Injuries – we’ve all been there one way or another. But how we bounce back is everything, and how we prepare to ensure we don’t end up with a reoccurence is even more important.
When I was first taught how to lift I was taught the basic movements and told to practice that until it became natural. That approach did work during my “beginner gains” period. After a while, things started to go poorly for me because even though my lifting looked and felt natural, it wasn’t technically proficient which lead to some interesting issues. I don’t want to talk about these issues though – I want to talk about what happened next.
I had to go back to basics – I’m talking breathing, goblet squats, hinge patterning, etc! The sort of stuff that we now drill into our new lifters, but for me it was an important step that I missed; hindsight is a wonderful thing, and we’re so lucky to have a coach that understands nailing the basics! So today, I want to talk about how it’s important to accept that going back to the basics is not a step backwards, but should be seen as a massive leap forward.
Let’s talk about breathing as an example. We all get told to take a deep breath in before lifting, and to “push against your belt” – but are you actually doing it correctly, or are you causing more issues for yourself? One of our members recently discovered that she was struggling to breathe correctly and so she sought help from a physiotherapist. Our Valkyrie ended up being rather frustrated at how “basic” the exercises were and how she just wanted to throw the heavy weights around instead! I’m pretty sure we have all felt that way at some point with our training.
My advice is this: you need to think of your training just as you would think of building a house – you must lay the proper foundations first. Yeah, you can build a house on shoddy foundations just as you can learn to squat in an inefficient manner, but one day your walls will come tumbling down when your foundations fail you. Take the time now to work on all the basic movement patterns, to set yourself up for being technically proficient before you start adding huge amounts of weight.
From someone that has had to relearn how to squat, bench, AND deadlift, I know that I am stronger and wiser from taking the time to work on my breathing, and basic movement patterns – squatting, pressing, pulling, hinging and carrying.
Originally posted on VALHALLA Strength – South Brisbane
