So now after around five months of COVID-19 disruption we are starting to ‘come out’ of the Zoom Room and back to where we as humans need to be; enjoying each others company! Sharing a meal and conversation together, finding inspiration and motivation together while exercising, being entertained by others at the theatre and the cinema and so on ….
But here my focus is about bringing our bodies back to fitness and health through appropriate exercise. Many of us have most likely had our exercise routines disrupted over the past few months and therefore either stopped exercising altogether or have done a whole lot less. We have most likely sat more at our desks doing online shopping, working or studying and spending hours on our couches watching TV and Netflix.
With all this in mind we need to consider that in returning to fitness training we need to take it slowly and perform mindful movement in order to avoid any injuries. I feel that it is important to talk about this because as a personal trainer and pilates/yoga instructor I am very aware of peoples postural imbalances. Just recently during the lockdown, I completed a course called The BioMechanics Method for posture assessment, self-myofascial release and corrective exercises. While gaining muscle definition looks wonderful, most of us need to firstly focus on being able to move well, alleviate muscle and joint pain and improve our movement capabilities. The human body is an amazing machine and my recent studies have really brought the biomechanics of the body to the forefront of my attention. Due to the type of lives most of us lead: sitting at computers, using mobile devices, driving vehicles, wearing high heeled shoes and many other activities that cause us to round our spines and shoulders forward and arch our lower backs, there are very few of us who do not have some type of postural imbalance.
I suggest that before we get back to our training routines again we should consider having a comprehensive musculoskeletal assessment by a registered exercise professional who can then help us correct any imbalances that we may have before we progress to gaining strength and growing muscles.
Leave a Reply