One step at a time

Welcome to afitnewyou!  This week I would like to make some suggestions on how to train your lower body’s strength in a way that is completely functional.  Many people dread the “leg day” in the gym, primarily because those big muscles that are key to your movement and power do get sore; this causes leg day to often be skipped.  Another reason people skip leg day is because many don’t feel leg muscles are going to get them the attention that working their “bi’s and chest” will, so they simply ignore them.  But any good athlete or experienced trainer will tell you that for most of our movements, our power comes from the lower body.  Hence, it’s important to train those muscles, in the correct way, because having either an imbalance or lack of strength in those large muscles can lead to injury.  There are several standard leg machines in practically every gym, but if you watch a good personal trainer work with their client, you will rarely see them use most of these machines.  This is because these machines will often lead to muscle imbalance, and are not functional.  And performing Olympic-type lifts with free weights might not be appropriate for everyone. So, I have a few recommendations for you to train those all important lower body muscles.  It just takes training one step, or leg, at a time.

The owner of a gym where I was once the manager of was asking me and the other trainers about which machines he should get rid of when he was redoing the gym to make it fresh and to allow for more functional space.  A few of the other trainers and I quickly said to get rid of the hip abductor and adductor machines.  These are the machines where you sit down and either bring your knees together, or push your knees apart.  We said that these machines aren’t functional, and are used only by a few gym members.  The owner argued that he sees many female clients using them, and these machines are facility staples everywhere.  We countered by asking if any of those clients are put on them by a trainer or use them on their own, and reminded him that his goal of making space in the gym was to allow for more room for functional training.

One of the first lessons I learned while becoming a Functional Fitness Specialist is that functional training has been defined many different ways by many different people.  But all of the definitions revolve around the same premise that training can be considered functional if it is done to improve specific movement (in the case of sports or rehabilitation) and improve quality of full body movement.  Also, the exercises are geared to mimic movement patterns that are used in everyday life.  Training the lower body in a functional way is therefore recommended because it will both improve your joint stability, and increase the strength of how your body moves.  It is designed to increase the quality of your movements; both in terms of ease and power.

Rather than using the many “leg” machines at your gym, start off by doing simple body weight exercises.  You don’t need to load up the weight on those hip machines because you most likely will never do that movement during any given day.  And repetitions of heavy leg extensions may lead to knee injury or tight hamstrings due to an overdevelopment of muscle.  On the other hand, performing body weight squats, or adding a little weight, will be challenging enough to your lower body muscles to have development of the strength needed for everyday movements such as getting up and down out of your office chair, or up and down from the toilet. 

Another key is to choose exercises that allow you to work one leg at a time.  Walking lunges, step-backs, step-ups are examples of functional exercises where you train your muscles how you actually move.  When we walk and climb stairs, we always do it one step at a time.  Most of our lower body movement comes one step at a time, meaning, we walk, jog, run, climb stairs, traverse steps, etc. one leg at a time.  So, to train functionally, you should be training one leg at a time.  Furthermore, the exercises I just suggested will have you training in more than one plane, allowing you to improve your balance and core strength as well.

Planning a training routine can be easy if you take into account how you actually move.  Evaluate an exercise by asking your self “Do I ever move like that?”  You should have a large percentage of your exercises in your training routine that mimic the actions you will need to perform.  This is especially true of our lower body, where our legs both are our primary movers, and the first set of muscles in the dynamic chain to your mid and upper body.  When you train your legs, take it one leg at a time. Training one step at a time is a functional way to be a fit new you!