be ambiguous; does it mean within a 1-month time frame? 2 months? 6 months? I like considering short-term goals as the baby steps that you take towards your long-term goals. Some short-term goals might be
a) Finding a local gym and buying a membership
b) Planning your exercise frequency around your current work/school schedule (e.g. My short-term goal is to go to the gym three times a week. I will go after work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 45 minutes each session).
Make sure the goals that you are setting are realistic and sustainable (which helps with habit formation). Setting a goal to hit the gym before you leave for work isn’t realistic if you have to be at work by 8:00 am and it takes you an hour to drive there, especially if you’re not used to waking up at 5:00 am. (The exception here would be if you have a very tight schedule and can’t find an alternative time.) Setting a goal to lose 30 lbs of fat in one month is also not realistic, as it would likely cause you to resort to unhealthy and dangerous ways of losing the weight.
Habit Formation
Researchers suggest that there are four factors that contribute to habit formation: rewards, behavioral complexity, consistency and environmental cues (4). Let’s go over each factor, including suggestions for increasing your chances of forming long-lasting exercise habits.
Rewards
Operant conditioning (OC) often explains and drives many of our behaviors and psychology. The OC theory states that behaviors are controlled by consequences, specifically, through reinforcement and punishment (5). Reinforcement is a process that increases the frequency of the behavior either through a rewarding stimulus (positive reinforcement) or a removal of an unfavorable stimulus (negative reinforcement). Punishment, on the other hand, is a process that decreases the frequency of a certain behavior either through an introduction of an aversive stimulus (positive punishment -- yes, there is such a thing), or a removal of a favorable stimulus (negative punishment).
The following figure illustrates the breakdown of the OC theory.
Exercise is unique in the sense that you go through periods of positive punishment before you reach the stage of positive reinforcement. The physiological adaptations and side effects of exercise/working out (resistance exercise, especially) are usually muscle soreness and overall body fatigue, which is considered by definition to be positive punishment (because there is an introduction of unfavorable stimuli). These outcomes are unavoidable with exercise, but it is our body’s ability to adapt to these stressors that makes us better and healthier than we were before.
It’s important to fight the urge to give up and fall off the exercise program. The reason why we continue to exercise is that we know exercise is good for our health and that we expect results. So why do people quit after a few workouts? 1) They simply don’t experience the results they were aiming for, and 2) somewhere along their fitness journey, they decided that feeling uncomfortable, tired, and sore wasn’t worth it.
Getting a person to adhere to their exercise program (increasing behavior) is all about rewards (positive reinforcement). People’s exercise frequency and behavior increases when they start seeing their goals come to fruition in the form of fat loss, pain alleviation, increased mobility, etc. Knowing that, how do we increase the chance of positive reinforcement and maximize our rewards?
1) Education
Learning safe and effective exercise technique is key to maximizing your results and giving you the comfort of knowing that the exercises you are performing will move you towards your goal. Education is also important for setting realistic expectations. Knowing that it is physiological impossibility to gain 20 lbs of muscle mass in two weeks will save you frustration and disappointment when you realize that you look the same as you did before the past two weeks of “hardcore” weightlifting. People looking to lose fat mass may not see results until 3 weeks into exercising, whereas people looking to pack on muscle mass may not see results until 8-9 weeks of resistance training (depending on previous lifting experience).
2) Hire a knowledgeable personal trainer/coach
If you lack the free time to do your own research on health and fitness, it’s wise to hire a fitness professional to help you out. Unfortunately, it can be pretty hard to differentiate between a good and bad trainer (no, their physique doesn’t tell you much about their fitness knowledge). Read some reviews, and ask your friends or family members for a referral. Choosing a good personal trainer might also be a trial and error process.
3) Think long-term
Avoid programs like INSANITY, P90X, ab-blaster 9000 or any program that “promises” you results in a very short period of time. You will increase the chances of acquiring an injury, and the results you gain from these programs are most likely not sustainable. The truth is, you’ll most likely have to develop a good aerobic conditioning base, proper movement patterns, and flexibility before you can partake in high-intensity, high-impact, or heavy-loaded exercises. Ease your way into it and remind yourself that you’re in this for the long run.
Behavioral Complexity
The more complex the behavior, the more likely it will require conscious processes (6). Since the dual process approach proposes that habit is often created through unconscious, automated processes and cues, we must start off our exercise program with simple and easy-to-digest exercises. Although learning new exercise techniques does require conscious thoughts and increased body proprioception, it would be a much better idea to learn how to perform a bodyweight squat than it would be to learn a power snatch.
The complexity of the behavior (exercise in this case) is also related to self-efficacy. Exercises with a low complexity will boost our confidence as we believe we have more chances of succeeding it in (unconscious self-efficacy). This is why running, cycling, and hiking are more popular than resistance training or sports: they’re simple to do (plus the fact that they’re more accessible and convenient to the general population)!
Here are a few ways we can minimize behavioral complexity in hopes of maximizing habit formation:
1) Start slow and ease your way in
This relates to point #3 under Rewards. Building an aerobic conditioning base and learning simple movement patterns (squat, hip hinge, pushing, and pulling) will go a long way in helping you achieve your short- and long-term fitness goals.
2) Regressions and progressions
For bodyweight and resistance exercises, learn the regressions and progressions of each exercise (or hire a professional) so you can monitor your improvement and know how to reduce or increase the complexity of every exercise.
Environmental Cues
The environment also plays a big role in habit development, as it can “prompt or disrupt automatic behavior” (7). Contexts where we feel safe and comfortable will boost self-efficacy and greatly contribute to forming unconscious behavior. It’s hard for people with low self-esteem and social physique anxiety to participate in group classes or expose themselves to a whole gym. It takes time to realize that most people either a) don’t care about you or b) are willing to encourage you and help you achieve your goals. The rest are just assholes. So how do we control our environment for habit formation to work in our favor?
1) Choose an appropriate gym/health club
If you’re completely new to exercising, choosing a family-oriented health club may be the best decision. You will feel more comfortable and be around others with the same goals as you. Joining a hardcore powerlifting or bodybuilding gym (or any gym with an intimidating environment) would not be a good idea and may actually discourage you from going to the gym again. Also, picking a gym that is nearby will increase your chances of going (would you rather have a five-minute walk to the gym or an hour drive?
2) Partner training
Workout with your friend or family member. It’s a great way to hold each other accountable and motivate each other to reach your goals. You’ll feel more comfortable if someone you know is on the ride with you.
3) Getting out of your comfort zone
Realize that eventually you will have to reach out of your comfort zone in order to change your lifestyle in a positive way. Take small steps every day to improve your confidence and let the snowball effect take place!
Consistency
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, forming habits require a high degree of consistency. The more frequently and consistently we perform a task, the more accustomed and comfortable we are with it. In this context, we are talking about the consistency of exercising and practicing good health choices and habits. Here are some ways to stay consistent:
1) Monitor your progress
Track your bodyweight daily or weekly, write down the amount of weight you lifted, jot down how many miles or how long you ran for. Monitoring markers of health and exercise gives you an idea of how much you are progressing. It also motivates you to adhere to your exercise program in order to beat your previous personal bests. Many beginners do not monitor their progress closely enough, thereby failing to see the results they’re making. The mirror is generally not a good indication of minute changes in body physique or health markers!
2) Hire a personal trainer/buy a personal training package
Having someone to hold you accountable for your behavior is a good way to force yourself to stay consistent. Buying a package of 12 or 20 personal training sessions shows commitment and forces you to show up to training sessions… or you lose money!!
3) Plan ahead
Scheduling is of the utmost importance. In order to stay consistent, you must have dedicated time slots in your week to devote to working out. Carrying out a behavior or performing a certain task at the same time every day or week helps with forming habits; this concept is called temporal consistency (8). For example, I work out after school every other day.
Adherence
Let’s say you’ve been working out for three months now and have been seeing results, but you’re starting to lose motivation because the workouts are getting boring and stale. How do you jazz things up and make them more interesting? After all, one of the keys to exercise adherence is variation.
Although it might sound cool to just pick random exercises out of a hat to include into your next workout, having a plan is much better (most of the time).
There are many different variables you can change in your workout to make them more interesting. An easy method is to pick several different exercise modalities to perform in one workout session, an example would be weightlifting and bodyweight exercises then followed by a steady state endurance exercise like swimming or cycling. Another strategy you can implement is adding exercises of varying speeds within the same group of exercises or muscles involved. If you were working on your posterior chain muscles (glutes, lower back, hamstring) in a workout, performing 3 exercises with different speeds would look something like this (from slowest to fastest): Isometric lower back extension holds, barbell hip bridge and explosive kettlebell swings. The exercise order can be altered to fit your specific fitness goals and experience. It changes the pace of the workout and keeps things interesting.
Along with exercise tempo and speed, you can also include exercises of various planes of motion. The figure below illustrates the planes of movement of the body.
Many people do a majority of their exercises in the sagittal plane (basically up and down), this includes exercises such as the squat, bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, deadlifts, etc. Because the prime movers of exercises in the sagittal plane are mostly flexion and extension muscles, our rotational, abductor and adductor muscles are often neglected. While they might be activated to a certain degree during sagittal plane movements (as synergistic muscles or stabilizers), it is smart to include exercises in the frontal and transverse plane in order to work these muscles through their whole range of motion. Some frontal plane exercises include dumbbell lateral raises, lateral box jumps and side lunges. Transverse plane exercise are rotational in nature and include Pallof presses, rotational medicine ball throws, and wood choppers.
Benefits of Exercise Selection Variation
Let’s face it: unless you’re a powerlifter, few people want to focus solely on squat, bench press, and deadlift. Doing a variety exercises of different tempos, planes of motion, and complexity is what makes working out enjoyable. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do effective compound exercises like the squat, bench press, deadlift, and military press. In most cases, these exercises should be at the core of your program, but you should add a variety of exercise modalities into your workout, especially if your goal is to increase your general fitness (fat loss, muscle gain, cardiovascular endurance). Here are my recommendations:
1) Apply the principle of progressive overload
Strive to add weight to the bar or increase the number of sets or reps that you do over time. Progressive overload is a principle that, in order for the body to grow better and stronger, we must gradually increase the amount of stress we put on it during exercise.
2) Select your exercises in blocks
Don’t switch up your exercises every day or every week; the concept of muscle confusion is a foolish one. Rather, select a group of exercises and keep them for three or more weeks. This gives us time to either improve our technique and allows us to apply the principle of progressive overload in order to reap the benefits of those particular exercises.
3) Individualize
Pick exercises you like and find enjoyable and simple. To address bodily weaknesses or asymmetries, carefully select exercises that will target those weak spots.
Practicing multiple movement patterns and perfecting the technique of various exercises serves as general physical preparation, which increases your general fitness so you’ll be more successful in whatever additional sport or activity you choose. Most of the great athletes in the 21st century usually have a history of playing multiple sports before they became great at their respective sport (Michael Jordan, Steve Nash).
Main Takeaways (tl;dr)
1) Understand and expect realistic results, set short- and long-term goals, monitor your progress (experiment --> evaluate --> adjust... repeat).
2) Creating sustainable exercise habits will require both conscious and unconscious factors. Understanding these factors and applying mental cues will help you maximize your chances of habit formation.
3) Expect to move out of your comfort zone if you want a positive change in your life.
4) Variation will greatly improve exercise adherence.
References
(1) Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211. doi:10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t
(2) Sheeran, P., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Bargh, J. A. (2013). Nonconscious
processes and health. Health Psychology, 32, 460–473.
(3) Evans, J. S. B. T. (2008). Dual-processing accounts of reasoning,
judgment, and social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology,
59, 255–278.
(4) Lally, P., & Gardner, B. (2013). Promoting habit formation. Health
Psychology Review, 7, S137–S158.
(5) Operant Conditioning. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning
(6) Verplanken, B., & Melkevik, O. (2008). Predicting habit: The case of
physical exercise. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 9, 15–26.
(7) Orbell, S., & Verplanken, B. (2010). The automatic component of
habit in health behavior: Habit as cue-contingent automaticity.
Health Psychology, 29, 374–383.
(8) Rhodes, R. E., & De Bruijn, G. J. (2010). Automatic and motivational
correlates of physical activity: Does intensity moderate the
relationship? Behavioral Medicine, 36, 44–52.
Exercise Selection for General Fitness PART 2
~600 Words ; ~5 minute read
Carrying on from part 1 on the topic of exercise selection for general fitness, we will next talk about the goals of general fitness and what exercises we can pick from to achieve those goals in a safe and efficient manner.
Although fitness goals differ from person to person, it is safe to say the goals of increasing general fitness are as follows:
1) Improve body composition via increasing muscle mass (for functionality and aesthetics) and decreasing body fat (for aesthetics and overall cardiovascular/joint health, reducing the risk of disease and mortality)
2) Increase cardiovascular endurance (the general population wants to get tired less easily, walk and run for longer distances, be able to go hiking, etc)
3) Fix posture and muscle imbalances (reduce current soreness and pain, reduce risk of acquiring lower back, shoulder and knee pain in the future)
4) Build a good muscle and movement foundation (which allows people to do what they want to do with their body, play the sports they want to play)
5) Increase confidence and self-efficacy (body re-composition/physique changes and the elimination of debilitating pain often comes with an increased feeling of self-confidence and self-efficacy; the driver behind motivation and habits, and an indicator of future success)
Types of Exercise Modalities and Their Benefits:
Resistance Training Exercises (Barbells, Dumbbells, Kettlebells)
- Allows for performing exercises in a full range of motion
- Very effective in increasing muscle mass and neuromuscular efficiency (the body's ability to recruit the correct muscles in order to produce force and stabilize structures of the body)
- Allows the trainee to easily track progress (if the weight on the barbell or dumbbell is increasing, you're most likely getting stronger, gaining more muscle; making progress!)
- Resistance training exercises often requires the trainee to use several different muscles and move several joints to perform the movements, this is very effective for ingraining proper motor patterns and learning to use your body as a whole. It is also great for hypertrophy gains and expending calories (for body recomposition purposes)
Cardiovascular Exercises (Running, Swimming, Cycling, Hiking, etc)
- Little to no equipment needed, convenient
- Improve muscular endurance (light loaded repetitive tasks in your daily life will be easier to perform)
- Effective in increasing cardiovascular endurance (walking to the bus stop won't get you feeling like you just ran a marathon anymore!)
- Better cardiovascular health, reduced risk of disease (decreased heart rate, blood pressure, LDL + total cholesterol)
- Sets a cardiovascular endurance foundation needed in order to perform resistance training exercises and/or play sports
Body-weight Exercises
- Little equipment needed, body-weight exercises can be done virtually anywhere there is open space
- Depending on previous exercise experience and current bodyweight, it can be a good introduction to resistance training exercises
- Improves body kinesthetic awareness (where your limbs are in space, where they are relative to other parts of your body)
- Often used as stability and isometric exercises for the core muscles (rectus abdominis, diaphragm, transverse abdominis)
Stability/Resistance Band Exercises (Resistance bands, Bosu ball, Exercise Stability Ball)
- Increases muscle and joint stabilization
- Often used as an exercise modality to rehabilitate muscular or joint injuries
- Can be used to work the core muscles
As we covered in Part 1, the benefits of these exercise modalities are not exclusive. There is definitely a degree of crossover (eg: Resistance training with short rest times will give benefits similar to cardiovascular training).
In PART 3 of this series, we will put everything together and learn how to design an efficient exercise program.
Exercise Selection for General Fitness PART 1
~450 words; 3-5 minute read
PART 1 Understanding the SAID principle and the transfer of physiological adaptations and skills
Whether you’re new to exercise or you are coming back to it after taking time off, choosing an exercise program can be challenging. There is a plethora of training modalities and exercises to pick from, each of which have their own strength and weaknesses. Before prescribing an exercise program, you must learn one of the most important principles of exercise physiology: the SAID principle (aka Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands)
The SAID principle states that the body’s adaptations to exercise are specific to the type of exercise/training modality being performed. Lifting weights will cause your muscles, tendons and ligaments to adapt and strengthen, while long distance running will elicit cardiovascular adaptations. However, these adaptations are not exclusive; there is such thing as cross-over or transfer. In relation to skill acquisition, the amount of transfer between two tasks is dependent on how structurally similar the two tasks are. This is also known as transfer of learning, or identical-elements theory (used in psychology and motor learning). The skills acquired from practicing field hockey may positively transfer to ice hockey because of their similarity in stick handling and eye-hand coordination. Whereas the skills acquired from soccer may not transfer over to ice hockey performance because of the differences in motor patterns/coordination (feet dexterity vs. stick handling) and environment (cleats on turf vs. skates on ice). There can also be negative transfer, where practicing task A interferes with our performance and learning of task B.
How does this relate to exercise?
Our body’s physiological response to exercise kind of works in the same way as skill acquisition and transfer, for example: though running/cycling is more efficient in producing cardiovascular adaptations (cardiac health, blood pressure, oxygen intake, etc), lifting weights can also produce the same adaptations when done with short rest periods and in a high-volume fashion. So it is fair to say that resistance training does not exclusively produce strength and hypertrophy adaptations, and that the degree of which it benefits our cardiovascular system (transfer) is based on variables such as how many reps we are performing per set, how much work we are doing each set and for how long, and also how long we rest in-between sets. Shorter rest times would more closely mimic endurance exercise modalities (cycling, running, low intensity exercises with minimal breaks), and therefore produce cardiovascular adaptations similar to endurance type activities. Knowing this information, the objective is then to choose exercises that 1) Will produce adaptations consistent with your fitness goals 2) Won’t interfere (concept of negative transfer) with the acquisition of your fitness goals 3) Will positively transfer well to your future fitness, diet or sport endeavors