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Do you ask yourself “Where do I feel this?”
I think one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves when doing exercises is – “Where do I feel this?”
Because even if we have perfect form, we may not be activating the correct muscles.
Activation requires us sometimes to actually concentrate on getting the muscles working.
So when you do glute bridges, don’t just go through the motions….Think about squeezing your glutes and make sure to concentrate extra hard on getting them to work.
This focus on the muscles working improves our mind-body connection and makes sure we get the most out of the movement and don’t just go through the motions.
And not only does asking ourselves, “Where do I feel this” get us to make sure the correct muscles are activating, but it also allows us to know if we are doing a movement correctly.
If you don’t have a mirror to check your form, but you feel the correct muscles working, you are most likely doing the movement correctly.
So by asking yourself where you feel the move, you are making sure your form is correct and that the correct muscles are working.
You may even find that sometimes, even though you have the correct form, the correct muscles AREN’T actually working.
For example, glute bridges…Bridge up off the ground extending your hips. This could look correct, but that doesn’t mean your butt is actually activating. It could look right, but you could actually be loading only your hamstrings or low back.
The question is what are you working? Where do you feel it? When is the last time you thought about it? Or do you just usually think about bridging up as high as you can?
Height doesn’t matter. Feeling it in your glutes and consciously squeezing them as hard as possible is what matters.
So right now, try the glute bridge. Where do you feel it? Are you actually working the correct muscles?
No? Maybe adjust where your feet are. Try not to bridge up as high. Concentrate on squeezing your glutes. FEEL the move in the correct muscles!
By asking yourself where you feel it, you will get more out of your workouts.
And all of you trainers out there…You need to not only ask yourself this question so you can better coach moves, but you also need to ask your clients where they feel movements.
It will improve their mind-body connection and allow them to know if they are doing moves correctly when you aren’t there. It will get them even better results and improve their coordination.
FEELING THE MOVES HELPS YOU GET MORE OUT OF YOUR WORKOUTS!
So stop going through the motions and concentrate on where you feel movements. It will improve your body awareness and make your stronger and more coordinated!
P.S. If you are doing the glute challenge, you may want to try these 20 Glute Bridge Variations!
Practice What You Preach
Recently I’ve seen a ton of crazy hard workouts trainers have given their clients that they themselves could NEVER finish.
And it always irks me.
Because for one, I believe you should never ask someone to do something you can’t do and two, it gives people the perception that if they aren’t absolutely completely destroyed at the end of the workout it wasn’t hard enough (even if that isn’t how the trainer trains him or herself).
I’ve also overheard a lot of people recently preaching different healthy eating strategies when they, themselves, don’t eat clean and follow their own advice.
STOP IT PEOPLE!
Practice what you preach!!!
Especially as trainers we need to practice what we preach.
And that doesn’t mean you have to look a certain way or lift a certain amount to be a good trainer. But it does mean that we shouldn’t ask our clients to do things we can’t and have never done before ourselves.
If you don’t make time for working out with your busy schedule, how can you ask your clients to?
If you don’t make time for meal prep and have never logged your food in a fitness app, how can you ask your clients to?
You can’t. Because you don’t know how difficult it is to do those things or how to overcome the excuses.
You don’t know what it truly takes so how can you help them stay motivated and moving forward.
Sure…You can say the things you’ve read, but you’ve never experienced what they are going through.
Same goes for the workouts we write up.
Yes, we know what muscles are being worked by an exercise. Yes we know reps and sets and rest periods and how they all technically affect us.
But have you ever realized that while certain exercises seem like a good idea together, they end up being complete murder…Even though TECHNICALLY they fit the “mold” or design?
And you wouldn’t know that if you didn’t try them together.
No…You may not be able to try every workout you write up (although it wouldn’t be a bad idea to run through as many as you can), but you should have experienced and experimented enough with different exercises and designs that any routine you throw someones way you know you could complete…Complete at the toughest possible variation.
Ok. So some of you right now may be thinking, but I have some clients that can lift more than me/do more pull ups or push ups.
And I’m not saying that you can’t have them do more challenging variations or lift more weight.
But I do ask you to have challenged yourself as much as they will have to. And to have tried the variations (or even modifications of them) to know how they will affect the person.
We need to practice what we preach.
Because how can you ask someone to do something you wouldn’t or couldn’t do?
Man Bicep 