OPTIMIZING YOUR HOME PROGRAM
INTRODUCTION:
Home workout programs are an excellent way to improve your health and fitness in an efficient manner. Often times they can be much more sustainable for people who don’t like gym crowds, are not confident in the gym yet, or do not like to use a bunch of machines.
However, there is a negative side to home programs that must be addressed in order to minimize injury risk, poor posture, and movement compensations.
PROGRAM DIVERSITY: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO IMPLEMENT DIFFERENT EXERCISES
Throughout my years as a Personal Trainer and Physical Therapist, I have seen many people’s home routines and have been a little surprised by the lack of variety and balance to them.
It is very common for people to only focus on push-ups, squats, crunches, and curls. These can be excellent exercises, but when done in isolation, they leave a lot to be desired. It is understandable why these moves are selected, they are very simple, require almost no equipment, and are familiar.
Unfortunately, they fail to give sufficient love to massive muscle groups like the glutes, hamstrings, posterior deltoids, triceps, and mid/lower traps to name a few. These muscles are critical for maintaining appropriate posture and muscle balance.
Without sufficient posterior/back-side strength, the front side of the body dominates and pulls you shoulders forward in addition to many other poor movement compensations.
ADDING NEW EXERCISES: PICKING THE RIGHT ADDITIONS
Have no fear though! The solution is rather simple and just takes a couple of moves to rebalance your program.
Examples of these moves include tricep extensions, back-flys or band pull-a-parts, Romanian deadlifts, bent-over rows, and glute bridges.
By adding these into your program and decreasing the amount of front-side work you are doing, your posture can improve, normal movement patterns can be restored, and your joints will thank you into old age.
CONCLUSION:
I am in the business of reducing barriers to people getting healthy and strong. If any of this sounds too complex and creates another barrier for you, do not hesitate to reach out to me and we can troubleshoot together. If you want pictures of each of the above moves or an analysis of your current home program, feel free to reach out to me.
My email is: kyle@bridgerandp.com
