Functionally Fit—A Look at Today’s Weight Training

By Bruce Cohn
Concord Journal, December 2002
 
One of the most gratifying developments in fitness trends is the widespread understanding of the importance of weight training. Whether you are a young athlete trying to improve your athleticism, an older weekend warrior or fitness enthusiast looking to stay fit or a senior citizen interested in modifying the aging process weight training needs to be part of your workout regimen. Benefits include improved muscular strength and endurance, protection of joints, increased ability to burn calories at rest, better posture and the reversal of bone loss associated with osteoporosis. In short, weight training makes us look better and feel better. But there are some problems with weight training as we know it and the look of it is changing. I want to look at the future of weight training keeping in mind that “the future is now.”

When we look at how we move to function in our daily activities we find movements that are integrated and multi-directional. In fact, every movement tends to lead to another. Unfortunately, this is often not the case in the gym. Weight training equipment only allows us to work in one plane of movement e.g. lifting forward and back or up and down. Rarely is there any side to side or rotational movement. The same is often true with free weight exercises. In addition, traditional exercises emphasize isolating individual muscles during the completion of a movement. The problem is that this is not how we move in the real world.

When we move our bodies perform complex operations that are made possible because our muscles are capable of a variety of functions. They may shorten to develop force, lengthen to resist gravity and stabilize against unwanted body movements to name a few. This concert of movement is directed by our central nervous system and is performed in reaction to gravity, ground reaction forces and momentum. When we move in the real world we don’t just straighten our lower leg at the knee (think of the leg extension machine); we bend and straighten at the hips, knees and ankles. And we do that on surfaces that are far more uneven than any piece of gym equipment. Even squats done in the gym often don’t mirror the way we work in the real world. How many common chores do we perform that require us to bend, lift and twist before pushing something up onto a shelf?

In the past I have proposed that young athletes need to work with a variety of training tools (medicine balls, stability balls, tubing etc.) and training environments (foam rollers, air discs, on one leg etc.) to best prepare them for the demands of their sport. What I am coming to believe is that the same is true for all of us, no matter our age or level of athletic involvement. For in the end we share a commonality in the movements we are called on to perform every day and are, therefore, all athletes.

The New Look of Weight Training
So if we want to find alternative ways of weight training to meet our every day needs, where do we begin? I always like to start with the torso or what is commonly referred to as core training. Nowadays, everybody is obsessed with the notion of having rock-hard abs, the much sought-after six-pack. We buy ab rollers, electric muscle stimulators or perform hundreds of crunches on the floor. But these exercises and gimmicks do not work our trunks in the way that we need to. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with beginning to strengthen your stomach muscles by doing curl-ups or sit-ups. But how often are you called upon in your daily activities to bend at the waist while you lie on your back? And what about twisting and straightening? Shouldn’t we be working the muscles responsible for these actions as well?

A good trunk training program must include exercises that bend, twist and straighten the torso. And they should be done in standing positions as well as on the floor. I always encourage anybody with whom I work to include back extensions and rotational movements to their floor exercises. But moreover, I want to see them trying to do many of these same exercises on the large body balls that are becoming more popular. Working on a ball forces you to use all of your core muscles to stabilize and keep the ball from rolling while performing different trunk movements. This is how our muscles work in the real world. From here we want to move to a standing position to exercise the trunk. Movements like trunk twisting, wood chopping and diagonal chopping and lifting can all be performed while standing. You can begin with simply moving your body weight and progress to light weights, medicine balls and tubing. Be careful to keep your lower back flat (emphasize its natural curve), draw your belly button into your spine and rotate on the ball of the opposite foot when twisting in each direction.

Many of these concepts can be carried over into other areas of weight training. Try replacing leg work on weight machines with body weight squats. Don’t worry if you can’t lower your body so that the top of your thighs are parallel to the floor. Just go down as far as you can and keep your heels on the ground with your stomach drawn in and your lower back flat. You can even place a body ball against a wall in the small of your back to help you with the squat. You will find that you don’t have to use a lot of weight. Instead, try increasing the intensity by performing the squat on one leg or extending a light weight or medicine ball away from your body. You can even learn to rotate your hips while squatting. You can spice up your upper body workouts by adding pushups to the mix. Not sure you can do a traditional military pushup? Try raising your legs up onto a body ball to do the pushup. What you lose in terms of body weight resistance you will more than make up for with increased demands to stabilize the ball. If you can do a standard pushup, try raising one arm in the air and rotating the hip and shoulder to the ceiling after you raise your body off the floor. Come down into a two-handed pushup and repeat on the other side. Rotational movement can be added to pulling and pushing exercises as long as you keep the weight light and are careful to maintain good form.

It is probably best to begin these exercises under the careful watch of a trained professional. But once you understand the concepts and key into how your body moves you may find yourself coming up with your own variations. Your workouts will become more fun and your movement more functional. And what could be better than that?

Bruce Cohn is the Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Middlesex School in Concord. He runs FIT-TO-GO Total Sports Conditioning and is a nationally certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Bruce can be reached at 781-316-0061 or brucegym@rcn.com.