Movement Capacity Series – Strength

This is part three of the Movement Capacity Series and today we are talking about strength. I’ll go through the important points for consideration, and of course I’ll have some tips for you both for training for performance and also for rehab. Ready? Let’s jump in.

Hi, I’m Selina from MoveMedics here to help you move better, feel better, so you can keep doing what makes you happy, for as long as you want.

Last week we talked about mobility. Today we are talking about strength. Mobility and strength are easily the two most famous movement elements of them all.

Most people know that it is good to get strong. If you are trying to get strong for general health you can probably go about it in quite a general fashion, but if you’re trying to get strong for performance, it is important that you are specific about it.

Let’s use running as an example. For sprinters, they need to be able to generate a lot of force over a short period of time, which means they need power. When you look at a sprinter’s physique, they look powerful, they have powerful muscles on them which allows them to explode out of the blocks and cover 100 metres in under 10 seconds for men.

When you then look at a middle to long distance runner, they look very different, having a lot of muscles actually is not a good idea for middle, long distance running because muscles are heavy and hungry, and it’s harder to carry that kind of mass and feed them and sustain over long distance.

Long distance runners need to be able to generate sufficient force, decent amount of force, and sustain it over a period of time. For them, they need to be strong and they need strength endurance. Different needs, different training.

I’ve been watching the Tour de France, I love it. And one of the commentators shared a story where she was at a training camp, and Usain Bolt, the fastest man himself, commented on the preparation of one of his friends who is a middle, long distance runner, this runner’s entire preparation before his actual training is longer than Usain’s entire training session. Different needs, different training.

So understanding what you need to do what you love is important, so that it will allow you to tailor your training specifically.

Now the running example, they were quite extreme, most of what you want to be doing are probably somewhere in the middle, maybe more towards one side and you may need a bit of each, which further reinforces the point that knowing your activity is important.

Now as important as knowing what you need, knowing what you lack is also important, especially in rehab. In my 21 years as a physio I have never not given some form of strengthening exercises to any patients.

Strength is always an issue, so for those of you going through rehab, if you don’t currently have any strengthening exercises in your rehab, ask your healthcare provider “Hey, you know, how about some strengthening exercises?” and see what they say.

It may be that you are just not ready yet, you may have to let your injuries settle a bit, let more healing happen before it is appropriate for you to start, but there should always be a plan in place that yes, once you are here, we will start you on this, then we will bring you to this, and we will build you up to that, and eventually back to doing what you want to do.

If you ask these questions and you get crickets, go see someone else, you deserve better.

Let me leave you with a bonus tip, for good movement options and joint health, we want to make sure we are strong through our entire range of movement, so through our entire Current Movement Sphere™

This is especially important for those of you who like to do bendy fun things like split, straddle, backbend, not only is this important for your movement option and performance, it is also very important for injury prevention.

In the next video we will talk about balance, but until then, tell me, what is your biggest takeaway in today’s video? Leave me a comment to let me know.

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And until then, thank you so much for watching and Be Free In Your Movement™