Last month, I wrote group programming and I thought it was great. I organized every day with some sort of push, pull, squat, hinge, and carry. I brought a partner element to every day so people could work together and push one another. I even wrote a conditioning piece where I told people that they were going to perform a conga line and move through certain exercises at their own pace.
I thought I nailed it!!!!
I ran into one problem though, I forgot that sometimes people need to understand my thought process after I have written the program.
The “WHY”, For all intents and purposes. I did a great job of explaining it but not the whole reason as to the WHY we are doing it this way.
(Quick aside, I wrote the program with partner’s and group effort elements as a means to get people to interact and communicate with one another more. Human interaction is increased and bonds are forged more strongly when people are working together towards a common goal. Especially when doing something rigorous or intense. Empathy is applied more quickly to one another when you know what a person is feeling, thus encouraging each other to continue towards the end of the task).
Everyone is different or a unique snowflake as I like to think about. Differences physically, mentally, emotionally which means we all need something that will give us that extra bit to get through something and really feel like we are on the path to what we want. The day that we did the conga line, I got some resistance and kick back from the group because some felt they weren’t challenged enough and some felt they were just causing a traffic jam. This was not my intent.
So, today I want to talk about what one of my favorite strength coaches of all time talks about which is Inefficient Movement.
Inefficient movement is a movement that one is actively struggling with to control and nail each and every time where one has to put some serious thought process into. So, why is inefficient movement important? In a broad sense, it helps you learn. Both in a physical and cognitive way. Your body is a strong piece of hardware that is constantly downloading information. Inefficient Movement is just a complex piece of software that is being integrated into the body and can then be applied to all other aspects of life. For example if you struggled with skipping, practiced it, got better, you than have more ability to catch yourself mis-stepping off a curb.
(Quick aside: When doing inefficient movement, you should still be able to perform some semblance of the movement. It should not be so difficult to the point that you are paralyzed by the very thought of the movement).
“Ok, Jim! That works for the ladder but what about the bicep curls? How would I challenge myself on that. I move the 10’s as fast as I can and all I do is open and close my elbow”.
Discussing with your coach what you personally want to get out of the workout, allows the coach and client to come up with a thought process of how to approach the workout so they may feel what they want to feel and get what they want to get.
Fitness is what you make of it. If you want something specific all you need to do is look at the thing your doing and ask yourself, what do I want to get out of this? As a coach is my job to make sure that thing happens and is done safely.
