An Easy Way to Increase Muscle Gains in your Workout:
Ever see people at the gym working hard but hardly working the muscle they intend? A giveaway is that they are swinging their entire body or jerking their arms, hips, or legs. Their focus is to get the heaviest weight from point A to point B – a good thing. But what they don’t realize is that they are compensating with other muscles to move the weight, resulting in more pain – a bad thing. To make matters worse, the intended muscle group isn’t working all that hard and your gains will be minimal. At the end of the day, your body doesn’t care what muscles it uses, it’s going to engage everything it can to do what you are asking of it, often leading to more pain than you intended.
So for example: if you are performing a straight-arm side raise with a dumbbell, you might compensate by shrugging your shoulder or even side bending to get the weight up. This defeats the purpose of your workout and you may end up hurting yourself.
So to make sure you are getting more muscle gain in your workouts without more pain:
- Find out which muscles you are working for each exercise.
- Focus on engaging that muscle.
- Use a light enough weight that your movement is controlled.
- Stabilize your core.
- Move smoothly from point A to B.
- Then lower the weight with control.
NOTE: Sometimes complex exercises that use multiple muscle groups (i.e. squats) can make it hard NOT to compensate. So try exercises that isolate the muscle you want to strengthen, then build up to these complex moves.
If you believe you have been compensating and are experiencing muscle pain during exercises, then make an appointment with me for Neurokinetic Therapy. We can solve your compensation patterns to relieve your pain and create stronger, more balanced muscles.
