Strength training for more space

Alignment can be elusive at times.

Ultimately, it’s a dynamic, shifting relationship between many parts of the body as it performs tasks and moves through space. As trainers we can spend a lot of time cueing alignment, but we do this with the knowledge that there is no “one right way” to do anything. ( have I confused you yet?)

To further clarify what is alignment, and what is misalignment, let’s describe misalignment.

Misalignment would be when a sequence of muscles and joints aren’t working together properly, Maybe you are walking forwards, but your knee is facing off to one side and the toes are pointing inwards or outwards, maybe you’re rolling on to one side of your foot. Misalignment means that the body is working inefficiently, and might be more prone to injury because forces aren’t being well distributed as you move around.

Whether or not you have good control over your alignment comes down to proprioception. It’s easier to choose how you are going to organize yourself when you know where all of your body parts are in space.

Here are two simple exercises to gauge your own proprioceptive capability:

Stand up, close your eyes, and move your feet to parallel. Now open your eyes and look down. Are your feet actually parallel?

Now put one arm out to the side. Close your eyes, and put the other arm in the same spot on the other side. Open your eyes - how close did you get?

So when we talk about “aligning the shoulder girdle” for example, part of what we are doing is improving proprioception around that joint, and how the muscles and bones are organizing in an efficient way to allow movement.

Now, as trainers, how can we improve proprioception, and as students, how can we practice it?

One easy way is to add “load”. When an external force is applied to the body, the proprioceptors are stimulated, and more sensory input goes in to the nervous system. So not only are the muscles being strengthened, but they also are more likely to do so in healthy alignment.

I’ve been playing with strength training again for myself, and had a great time last week putting together classes that incorporated a number of weight bearing exercises with the upper body paired with active lower body engagement in order to free up space in the lower back and the hips.

Your fascial chains all intersect at some point, and your back is the locale for many of those intersections. Plus, your body’s main center of balance is located around L-5.

When you begin to balance a weight in the air, your back turns on to help maintain that balance, and the muscle chains become connected all the way from the fascia of the lats ( which ends down at your sacrum) through to your wrists and palms. All of a sudden, this mild weight lifting exercise has become a tool to decompress your creaky back!

I’m still playing with these concepts - be prepared for a number of classes where we walk around holding 10 lb weights and trying different things. But for the moment, here are two of my favorite variations that I’ve come up with so far.