Happy Friday!

Welcome to another edition of the “Train For Life” newsletter.

Today’s edition we will be discussing YOUR unique body, and how resistance exercise needs to be tailored to suit your body and how it moves…

The thing is no two bodies are structured the exact same way, nor will they have the same exercise history AND injury history.

There are a few things that can influence how we move during exercises in the gym, and these include:

• Length of arms, legs and torso: A squat can look VERY different between someone tall with long legs and shorter torso, and someone shorter with shorter legs and longer torso!

• Shape and structure of joints: Don’t be fooled by classic anatomy pictures! There is no standard among all humans (see pics below).

• Size of rib cage: This can have an influence in MANY upper body exercises.

• Previous injuries: Injured muscles, tendons and ligaments may alter how we move afterwards, due to “material changes” and input from the nervous system.

• Arthritic changes: This can alter the shape of affected joints and how they move.

Below are two pictures each showing bones from two different people.

The first pic showing two thigh bones (femurs), notice the very different angles at the head of the bones where they would attach into the hip joint.

Below that is a picture of two shoulder blades (scapulas), notice the difference in the bony landmarks, size and shape.

Remembering that the upper arm attaches into the shoulder blade, we can only assume that movement capabilities will differ between these two people right?

But we cannot always see those things?

Admittedly we cannot see under our own skin so we must learn to be self aware, mindful and respectful how our own bodies move.

For example, if you have always struggled to get into a deep squat position without rounding your back or any other compensation…

This might not be a flexibility issue, it might be a “how your body is structured issue”!

And we cannot change our anatomical structure, so be aware there might just be a valid reason why you can’t get into a certain position.

As the saying goes “you can’t put a square peg into a round hole” and understand we sometimes do this with exercises in the gym.

For example we have all heard “You must squat to parallel!” or “The bar must touch your chest at the bottom!” in a barbell bench press.

These are simply generic (and arbitrary) industry standard guidelines, that may be irrelevant and even potentially injurious for you personally.

So how do we apply this in the gym?

There's three key steps to take when you feel a particular exercise isn’t working for you, OR is causing any pain or issues:

1. IGNORE what the industry says you “must do”: Don’t get sucked into having to a do a certain exercise in a certain way, because some article or friend of yours said so. Stay in your own lane!

2. Modify the range of movement: Don’t go quite as deep and shorten the movement a little. This works well if you’re someone who has particularly long arms or legs and/or have had previous injuries.

3. Tweak the exercise or exercise variation: For example, switch from a barbell press to a dumbbell press, or deadlift off of pins rather than the floor. Explore as you’ll often find something that FEELS better for you.

At the bottom there’s a link to my “Rebuild your backbone” lower body training PDF, that puts all of this into context!

It will highlight the following:

• How to quickly and easily assess how your own body moves.

• How to select suitable exercises based on what you find.

• Guidelines on how to plan and structure your own training programs.

• How to set up your lower body training programs to stay injury free.

On a final note remember that when it comes to exercise we are all N1 studies and we are all unique.

Don’t always follow the crowd, become an EXERCISE EXPLORER and find what works for YOU!

For now thanks reading today, and stay tuned for the next edition of Train For Life next Friday!

Daryl

PS email me on [email protected] if you have any feedback at all or simply have anything specific you would like to see in future newsletters!