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LEVELING UP THE BASICS
Whether you are revisiting a particular lift, exercise, yoga pose or whatever sort of skill for the thousandth time or giving it your first go, it is always helpful to start with (or occassionally return to) the basics. This is a lesson that I am oft repeating to clients.
For the purpose of this post, let´s say that the skill in question is one that we have been including in our fitness routine for quite some time. In such cases, it is easy to feel like we have mastered the movement and all there is to do is to carry on as usual, gradually adding more and more weight. While progressive overload is absolutely the path towards greater strength, keep in mind that increases in strength are actually a measure of our bodies´ ability to more efficiently create tension and, thus, force. This can be forced on the body from the outside, but also by training the body to summon more and more neighboring muscle tissue.
If this sounds confusing, just try this: Next time you go to squat, take a few reps without weight before loading up the bar. “Screw” the feet into the floor as if you want to turn the big toes out towards the pinky toes (yet the knees and toes stay put). Clinch the glutes at the top of the movement. Turn on the core and keep the chest lifted without arching the back. Push your squeezed fists up and out away from your body, as straight up as the can go, with your shoulder blades down your back. Keep the elbows locked and out perhaps the muscles of the arms are even flexed. Keep you face and neck relaxed but all of the above cues maximally engaged throughout the whole movement, as deep as you can go. Hold at the bottom for 5-10 seconds and move back up. See how many sets you can take sustaining this maximum engagement. Feel into your body and see if there is anything else you can do to make this more difficult.
Next, try it with your bench press, with no weight in your hands. Simply flex and imagine you are pressing weight. Can you find tension? Can you make a set of 3-5 feel strenuous? Do you break a sweat? Try this with some more of your lifts and/or paired back yoga poses. Make the practice as seemingly easy as possible, see how difficult you can make it without adding external weight or progressing to a more advanced variation. Do you notice any difference when you return to your weighted practice?
