Inexperienced Trainers' Most Common Mistake
July 2nd 2007 15:30
While I move from movement to movement in the gym I am constantly looking around to see what others are doing. Sometimes I see some intriguing innovations on standard exercises that I want to try. Sometimes I see some really silly movements being diligently pursued. What is the most common error I see from what appear to be novice or inexperienced trainers? Failure to isolate.
Isolation is what it sounds like. It is forcing a muscle group to work by itself on an exercise. When this is properly done the muscle has no choice but to adapt and that means increased strength and/or endurance. The problem is that the pattern of doing work that the mind of a normal person follows under normal conditions is one that combines as many muscle groups as possible to complete a task. By this I mean that the imperative sent to the brain by the body is to evolve methods for doing work that put the least stress on the individual parts and the body as a whole. Its just natural to do work in this manner.
What learning to train with weights involves is to some extent to short circuit the natural in favor of the unnatural. When you do a movement in weight training it is better that that movement focus on one muscle group which has to perform the work by itself. The curl is an example. When you curl a weight the logic of the body is to use your hips to create momentum and by rocking your upper body to transfer that momentum to the arms and thus move the weight. In weight training this is the last thing you want. You are doing a curl to build up the biceps. Anything that limits the work of the biceps is counterproductive. Instead of rocking the hips you want to stand still without moving anything but the arm. You concentrate on limiting any action that takes some of the stress off the bicep.
Apply this concept to every muscle in your body and you will have the essence of weight training. It is not that you will never do movements that involve more that one muscle. In fact you will and should. The point is that the mental approach to your training will be to focus on isolation to the extent that you can. You are not in the gym to accomplish your work in the slickest and easiest way you can devise; you are there to build muscle. That means hard work for selected muscles every workout. Your servant, as always.
Isolation is what it sounds like. It is forcing a muscle group to work by itself on an exercise. When this is properly done the muscle has no choice but to adapt and that means increased strength and/or endurance. The problem is that the pattern of doing work that the mind of a normal person follows under normal conditions is one that combines as many muscle groups as possible to complete a task. By this I mean that the imperative sent to the brain by the body is to evolve methods for doing work that put the least stress on the individual parts and the body as a whole. Its just natural to do work in this manner.
What learning to train with weights involves is to some extent to short circuit the natural in favor of the unnatural. When you do a movement in weight training it is better that that movement focus on one muscle group which has to perform the work by itself. The curl is an example. When you curl a weight the logic of the body is to use your hips to create momentum and by rocking your upper body to transfer that momentum to the arms and thus move the weight. In weight training this is the last thing you want. You are doing a curl to build up the biceps. Anything that limits the work of the biceps is counterproductive. Instead of rocking the hips you want to stand still without moving anything but the arm. You concentrate on limiting any action that takes some of the stress off the bicep.
Apply this concept to every muscle in your body and you will have the essence of weight training. It is not that you will never do movements that involve more that one muscle. In fact you will and should. The point is that the mental approach to your training will be to focus on isolation to the extent that you can. You are not in the gym to accomplish your work in the slickest and easiest way you can devise; you are there to build muscle. That means hard work for selected muscles every workout. Your servant, as always.
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