When Your Efficient Body Causes Pain
I train this one gentleman who loves to joke about his body being efficient. When I correct his form or try to adjust his body mechanics he simply flashes a smile and jokes, "that's just my body trying to be efficient."
The thing is, he is right! However, I always tell him that just because your body wants the least resistance it's not always in your favor to allow this efficiency if it leads to poor body mechanics and pain.
Your body is the most advanced piece of equipment known today. There are still so many aspects about the body we are still finding out today. One quality that fascinates me is how quickly the body adjust itself to become efficient at what activities you do the most.
Runner's develop superb leg strength and endurance. While other physiological markers like resting heart rate goes down. Brick masons usually have huge forearms because they are gripping and moving brick all day.
On the other end, most jobs consist of just sitting around for 8 hours. Most people develop tight hip flexors, an immobile thoracic spine, tight scalene muscle, and weak glutes and midsection. All those aspects sound bad, right? However, your body thinks it's doing the right thing! Since the average person sits for these long period of times these body changes are actually making the average person a better sitter!
When the average person decides to be a weekend warrior or go for a jog after work they are screwed! If their body has become so efficient at this one task it causes imbalances and weaknesses when doing anything other than that task.
Pain is the best teacher. Pain is a big smack in the face telling you your life is out of balance. Where do you have pain? What leads to this pain? Many think what causes this pain is the actual activity they do when it hurts. Therefore a person will simply tell themselves, "I can't do that anymore".
This thinking is wrong and actually in some cases cause more pain. Rather than thinking like that, look at the activity you perform most and the body alignment you have. In that body alignment or activity probably lies the problem. Is your "efficient" body causing inefficiencies and pain?
Think about it this week and make a small change for the better.
Have a great week,
Mark Radio
Mark Radio is the General Manager of Body Elite. He graduated from Bloomsburg University in 2008 with a bachelors degree in Exercise Science. He is a certified nutritional counselor through AFPA. Mark enjoys working with all types of clients from any skill level. Mark tailors programs to your skill level and goals, putting an emphasis on strength training, high intensity cardio, and eating “real” food to get BE clients to where they want to be.