I sometimes wonder how many hours of gym time I must have clocked up through the years. Whether exercising myself, training others, holding the fort or simply passing through for some reason or other, watching people train has become a little like watching TV. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes educational, sometimes difficult to watch.
Current work commitments require me to visit various gyms, a duty I find enjoyable and thoroughly informative when it comes to keeping my finger on the pulse.
Some of this time is spent waiting around for various appointments, which I duly apply to watching the various patrons go about their workouts, clocking up my gym-meter yet further. Whatever is showing, there is always something interesting to watch.
I’m happy to report that year after year I witness noticeable differences in membership numbers in major gyms. More gyms are opening every year and most of them seem to show healthy membership numbers right off the bat.
I have also noticed an increase in the enthusiasm of those members. People don’t seem to just plod along reluctantly anymore. More and more of them are getting stuck in, working hard, taking it seriously.
It appears more people want to get in shape and look good. More people want to keep the weight off and be healthier. More people want to feel fitter and more invigorated, to supercharge their abilities at work or elsewhere. The culture is changing. The fitness fever is creeping in, little by little. People want to work hard, train hard and play hard. They’re busting stress, staying sharp, applying themselves to new challenges, recognising that physical exercise is a highly productive avenue to achieving all this.
On many occasions, I am impressed by particular patrons demonstrating superb technique or intense focus. I find myself wondering who taught them. This happens in some gyms more than others and I can often tell when the instructors are doing a sterling job.
The culture is changing. The fitness fever is creeping in, little by little. People want to work hard, train hard and play hard
The quality of our fitness professionals is on the rise too. Whoever the instructors are however, those cringeworthy moments are unavoidable and still occur all too often. My pet hates are still plain to see and my biggest pet hate of all can be summed up in three words: range of motion.
Of all the most common mistakes people perform in gyms, cutting range of motion short is the one that consistently catches my eye and perhaps is one of the most crucial reasons for lack of training results and, even worse, a major contributing factor to increased risk of injury.
Full range of motion means moving to one’s full extent. If your arm can straighten and bend, it means that to train the muscles that cause that movement, we must bend it all the way, and straighten it all the way without cutting the movement short to anything less than that. The only exception to this rule is when we are deliberately instructed not to lock the joint out, but even here, we would straighten as much as possible to just short of lockout, still exploiting as full a range of motion as possible within those parameters.
We cut too many exercises short, performing a fraction of the movement. Bicep curls are a major culprit, bending the arms only half way, as are bench presses failing to lower the bar to the chest or squats failing to descend to the correct depth. By performing only a fraction of the movement, we can likewise expect only a fraction of the results.
One of the principle functions of muscles is to produce movement. They connect to the bones of the skeleton, pulling on them, exploiting leverage and ultimately allowing our various bodyparts to move. If it is our goal to strengthen muscles or to elicit growth, then the best results will come from exploiting its full capability, which in this case means exploiting its full range of movement.
The crux of the matter is that heavier weights handled through only a fraction of the range of movement will not be as effective as using a lighter weight and exploiting a full range of motion.
This strategy also happens to be much safer. If the weight is too heavy, you won’t be able to perform the movement correctly and you won’t be able to control it safely. Moving heavy weights with incorrect technique and through movements that are out of control is a recipe for disaster.
It may result in a sudden acute injury like a sprain, strain or even a dislocation. It could also lead to other accidents stemming from the unsafe handling or passing of weights before or after the respective set.
It could also lead to long-term overuse injuries that creep in steadily over time as a result of repetitively straining the body with the same incorrect movements time after time. Perhaps, worst of all, you might be setting yourself up for injury outside of the gym.
Strengthening a muscle through only a very limited range of movement could become a problem when perfoming more functional movements in life or sport, which may require that muscle to work in conjunction with other muscles that are neglected or far weaker.
Joints and muscles may undergo undue stress and technique may break down and lead to an acute injury elsewhere in the body. In short, choose a sensible weight, maximise your range of motion and always strive for optimum technique for optimum results.
matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt