Layering Intensity On Top of Dysfunction

Moving well is the key goal in fitness. You want to develop highly skilled techniques that can lead your body to elite levels of fitness. Ideally these skills will develop proper biomechanics within your body so that you can raise the intensity level of your workouts ever higher. However, what happens when you sacrifice moving well for a faster time, a heavier rep or a shortcut to a skill? What happens when you layer intensity on top of dysfunction?

Most people have a hard time squatting low. The knees will buckle inward, the back rounds, the heels come off the ground and there is little to no core activation. Imagine this position I’ve just described, if you can. Now, do we take this person who squats poorly and start loading a barbell on top of them? No, that would be asinine. You carefully and patiently help them develop good squatting skill in the absence of intensity before applying intensity. In short, you turn dysfunction into proper function, then you start layering intensity into the movement.

The same thing can be said about ANY skill or movement. Who taught you how to sit? What was the name of your “sitting teacher”? Didn’t have one? Me neither. I’m going to bet that’s the same case with nearly every other person on this planet. We were just told to sit, not how to do it. Then we were told to sit for hours at a time without ever having learned properly how to sit in the first place. Without ever developing the skill of sitting properly, how could we as children be expected to sit well for hours? It’s no wonder we’re bad at movement! As a species we’re terrible at the one position we do for 90% of our waking life!

Who taught you how to stand? How to run? How to jump and land well? How to squat and roll, lift and throw? These are all skills we develop naturally through play as children, but aren’t really ever taught how to do them well. As we grow up the dysfunction in our movements becomes more pronounced, and suddenly when we step into a gym we’re expected to start working at high intensity. Well what if my knees buckle inward when I stand and run? What if my back rounds as I squat? What if my spine is curved like a question mark and I am carrying weighted objects for distance?

The end result of layering intensity over dysfunction is always the same; ouch.

It’s a recipe for pain and disaster.

Now think to all the skills you perform inside the gym when you work out. Running, squatting, lunging, punching, kicking, hopping, jumping, hanging, carrying, lifting, pressing etc… What was the name of your “movement teacher”? Didn’t have one? Go find one. When you meet them, you’ll know you found the right one if they are constantly slowing you down and helping you feel your body instead of blinding you to subtlety through intensity. Remember, it’s not hard to make a workout difficult, you just don’t stop! What’s difficult is getting people to feel where they’re at in space.

If you have no idea where you’re at in space, you’ve got more than just a fitness problem! Chances are your mind is running way too fast way too often for you to slow down and feel your own body. You could be having serious biomechanical dysfunctions that are tearing a hole in your kneecap, but you can’t feel it because you’re all up inside your own head 24/7. Leave your head and feel your body.

That’s the purpose of yoga; to slow the practitioner down, both physically, mentally and emotionally so that they can begin to feel their own body. While most people are busy thinking about how to perfect their down dog position the real benefit eludes them; just feel your body in the position. Simple. The more intimately you can feel your own body, the more aware you are of joint position, heartbeat, breathing rate, muscle tension, emotional states, thoughts, frames of mind, and overall balance and coordination. It takes awareness to build highly skilled techniques. A little awareness can go a long way. You cannot cultivate what you’re not aware of.

Once you’re aware of your own body you can begin to develop skills and techniques. Subtle things like rotating your knees outward when you squat while maintaining squat foot position is difficult! Being able to pull your head back while tucking your chin into your throat at the same time is hard to do under max load. Cycling your feet directly up under your hips the exact same way of every step during a full sprint is not an easy task to perform. Maintaining an upright spine with pelvic floor and transverse abdominis activation while working at the computer is a skill that will test your awareness!

But even the most skilled athletes don’t move perfectly. Even when performing some of the most amazing tasks, most athletes give their bodies extra punishment during movement by compensating into bad positions. A fast throw, a high jump, a hard punch, a fast sprint, all done with faulty biomechanics comes at a two-fold cost;

1- They will hit a performance wall in which they can no longer squeeze any more performance out of their body due to the bad positions.

2 - They accelerate the damage to their body.

• How can someone sprint fast without hurting themselves if they were never taught how to stabilize their spine by breathing, sitting or standing properly?
• How can someone jump and leap high if they were never taught how to maximize joint tension by rotating their knees out in a squat?
• What hope do martial artists have in punching properly if they’re never taught how to stabilize their shoulder during a bench press?

• As you age, what hope do you have of avoiding a knee replacement if you were never taught these same skills?
• What increased chances do you have of a torn rotator cuff? Spinal degeneration?

The result is the same with sedentary people as it is with athletes. Bad positions are bad positions no matter what environment or person they’re found in. They all contribute to wear and tear on the body that isn’t needed.

So who taught you how to move? Breathe? Sit? Stand? Run? Jump? Crawl? Roll? Lift? Carry? What was the name of your movement teacher? Don’t have one? Find one.