RETHINKING Resistance Training!

Happy Friday!

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

This week we are going to look closely at the role resistance exercise plays in joint health and injury management, with some simple tips on how to apply this to your training programs.

While this might not immediately sound like a sexy topic, the GOOD NEWS is the suggestions applied also have a positive impact on movement and performance, so please read on…

Simply put, muscles move our joints and bones due to their attachments, so it makes sense that strong and well conditioned muscles play a protective role right?

So if we lose muscle mass and/or strength, then we potentially expose our joints and connective tissues (ligaments etc) to more stress when moving or exercising.

Clearly over time this could lead to an increase in wear and tear, so the key here is resistance training to maintain or build muscle mass.

An interesting fact here is that rate of recovery post surgery is quicker, in individuals who engaged in resistance exercise leading up to the surgery!

Hopefully the message is now loud and clear, so let’s look at HOW BEST TO USE resistance exercise in our training programs to maximise the effect.

Now unfortunately many resistance training programs tend to be a little “one dimensional” and mainly focus on the “Sagittal plane”.

For example, upper body training will largely consist of pushing and pulling exercises such as dumbbell or barbell press variations, cable rows, lat pulldowns and so on.

Lower body training usually consists of squats, lunges, back extensions and glute bridge variations. NOTHING wrong at all with any of these exercises by the way.

The issue is these exercises may not reflect of ALL movements available, meaning we’re not stimulating a bigger range of muscles as effectively as we could…

And for protection of our joints, we do need to think about the different movements and muscles that guide those movements.

To offer more context and simplify this, just think of the two joints that get a lot of use with resistance exercise, which are the shoulder and the hip joints.

Take the hip for example, which can perform a few different movements such as:

• Extension & flexion - Thigh moving backwards or behind you, or up towards you. (Most “classic” gym exercises like squats, lunges and glute bridges largely utilise these two movements)

• ABduction & ADDuction - Thigh moving out to the side away from the midline, or back towards the midline (see below for exercise options).

• Internal & external rotation - Thigh rotating inwardly or outwardly (see below for option)

By inputing some exercises to cover all these movements, we challenge more of the muscles around the hip thereby increasing protection and overall movement control.

This is particularly important if you have had any previous injuries, or play any sport as we’re safeguarding our body through a wider range of movements.

I have experienced personally and seen MANY clients clear up injuries, reduce pain AND improve performance simply by training a wider variety of exercises and movements about their joints.

It doesn’t need to be complicated either, for context and to give you a few exercise ideas, have added some hip exercise videos below to help you.

I am aware the hip is just one area but its just to my highlight the key points, as this could be a lengthy newsletter otherwise….

The purpose of today’s newsletter is just to plant that seed, and get you thinking differently about resistance training and how it really can help you over the long haul!

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

Daryl