Today I’m going to take you through a brief explanation of two of the most important considerations for staying injury free when doing weight training namely posture and breathing techniques.
As a personal trainer working out of a large gym I am constantly endeavouring to give advice to non-clients (clients get it drummed into them) that I see using poor technique, however this can be frustrating as some take offense, please if a professional gives you hints they are doing so in order to help you stay healthy by averting serious injury.
Firstly let’s take a look at posture from head to toe and expand on some of the hints below
- Neck Eyes directed at the horizon, chest up
- Scapula Retract as if you are squeezing a lemon between the blades
- Hip Pull Belly button to spine
- Knees Slight bend at all times
- Feet Hip to shoulder width apart
Upper body
The neck, should be kept upright (long), focus your eyes on the horizon or straight ahead with your chest up and chin tucked in. Without going into technicalities of this suffice to say that keeping your eyes focused straight ahead, your chest up, and chin tucked in helps keep everything in place which alleviates any unnecessary stress on the parts of the body you are exercising, strengthening all muscles in that area evenly, a must for good posture and prevention of injury.
Your scapula or shoulder blade as it is more commonly known connects your upper arm (humerus) with your collar bone (clavicle) and together with all the muscles that connect to it, it’s movements include elevation, depression, protraction, retraction, lateral rotation, medial rotation, upward rotation, downward rotation, anterior tipping, and posterior tipping. As you can see the shoulder blade is a pivotal part of your upper body movement and as such it is important to keep it retracted (back) and down when performing exercise as this keeps you compact and upright promoting good posture hence reducing the risk of injury.
Your hip/pelvic area houses and is in close proximity to a vast network of the bodies essential organs, cells, and tissues, your core muscles (anterior) are used in many of the bodies functions breathing, coughing and to put it nicely ridding the body of waste. You’ve mostly likely heard the expression “turning on your core”, and wondered what does that mean? That’s why it is easier to express it as “pulling your belly button to your spine” as if someone is holding a string behind you to mimic that effect, try it now. We need to do this when we are training because as mentioned above this area is central to some of the bodies essential parts and keeping your core turned on helps injury prevention by way of the following:
- Stabilises and protects the pelvis
- Encourages the natural curve of the spine
- Protects the Lumbar spine
Lower Body
The knees during exercise should always be slightly bent at all times, the reason being that if you lock out, that is have them straight, this places too much stress on the joints, for example if you are doing squats do not straighten your legs fully on ascension. Locking out joints of any limb during exercise is not only a no no from the perspective of injury it also hampers the training effect. At the point of lock out the weight pressure goes straight to the joint and not only is that an injury risk it also lessons the tension of the exercise on the muscle you are working, like a rest, hence overtime you will not get the full benefit of the movement. An example of this that I see so often is the cable triceps extension, pushing down on the handle/rope locking out at the bottom (concentric) and then letting the handle/rope up to the top (eccentric) instead you should take it down to just before lock out then let it up to just over half way before pushing down again, much more effective for the purpose of exercising your triceps muscle and protecting your joints from injury.
The position of the feet during exercise will depend on the exercise however a rule of thumb is to have them positioned hip to shoulder width or slightly more apart. The simple reason for this is for stability, and combined with all the other posture hints mentioned above will allow you to check your technique to make sure you are not subjecting yourself to injury, and also getting the most out of each exercise for the muscle/s being targeted.
Breathing and Resistance Training
While performing resistance exercises it is the most effective to exhale during exertion and inhale during release. For example, if you are doing a bench press you inhale on lowering the weight down to your chest and exhale on the way back up.
There has been a lot written on breathing techniques during exercise and there is far more to it than what I have just described. Suffice to say however it is important that you establish a rhythm with your breathing as it not only allows oxygen to replenish which keeps your muscles from fatiguing to quickly it inadvertently helps with the speed or tempo of your movement which in turn helps you better achieve your goal. The other advantage I have found of establishing a good rhythm with your breathing is that it helps with stability during exercise as your core is being engaged in both inhaling and exhaling. Whatever you do don’t hold your breath as this elevates blood pressure making your heart and lungs work even harder than necessary.
In summary I would like to reiterate the importance of body posture in resistance training as an integral part of making sure you stay injury free whilst achieving the results you are working towards. Remember to keep you head up, shoulders back and down, core turned on, knees slightly bent and your feet hip to shoulder width apart and don’t forget to breath. If you need more have a personal trainer take you through a number of exercises to check that you are moving correctly.
Zol
Fitness Moves