Have you ever got out of bed, and felt great about life? I mean really good. You brush your teeth, put on your fly outfit and you go walking into work like a million bucks. People smiling. Coworkers high fiving you. Your boss giving you a raise etc etc. And then all of a sudden, you realize something. You forgot to wear pants to work. I know, I know we've all been there. What went wrong? Perception my friends.
Proprioception- Awareness of an object in space. For example- A patient after a stroke might feel they are sitting up but are actually leaning. A person might feel they are getting low enough into a squat but the athlete is not squatting below parallel.
Now, this might seem like a extreme example but think about people in the gym a lot of the time. How do they move in the squat. They got their fly shirts on with semi-clever slogans sprawled across their shirts, jean shorts on (I'VE SEEN IT HAPPEN!) and they do 4.5" depth squat as they moan like they got shot in the back, and then they walk back and put the barbell back in the rack. What was missing? They had the confidence the tenacity for lifting but they had NO proprioception. And this can be caused by many different factors.
Some things about looking at your everyday air squat. Click here. How does your squat honestly look? Now Chris squats great so you might not have the exact movements as he does. But think about- How does my lumbar spine look during lifts? Am I leaning forward too much? How is my depth for a squat?
Some questions overtime have included I want to see my 1 rep max. For beginners we try to stay within that 3 rep max range to encourage good mechanics before trying to hit that 1 rep max area. Because perception is not always exactly how it is, if one of the coaches mention that you need to fix a movement pattern before you increase weight. Think about the suggestion, ask why and then listen to the reasoning behind it. We all need to improve and it takes time so never feel we are picking on you. We're trying to make you better.
Please note as you work with different coaches at the box, every coach has their own set of verbal cues to help you and we all see you're mechanics differently. It does not make one coach wrong or right but we all see where others, including ourselves, can do better. One thing is a constant in all our trainers across the board. We are all coming from the same concept of getting your mechanics better and we strive to get you close to your optimal performance. That all starts with proper body mechanics.
House Keeping Notes-
What truly is a 1 rep max? Technically by definition it would be a movement you could only perform with great effort one time. The benefits of this? It pushes your muscle fibers to tear and repair which would increase your overall strength to a new level. The problem with new lifters (and new lifters can be up to 1-3 years at times) they want to chase big weight without establishing proper form and depth before going up in weight.
There is a twofold problem with this approach. One, it could be dangerous for the athlete. Bad form = jacked up lumbar spine. That can cause pain, discomfort and injury at times.
Second, it will cause the athlete to plateau in the exercise rather quickly (in a few months) due to insufficient or poor mechanics. You might see PR (personal records) for a few months but you will slam against that wall when you try to approach your 1 RM if you don't first get use to proper body mechanics.
Signs of proper lifting mechanics breaking down- Rounding of the back, weight shifting to the toes, a vault forward occurs, improper tracking of the knees occur.*
* Depending on what type of squat it is, (front, back, air), will change the type of mechanics you will need to perform the lift.
