A “power movement” is any movement of the body which can be accomplished with the addition of external weight above and beyond body weight. Power movements are the basic form of exercise used for weigh lifting both on machines and with free weights. Because the resistance of free weights is in the direction of gravity rather than the pre-positioned direction of an weight machine, free weights do resemble real life situations outside of the gym more directly. Almost every object we move outside of the gym exerts its resistance on our body through the weight of gravity and is therefore a free weight.
Despite the difference between machines and free weights, each moves the upper body in very similar motions. There are four basic power movements of the upper body excluding isolation of the arms. These four basic power movements are: pushing forward, pulling back, pushing up, and pulling down.
Pushing Forward - The pushing forward motion in weight bearing activities are designed to overload the muscles of the chest, front of the shoulder, and, to a degree, the back side of the arms. Essentially a pushing forward motion is used in a bench press or chest press as it is in the functional movement of a pushup. The variations most commonly found in pushing forward are a slight incline or decline to the relative strait forward motion. This angular adjustment does change slightly the location of muscle fiber recruitment for the exercise, but rarely changes the muscles being targeted as a whole. A chest or bench press will always utilize the muscles of the chest and the front of the shoulder.
Pulling Backward - A pulling backward motion is designed to utilize the muscles of the central and upper back, specifically the muscles between your shoulder blades. If your shoulder blades are not approaching one another in a pulling back movement, you are not isolating the proper musculature in a pulling motion. Unlike pushing forward, it is possible to pull backward without using these muscles between your shoulder blades. This is accomplished by pulling with improper technique, isolating the arm and back side of the shoulder, rather than the middle of the back. A pulling back motion is found in any kind of a machine or free weight row. Any of these type of rowing movements should involve one or both shoulder blades coming closer together or approaching your spine. When pulling back, imagine there is a penny sitting in the middle of your back on your spine and you are trying to pinch that penny between your shoulder blades.
Pushing Up - The pushing up movement is perhaps the most precarious and potentially damaging power movement one can attempt in a fitness facility. Adding load to your arms and lifting that weight overhead is not easy and often requires the body to compensate for the movement in an undesirable manner. The pushing up motion is classically called a shoulder press, military press, or vertical raise. This movement is meant to strengthen the muscles of the shoulder, upper back around the neck, and, to a lesser extent, the back of the arms. Pushing up puts the shoulder joint in a relatively unnatural position and should not be attempted unless the shoulder complex has full range of motion. There are other techniques for strengthening the shoulder which don’t involve putting weight over one’s head, but the basic movement of the joints is similar.
Pulling Down - A pulling down movement, oddly enough, is most commonly associated with what is called a “pull-up”. The “up” part of pull-up implies the direction your body is going of course, not the direction of motion. A pulling down motion is also associated with the Lat Pulldown exercise as well as a pull-over exercise. Although these couple of movements are somewhat different, the concept is the same - pulling your arm from and upward position to a downward position. Similar to a pushing up exercise, the pulling down exercise can put a great amount of undue stress on the shoulder complex if it is not flexible enough to properly handle the movement. Pulling down movements are extremely important for people into out-door adventure ie. hikers with poles, skiers with poles, rock climbers, rowers, etc..
Certainly there are many more movements the body can accomplish above and beyond the ones mentioned here. However, these are the basic four power movements that the upper body will perform for strength gain and size. A good work out design will include all of these movements equally and may alternate between two contrasting movements - pushing forward/pulling back or pushing up/pulling down. If your workout is lacking any of these basic movements, you are setting yourself up for later injury due to strength imbalance. You will not necessarily move the same amount of weight in contrasting power movements, generally the body is a stronger puller than pusher, but the weight loads should be close. Evaluate your work out - are you including all of the power movements equally when doing a weight loaded workout?
Monday, January 7, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Mobility VS Isolation
Mobility: the quality of being mobile.
Mobile: capable of moving or being moved readily
Isolation: an act or instance of isolating.
Isolate: to set or place apart; detach or separate as to be alone
( www.dictionary.com )
When you are in the gym, look around you. You’ll find machines and lead weights, balls and bands, steps, slides, and stretch mats. Each one of these items was designed to utilize a certain function of your body. Your body, however, was not designed to work within the confines of a certain function. Your body has many functions, and unless you consciously tell it otherwise, it will perform any action it feels necessary to generate your desired end result. If you want to pick up a glass, for instance, your brain says “pick up glass”. Your body responds by activating muscles in your shoulder, arm, hands and even back to accomplish the end result, “pick up glass”.
In other words, your body does not isolate any one part of your musculature. It will not send signals to your muscles in order. When you think “pick up glass”, your brain doesn’t respond by saying,
“OK, shoulder, you contract first to lift the arm, now arm ... you bend to put hand to the glass, and hand when shoulder and arm are finished I want you to bend the fingers and grip the glass. Now everybody hold on while the shoulder lifts more to pick up the glass ... good job everyone!”
Instead, the signal “pick up glass” is sent to all muscles at once, and your muscles in turn send constant and unconscious signal feedback - not only to your brain, but also to your spinal column - which returns the signal in an order that accomplishes the original order to pick up a glass.
So if your body doesn’t isolate, why are all those machines and other tools in the gym designed to isolate? Weight machines and particular weight lifting techniques were not designed by doctors, anatomists, or physiologists, they were designed by athletes - a particular type of athlete called a weight lifter or body builder. Almost everything we know to do in a gym is designed for the particular athletic goal of weight lifting or body building/sculpting.
Now you have to ask yourself, “Am I or do I want to be a weight lifter or body builder?” If the answer is no then you shouldn’t be isolating your body the way a weight lifter or body builder does. You can, however, use the tools of a body builder or weight lifter to improve the movements you want your body to accomplish like carrying heavy groceries or climbing a ladder or even pushing a car out of the snow. Pushing a car out of snow is not a mobility inhibiting motion, so neither should your training be.
Try to imagine health or fitness and body building/weight lifting as unrelated pursuits with common materials. Similarly think of a newspaper. A newspaper is most commonly used for reading, but it can also be used to start a fire, insulate packaging, or swat a fly. If you want to swat a fly, you’re not going to sit and read the paper the way it was originally intended to be used hoping that the act of reading will somehow nab that pesky fly. Rather you will roll up that paper and swing it around like mad - a use totally unrelated to reading - until you accomplish your goal. The same is true for the materials in a fitness gym. If you don’t want to be a body builder/weight lifter, don’t use the fitness club materials exactly as a body builder/weight lifter would.
If you do want to be a body builder, or even if you just want to build your body for beach season, there is no reason you can’t do the exercises designed by these athletes to accomplish such ends. There is nothing wrong with isolation exercises and in point of fact much study and many years of practical application has lead these athletes to excel in their profession, but what they do is no more applicable to everyone else than is shooting a basketball or learning to crochet. You just have to understand that by using isolated movements, you are sacrificing mobility one way or another and in order to maintain proper range of motion you will need to practice mobility separate from your isolation exercises.
Mobile: capable of moving or being moved readily
Isolation: an act or instance of isolating.
Isolate: to set or place apart; detach or separate as to be alone
( www.dictionary.com )
When you are in the gym, look around you. You’ll find machines and lead weights, balls and bands, steps, slides, and stretch mats. Each one of these items was designed to utilize a certain function of your body. Your body, however, was not designed to work within the confines of a certain function. Your body has many functions, and unless you consciously tell it otherwise, it will perform any action it feels necessary to generate your desired end result. If you want to pick up a glass, for instance, your brain says “pick up glass”. Your body responds by activating muscles in your shoulder, arm, hands and even back to accomplish the end result, “pick up glass”.
In other words, your body does not isolate any one part of your musculature. It will not send signals to your muscles in order. When you think “pick up glass”, your brain doesn’t respond by saying,
“OK, shoulder, you contract first to lift the arm, now arm ... you bend to put hand to the glass, and hand when shoulder and arm are finished I want you to bend the fingers and grip the glass. Now everybody hold on while the shoulder lifts more to pick up the glass ... good job everyone!”
Instead, the signal “pick up glass” is sent to all muscles at once, and your muscles in turn send constant and unconscious signal feedback - not only to your brain, but also to your spinal column - which returns the signal in an order that accomplishes the original order to pick up a glass.
So if your body doesn’t isolate, why are all those machines and other tools in the gym designed to isolate? Weight machines and particular weight lifting techniques were not designed by doctors, anatomists, or physiologists, they were designed by athletes - a particular type of athlete called a weight lifter or body builder. Almost everything we know to do in a gym is designed for the particular athletic goal of weight lifting or body building/sculpting.
Now you have to ask yourself, “Am I or do I want to be a weight lifter or body builder?” If the answer is no then you shouldn’t be isolating your body the way a weight lifter or body builder does. You can, however, use the tools of a body builder or weight lifter to improve the movements you want your body to accomplish like carrying heavy groceries or climbing a ladder or even pushing a car out of the snow. Pushing a car out of snow is not a mobility inhibiting motion, so neither should your training be.
Try to imagine health or fitness and body building/weight lifting as unrelated pursuits with common materials. Similarly think of a newspaper. A newspaper is most commonly used for reading, but it can also be used to start a fire, insulate packaging, or swat a fly. If you want to swat a fly, you’re not going to sit and read the paper the way it was originally intended to be used hoping that the act of reading will somehow nab that pesky fly. Rather you will roll up that paper and swing it around like mad - a use totally unrelated to reading - until you accomplish your goal. The same is true for the materials in a fitness gym. If you don’t want to be a body builder/weight lifter, don’t use the fitness club materials exactly as a body builder/weight lifter would.
If you do want to be a body builder, or even if you just want to build your body for beach season, there is no reason you can’t do the exercises designed by these athletes to accomplish such ends. There is nothing wrong with isolation exercises and in point of fact much study and many years of practical application has lead these athletes to excel in their profession, but what they do is no more applicable to everyone else than is shooting a basketball or learning to crochet. You just have to understand that by using isolated movements, you are sacrificing mobility one way or another and in order to maintain proper range of motion you will need to practice mobility separate from your isolation exercises.
Welcome!
Welcome to the new web log for AGJ Health & Fitness! Here you will find frequent new information related to health issues you encounter every day. Written by the owner and creator of AGJ Health & Fitness, Master Health Trainer Austin Gregory Johns, the AGJ healthfitness Interactive is designed to be a sounding board for new ideas and curiosities relating to fitness and general health. Austin will be posting near daily articles on all sorts of topics related to your health and fitness. If you ever have any questions or comments about the content you see here, feel free to question or otherwise dispute it either in a follow-up comment or in a direct e-mail to Austin at austingjohns@gmail.com.
Thank you, and hopefully you find the resources found here and at AGJhealthfitness.com helpful and informative!
Thank you, and hopefully you find the resources found here and at AGJhealthfitness.com helpful and informative!
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