THE INEFFICIENCY OF EXERCISE MACHINES
A bonus module paid for by the kind folks at Squidoo
Your postural habits affect the roughly 20,000 breaths and 10,000 steps you take on a daily basis; subsequently, leading to longstanding muscle imbalances, connective tissue adhesions, and pain in "random" areas of your body. As such any notion of functional fitness training MUST include more than the standard variety of gym exercises and also encompass an increase in functional balance, core strength, and postural awareness!
1. Simply put if an exercise machine requires a seated, or lying, position and doesn't allow for movement in the three cardinal planes (3D)
2. Standard exercise machines prevent training the feet, ankles, knees, and hips to absorb the necessary loading, and proprioceptive challenges encountered in active daily living
3. Specific and restrictive patterns of movement won't transfer to a different set of actions using the same musculature or in other words it's not functional
4. The avoidance of exercising a muscle group in a wide variety of movements isn't an astute safety precaution or proper way to enhance total body functionality and should only be done as the exception to the rule
5. Lastly, emphasizing this isolationist strategy actually weakens certain muscles relative to the avoided exercise pattern and throws off the rate at which body segments move in relation to one another and these rhythms need to be trained, not avoided.
THE VERY BEGINNING
Are you adapted (non-functional) or adaptable (functional)?
The magnificence of the human body is one of Mother Nature's greatest achievements, but it's quite often taken for granted. Our ancestors evolved, over millions of years, to standing upright in gravity and continuously adapted to an ever changing landscape. In recent times a high-tech revolution has changed our lifestyles, but not the way our body's are designed for movement. As such the vast potential of the human body has succumbed to repetitive strain injuries (RSI) and cumulative trauma disorders (CTD) that gradually impede upon quality of life. It's really simple: move it or lose it!
WHAT IS VERTICAL ALIGNMENT?
It's so easy; even a caveman could do it
You need a reference point or way to gauge your current status and improvements you're sure to make. The most logical place to start is in "anatomical position" where your body is upright and organized in a series of vertical blocks, one segment naturally aligned on top of another; allowing all your muscles to work in concert to dynamically stabilize your body. Any deviation from your natural standing alignment will create muscle imbalances; leading to impaired biomechanics and related injuries; also, indirectly effecting the nervous, circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems.
WHAT IS COORDINATION?
Your 6th sense IS NOT a paranormal curse
The basic definition of coordination is when your neuromuscular system functions as an integrated unit to bring about purposeful movement like standing, walking, bending over, etc. This process is continually monitored by the 6th sense of proprioception or the perception of position, posture and movement of the body in relation to your environment. Increasing your proprioceptive awareness will decrease the amount of time needed by your body's feedback system by sending more accurate commands to muscles, thus increasing the efficiency of your anticipatory feedforward system in predicting the consequences of future movements or in other words you improve your coordination! Read that twice.
WHAT IS FLEXIBILITY?
And how does it affect your functional fitness training?
Your balance, posture, and core performance is predicated on the right muscle activating at the right time; so, it's not surprising that flexibility training is important. After all, if a joint isn't able to move through a full range of motion (ROM) it's at a biomechanical disadvantage due to the length-tension principle or in other words a muscle needs to be able to fully contract for optimal strength. If a muscle imbalance (lack of flexibility) precludes proper ROM at a joint it will force other muscles to compensate for its inefficiency; essentially, setting you up for an RSI. In most cases, it's a lack of mobility in the ankles and hips and/or stability in the knees and core/low back that need to be addressed in your functional fitness routine.
WHAT IS BALANCE?
Ever wonder why you don't topple over like a robot?
To put it simply balance keeps you from falling down and encompasses a continuum ranging from a subtle postural sway while you stand "still" all the way to spur of the moment "agile" reactions (e.g. reactive neuromuscular training). To a large degree, and relative to the demands of the movement, maintaining balance entails repeatedly losing and regaining control of your center of gravity. You achieve good balance by instinctively collecting information from the environment to determine where your body is in space and how its position is changing by using eyesight, inner ear equilibrium, and proprioception or your positional sense of body segments and then making the appropriate self-corrections to reorganize your body.
WHAT IS POSTURE?
If this was an easy question there wouldn't be so many successful scams
The easiest way to define posture is to describe what it's not; one statically and/or rigidly held position. Good posture - when you are standing - is straight vertical alignment of your body from the top of your head, through your core, to the bottom of your feet. Your upright alignment allows gravity to evenly flow through your body and move through specific bony landmarks; thereby, decreasing unnecessary muscle tension and stress on your body. However, by any definition your posture is adaptable, ever-changing and context specific; so, it's more about enhancing good postural habits during a wide variety of movements.
WHAT IS CORE STRENGTH?
Dude, where'd I park my core?
Your core can be loosely defined as your lumbo-pelvic-hip complex (e.g. the area around your trunk and pelvis) and it works as an integrated unit to dynamically stabilize your body during all movement. The core muscles act as both a flexible conduit (e.g. golf swing) and rigid transfer case (e.g. lifting heavy object off the ground) to provide shock absorption and transmit force between the legs and arms; so, while your needs might differ depending on the context building a strong core is the foundation of any "functional fitness" program. A progression of movements that feed through the core and challenge it's role as a transfer case or flexible conduit will train function; preferably as you work from horizontal (supine/prone) to vertical (standing) is ideal.
p.s. Remember, your core DOES NOT generate power, but it comes from your feet-legs-hips and terminates through your upper torso-arms-hands.
