Movement Awareness

These blog posts are often inspired by my observations in the gym. This week, we are discussing the awareness of moving in general.

One thing that I witness regularly is a lack of awareness. Here are some examples:

• On the sandbag squat, a person will think about the squat itself, but pick up the sandbag dangerously.
• When doing a goblet squat, the dumbbell is returned to the floor with a round back.
• When doing a dumbbell RDL, the dumbbells are picked up with a rounded back, but the exercise itself is done well.
• When doing front squats “from the floor,” the person is so concerned with the front squat, that all the technique they learned to get the bar to their shoulders (the clean) goes out the window.
• When going for time, technique is sacrificed for speed.

Good movement isn’t just about the exercise written on the board - it starts and ends with safe movement throughout. You must be aware of your movement before, during and after. If not, this is where injuries occur.

So many times, we “score” ourselves on the weight lifted or, in the case of a metcon, our time. How about we change our mindset and score ourselves on our quality of movement in the gym that day.

And this also goes for your movement outside the gym. Are you picking up that Amazon delivery safely? What about those heavy grocery bags?

Building great movement patterns takes awareness!

‍