Is Your Exercise Right And Giving You The Desired Results? What Could You Be Doing Wrong?

Exercising right is very important. There are many ways of reaching your fitness goals, what works for one may not be right for the other, so while seeing the end goal you must also choose your exercise path carefully. Appropriate training accomplishes goals with minimal risk of injury in the quickest amount of time so it might be wise to train functionally.

Functional training is simply the utilization of exercises which involves complex, multi joint movements of the upper body, core and lower body in each exercise. These movements enable performance enhancement and proper stimulation of muscular ”firing” patterns. The body will try to accommodate any ”request” – regardless of whether the action is detrimental to the continued function of joints or muscles, therefore exercising right is vital. Functional training works if the exercises are successful in activating the muscles we need in the right sequence. It enhances the usage of the correct pathways in the interaction between the muscle groups; otherwise our body stores the unhealthy ‘shortcuts’ in the muscle memory. E.g. a ball crunch might not be a good way to work your abs if you have poor proprioception (self-perception of muscle activity) and excessive muscle tightness in the hips-instead of working your abs, your body may rather use the ‘shortcut’ of activating the hip flexors. And you may not notice that you are exercising the ‘wrong’ (not intended) muscles.

What is the key to exercising right?

Ideally your exercise must be both efficient and effective. It must furthermore improve form and function while ensuring minimal joint risk and maximizing ROM (range of motion). If all these factors are not taken into consideration in your program design, performance will suffer and you will reach your goal slowly and/or ”painfully”. So, if you are not sure of your training methods seek personal coaching services from a knowledgeable personal trainer.
Generally speaking, training is very goal and individual specific, but most times functionality is sacrificed in an attempt to meet aesthetic needs at all cost. It is no secret that the main goal of most people is aesthetic (how they look) more than function (how they move) yet good functional exercise improves not only sport and daily work performance but also physical appearance.

How to avoid exercise plateau.

Everyone wants to prevent exercise plateau. Whatever exercise program you chose, you should apply the FITTR principles: Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type, and Rate of progression. And the level and intensity of exercise should be based on your fitness level (as determined through initial assessment) and the goal(s) of the exercise. Note that for proper adaptation to take place, exercise must be done frequently and recovery times must be taken seriously. So, don’t feel bad having a good sleep on your rest days, it is good for you.

As you strive to achieve your fitness goals remember to be patient as it generally takes about 4-6 weeks to see adaptation and morphological changes. Once adaptation has taken place you can move to the next level by adjusting the frequency, intensity, time, type or rate of progression. This is sometimes known as periodization and  will help prevent the often dreaded exercise plateau and ensure continuous success in your training.