Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ditch one-size-fits-all workouts for custom ones
Over the years, I’ve worked with clients ranging from young to old and unhealthy to fit, each with his or her own set of goals and aspirations. I can honestly say that I’ve never trained two clients in the same way, as every person is motivated by different factors and their bodies respond to different stimuli.
Before people go see a fitness professional for advice, usually they’ve experienced dozens of starts and stops with their exercise program. Often, they have treadmills in the basement serving as coat hangers, little trampolines they bought off an infomercial or cabinets full of half-used supplement bottles. Regular exercise is something that people feel should be within their control and something that most people see the value in and aspire to do.
The trouble is, exercise affects everyone differently. A program that works for your buddy down the street could be the worst possible set of activities for you.
I’ve learned that this is a difficult thing to grasp for many people because they view exercise in the realm of cause and effect. In other words, they feel that if they exercise, they will achieve their goal. In and of itself, this is not flawed logic. But the missing ingredient is the “how.” How one exercises makes all the difference in the world, and it should be just as personal as your diet, your favorite jeans and how you take your coffee.
So let’s stop tearing workouts out of a magazine or ripping them from some website. Think of your exercise program as preventive medication that makes you incrementally healthier with each dose. If your goal is cardiovascular endurance and you’ve got a bad hip, stop running and start cycling or swimming. If you aren’t a morning person but you’ve been forcing yourself to wake up at 5 a.m. to exercise, find a way to change your workout time to midday or evening. Otherwise, you won’t keep exercising for the long term.
These little personal modifications are so important to the eventual success of one’s exercise program because it becomes something that is owned and valued versus something that feels extraneous or acquired.
This week’s exercise is a great example of a movement that can and should be personalized — because everyone gets up from the floor differently. The Half Get-up will challenge the core while adding some real functional strength that can be helpful in an activity we all do at least once a day, stand from a lying position.
1. Grab a medium-weight kettlebell and lie on your back on an exercise mat. Hold the kettlebell handle in the right hand.
2. Bend the right knee while keeping the right foot on the floor and allowing the left leg to remain fully extended. Also, extend the left arm to the side for stability.
3. From this position, extend the right arm fully toward the ceiling while holding the kettlebell.
4. Just as you reach full extension, lift your right shoulder off the mat by pressing down with your left arm and using your core strength.
5. Lift the right shoulder 6 to 8 inches, then lower it back down and also lower the kettlebell back down to the shoulder.
6. Continue this pattern for eight repetitions, then switch sides with both arms and legs and do another eight reps on the left side.
The Half Get-up can — and should — be modified based on one’s fitness and biomechanics. Some people will feel more comfortable without a kettlebell at first. Others will find “rolling” their shoulder more works better.
Each exercise does have a preferred form — but there are little tweaks you can do to make it your own. And that’s how you take a sterile, ho-hum workout and turn it into your secret weapon. Enjoy!