Doing and undoing

Training isn’t just done inside the gym. The way we walk, sit, stand and move throughout the day has a huge bearing on our ability to move well inside the training hall and out. Of course, it also has a huge bearing on how you age. It strikes me that a lot of people are walking around injured or hurt. While a small percentage of these injuries are sustained in accidents, the truth is, a majority are self-inflicted.

If you realize that we are in training 24 hours a day, then you can understand that how we “train” our bodies when we are not working out is just as important as when we are. Whenever you move in a certain way, the body adapts. Knowing this should change the way you move, sit, stand and live. Take a simple thing like posture. If you have poor posture and expect to perform well doing a pushup, you will find it very difficult. If you spend all day at a computer with your neck lurched forward and your shoulders hunched, you are setting yourself up for trouble later on. You are training this position for several hours a day. It will take some time and effort to undo those bad habits, but it can be done. Becoming aware of it is the first step.

If you do something long enough, you need to undo it or pay the consequences. If you sit at a desk for eight hours a day and do nothing to open the chest, arch the back, stretch the legs, move the elbows, wrists and fingers through their full range of motion, it is going to come back to haunt you. Similarly, if your chosen sport has you maintain one position for long periods, like riding a bike for example, you are going to walk around like you’re still on the bike. You may have low back pain, shoulder and neck pain, tight wrists and forearms, immobile hips and/or feet. Your heart may be strong and your legs – specifically quadriceps, hamstring, hip flexors and glutes – as well but your upper body is probably disproportionately weak.

To compensate for a position maintained in one direction, we must move it's functional opposite direction. Most sedentary office workers have tight hamstrings from sitting. To undo this pattern, try sitting with your legs extended instead of bent. This may reveal a weakness in the lower back. The answer comes back to strength training. 

The forward position of the shoulders is another commonly trained trait. Try reaching your hands under the desk (if there is ledge to grip onto), palms supinated (facing up) with your chest facing away. Be sure to externally rotate your hands (arms outwards) which will externally rotate the shoulder. This will work to undo the internal rotation of the typical desk-sitting position. Do it with one or both hands depending on your flexibility. Bands work best for this but stretching while you are at work is a good idea too. Always start by moving the joints first.

If this is what the average office worker or student has to do to compensate for training a seated position, the athlete has to do even more. Cyclists should be training their spines to bend the opposite way, opening the shoulders, opening the hips beyond the longitudinal plane and moving the elbows, wrists, hands and feet.

When you train a movement without training its functional opposite, you create a compensation. The trained movement tightens, compensating for the untrained movement which loosens, becoming compensated. This process of training a movement’s functional opposite, is what will make you strong! Are you aware of any compensations your body is making for certain trained movements? Start by noticing your posture in all positions. Make use of downtime to loosen the smaller joints. Pay attention to what you are doing inside and outside the gym and you will start to notice improvements in your mobility. Then you can start to strengthen those neglected muscles.