In marketing, the customer needs to get to know, like, and trust you before they feel confident buying from you.
The same is true about most relationships. From time-to-time, you will hear the story of the couple who met, fell in love, and got married immediately.
This scenario is rare. Often, it takes time to get to know a person and truly trust them. Over time, your actions allow you to earn another person’s trust to invest more and go deeper into a relationship.
In a similar scenario, when we are children, our parents see us make the right decisions, we earn their trust. However, if we don’t make the best decisions, they may withhold this trust or not allow us to do certain activities. Essentially, protecting ourselves from ourselves until the trust is earned.
Our bodies are no different. When we demonstrate good nutrition and exercise choices, our bodies feel good. However, when we make less than ideal choices, our bodies let us know that too.
The first way our body will let us know we did not make the right exercise choice is through tightness. The feeling of tightness is the body’s way to protect us from injury.
Not unlike when parents ground their children. They put restrictions on them because they need to protect them, usually from themselves.
Our bodies send us obvious communication when we do something it does not like. Tightness is the first form of communication. Over time it communicates more loudly in the way of pain.
In the Integrative Movement System, we have a saying E-T-R. Which stands for ‘earn the right.’
When we do something that makes our body lose trust in us, we must earn back its confidence, so it feels safe. We do this through posture and exercise choices that allow us to stay aligned and breathe correctly.
It may mean stepping back from specific exercises for a time, slowing down the pace, or lowering the weight we use to respect what our body needs to feel safe. Regarding posture, you may need to adjust how you sit or stand. You may need to change your position more often and take more frequent breaks.
Once the body feels ‘safe’ again, it will allow you freedom of movement.
A phrase we often hear from new clients is, ‘I thought I was doing all the things I needed to do but, I kept feeling like something was wrong.’
There is not usually a wrong exercise; however, an exercise’s execution can be less than optimal and drive you out of alignment and/or cause you to compensate to complete it. These can cause the body to want to protect you, leading to tightness and eventually pain.
How do you determine if you are executing an exercise correctly?
Assess how your body feels before doing the exercise and then again after completing it.
See below how to perform a simple range of motion assessment, giving you the information you are seeking.
Another great way and often times easier to determine what is helping or hindering your progress is to work with a professional.
We are highly trained and thriving, helping our clients successfully return the activities they need, want, and love. We are here and ready to help.
Reach out, and let’s put a plan together that is right for you and your goals.
Sincerely,
Michael
How to perform the assessments and what are you looking for:
1. The center picture is the starting position.
2. Always return to the center.
3. Do you feel different side to side?
4. Do you feel a smooth, easy motion or does the movement feel sticky, heavy?
5. Do you experience any discomfort? If so, where?
If your exercises are helping you, what you feel should not change and should get better:)
If the motion (the range you can move or the quality) changes to be less or feel worse, there is a good chance the exercises are not helping your spine or joint health.
Have questions? Be sure to reach out. We are here to help.
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