To succeed with any training program I need to clearly define the goals of my training. If for instance I am training to run a marathon, I can gauge the success of my training approach on whether I am increasing the distance I run while decreasing the average time it takes me to run it. These clear goals allow me to track my progress and assess the efficacy of my training approach, perhaps leading to changes or modifications that allow me to achieve my goals more effectively.

The goals of your average “workout” or what we might refer to as “self guided training” are often much less specific. I might spend time at the gym, go out running or attend a local yoga class to “get my cardio,” “get stronger”, or “get more flexible.” For some of us the goal might even be as basic as “to exercise” or “to stay in shape.”

And while there’s nothing wrong with the desire to simply “stay in shape,” my experience has taught me that this type of self guided training can result in putting our time and effort into training ourselves to perform “better” in ways that we may not intend or in some cases, even want.

What Exactly is Training?

To understand the reasons for this, it helps to understand what I mean by “training.” Training is any activity or series of activities we undertake to learn a particular skill and/or to prepare ourselves to perform in either the activity we are training with, or in some other related activity. If I am training to be a better runner, clearly part of my training program should be to run, but it may also include other activities such as jumping rope or stretching.

Training What We Don’t Want

Training is typically done with intention, but it isn’t always. In fact, many of the habits we’ve manifested that impact our health negatively, such as the habit of internally rotating the hips – a major contributor to the development of hip and knee arthritis, are habits that we’ve inadvertently “trained” ourselves to do.

Let’s say my workout is to go running because I want to do more cardiovascular exercise. If when I run my hips internally rotate, while I may succeed in getting more cardiovascular exercises, but I will also speed the degradation of my knee and hip joints.

With this approach to training, regardless of whether I intend it or not, I am effectively training knee damage, and the more I run the faster I’ll wear out my knees doing it.

Our Mental Habits Can Interfere

One of the biggest challenges of my work is not so much figuring out what movements or postures will help my clients improve their function and health, but just getting them into the habit of doing them. Typically the obstacles to establishing a regular movement program are mental habits, often long-standing ones. These habits, established through years of repetition, are like another form of training.

A while back I started working with a new client who had come to me with a back problem. During a session I introduced some movements and postures to her, and our work seemed to be going fairly well. But afterwards, when we were looking at our respective calendars to schedule a follow up, a red flag appeared – she said she didn’t want to schedule anything in the morning, not because she was physically unavailable, but because she had a daily routine of taking her time, drinking her coffee and cozying up with the newspaper, and she didn’t want to plan anything that interfered with that.

I had never had anyone tell me something like this before, and I suppose I should have been grateful for her candidness. No doubt all of us have routines that we cherish and are loathe to disrupt. And while I completely understood and respected the priorities she’d set for herself, I also understood that the impulses behind them were going to be very much at odds with the training that I was recommending for her. She had trained a routine that would make the training she needed to do to improve her back, all but impossible.

Physical Habits Can Train What We Don’t Want

While mental habits can be a major obstacle to success in training, even when we are motivated to train, our physical habits can be just as big a challenge to its success. Walking, for example, can be one of the best ways to use movement to improve health and function. But whether walking more will really help us depends a great deal on how we walk.

Many of us develop habits in our gait that place significant stress on our bodies. It’s no wonder this happens. Our gait is a complex series of movements that happen so quickly it’s extremely difficult to be aware of our mistakes. Nevertheless, mistakes we make while walking are both highly impactful and very hard to correct because every time we walk we reinforce and re-train them.

Let’s look at another example – squatting. When I work with a client who has knee pain, I always look at their squatting mechanics. Invariably, clients with knee pain overload their knees when they squat. And since squatting is a motion we must do in some form or another multiple times a day, these folks are stressing their knees, not to mention their hips and lower back, repeatedly.

Clients who overload their knees when squatting are unaware that they are doing this. They are also unaware that there is any alternative to how they squat. For these clients, squatting is essentially “training knee pain,” and therefore if they are not trained to squat differently, the squatting habits they have trained will persist until they simply can’t squat anymore.

Training For Health & Function

I’m an advocate for an approach to training that is fundamentally different from most other forms. In my view, training should be done with the goal of health and function, rather than performance. This doesn’t mean you won’t also get stronger, more flexible, more mobile and more skilled at the movements you are training. It just means you won’t be achieving these benefits at the expense of your joints and your health in general.

Training to Be Better at Living

The training I do is essentially training for human movement. It may sound strange that I’m in the business of training people to move like a human being, but it turns out that this is exactly what works best from a health and longevity standpoint. We are all designed to move and in specific ways. When we do this things tend to go well for us health-wise.

So next time you get ready to start your workout, take a little the time to reconsider your exercise habits by asking yourself this question – “What am I training for?”. Then think about whether the time and energy you are putting into your training is really serving your goals.

If you conclude that your current training is in line with your long term goals, then continue with it for as long as that’s the case. But if you discover your training is not moving in the direction you’d like, consider changing your approach until it better aligns with what you’re after.

And if you need help, get in touch!

At Alignment Lab we always encourage our clients to move more and build strength, but it is common in our practice to see clients who have developed injuries from working out at the gym with certain machines or when doing isolated exercises with weights. Many of the exercises these clients are doing involve movements that fall under the category of open kinetic chain movement (OKCM). In the interest of maximizing the health benefits of exercise and minimizing the chances of injury, we generally try to steer our clients away from (OKCM) exercises and guide them towards exercises that feature closed kinetic chain movement (CKCM).

What is the difference? OKCM exercises involve isolating a particular muscle and then challenging it with weight and or resistance by shortening (concentrically loading) the muscle. A classic example is the biceps curl, which involves picking up a weight, say a dumbbell or kettle bell with the hand, and then bending the elbow to lift the weight toward the shoulder. This exercise can be done with one or both arms, and in either case the hands are not fixed, thus the “open” kinetic chain.

CKCM involves movement relative to a fixed point. This means that some part of the body, usually a hand or a foot, is brought in contact with a stable surface such as the floor or a wall. Typically there is some amount of weight bearing involved to keep that contact point stable. The stability provided by the fixed point and the weight bearing promotes stability in the body where needed so that the exercise can be done with greater safety an efficacy.

In the example of the biceps curl, there is no fixed point. Every part of the body has the potential to move in some way during the exercise, and thus there is a lack of stability and a greater chance of strain. This exercise not only increases the chances of straining the biceps, but also the shoulder joint. Without the added stability of a fixed point the body will have a harder time keeping the humerus stable in the shoulder socket, increasing the chances of exceeding the load bearing capacity of the joint. In the end, we may end up with bigger biceps, but likely more wear and tear on the shoulders.

One solution to this problem with the biceps curl that is often used to improve its efficacy is to stabilize body by sitting on a stable seat and then placing the elbow of the working arm on a support. These changes do serve to focus the action of the arm more effectively on the biceps, but they do not necessarily make it more safe. The reason is that even though to some degree stability has increased, it has not increased in a way that eliminates potential impact on the shoulder joint.

Because there is a greater amount of force on one isolated joint, in this case the shoulder joint, this movement can easily lead to strain in the tendon of the bicep attaching to the shoulder joint.  This is because mechanoreceptors in the shoulder are not well activated in this exercise. The mechanoreceptors help us feel joint position, and if they are not activated it will be more difficult to sense whether or not the shoulder joint maintains functional alignment. If the exercise is done without a functional alignment in the shoulder joint it may result in an injury.

It is important that we continue to challenge our muscles and their ability to bear weight, but preferably not at the expense of our joint health. Open kinetic chain movement (OKCM) exercises tend to increase this likelihood. Closed kinetic chain movement (CKCM) exercises on the other hand provide an opportunity to increase our strength with much less chance of injury.

While the primary difference between a CKCM exercises and an OKCM exercise is that CKCM exercises feature movement relative to a fixed point, another equally important difference is that CKCM typically feature some approximation of the joint due to the weight bearing on the fixed limb. This means that pressure, usually caused by the weight of the body, pushes the arm toward the shoulder joint, soliciting a stabilizing response in the joint. A great example would be a side plank. In this exercise one hand is fixed on the floor, and the shoulder on the same side gets approximated by the weight of the body. This helps stabilize the shoulder joint and facilitates healthy rotational movement (abduction) around the joint.

CKCM exercises have several features that account for their improved efficacy relative to OKCM exercises. First, the increased joint stability in CKCM allows for better eccentric loading of the involved muscles. Eccentric loading means that the muscles involved contract and lengthen at the same time. When a muscle contracts while lengthening, sliding motions are introduced into the fascial sheets that cover muscles groups and individual muscles. This sliding of the fascial sheets adds lubrication, nerve stimulation and a protective barrier against injury.

Another feature of CKCM is that it involves the motion of muscles across multiple joints. This means that these movements go beyond the isolation of one particular muscle, unlike many of the OCKM exercises commonly used in strength training (such as the biceps curl). Moving across multiple joints requires a complex synchronization of different muscle groups and therefore not only works more muscles but works them in tandem with one another, promoting strength in a functional way.

In addition, when movement occurs across multiple joints with many muscles involved it facilities co-contraction between muscles and this co-contraction, it turns out, is a more efficient way to to bear weight. When muscles co-contract with other muscles, the load is distributed across a broader area, preventing isolated muscle fatigue and decreasing shearing forces on the joints and tissues, ultimately decreasing the likelihood of strain and inflammation.

This alludes to the fact that CKCM’s are good for our tissue. These movements improve blood flow, flexibility, lymph drainage, muscle health, circulatory function and cardiovascular health in a far greater way than any open kinetic chain exercise. CKCM’s will have increased metabolic effects compared to OKCM’s, and they also promote joint health by helping to re-establish proprioception and our ability to sense joint position.

One further benefit of CKCM’s is that these movements improve function of the nervous system. This is because when more muscles and joints are moving in a complex closed-kinetic chain pattern, more nerves are firing. More nerves firing means more blood flow, better communication with the brain and thus a greater ability to dynamically move through space with intelligence.

Finally, closed kinetic chain movements are simply more functional than open kinetic chain movement in that CKCM’s are more often based on movement patterns that are innate to the human body. As babies and toddlers, each of us develops our physical function through a series of innately choreographed movements, and these movements manifest from the age of three months up to the point of walking without any instruction or mimicry taking place. This means that we don’t learn these movements from someone else, we just do them. These movements are innate in all babies, everywhere in the world, and they tell us a lot about functional motion and how the utilization of the hands and feet in a closed kinetic chain is the basis for all natural human motion.

Going back to our bicep curl exercise, let’s compare it with a closed kenetic chain movement involving the biceps and triceps using the example of a wall plank. A wall plank is basically a plank position where the head, shoulder girdle, rib cage, pelvis and legs are all in a stacked, vertical alignment with the hands on the wall standing at arm’s length. The movement involves pushing into the wall to fully extend the elbows.

In a wall plank, the triceps contract in order to extend the arm, but at the same time the biceps co-contract in conjunction with the triceps to stabilize the elbow joint. The biceps also must lengthen to increase pressure into the wall and bear the weight of the upper body. Because the hands are fixed, a whole chain of muscles from the hands into the shoulder joints on into the back and into the abdominal muscles and down into the pelvis and legs also co-contract to help support the body’s weight.

Once it becomes relatively easy to do a wall plank while maintaining good alignment, a full plank can be introduced involving the more challenging version of pushing up off the floor. In a full plank the biceps and triceps get worked but in a clearly functional way that facilitates our ability to lower ourselves down to the floor and lift ourselves up off the floor.

There’s a lot of press about strength training these days with ever growing evidence of its importance for human health and longevity. At Alignment Lab we’re big fans of strength training and we provide it daily with every one of our clients by teaching them mainly closed chain kinetic movements. We’ve found this approach to be ideal for promoting functional strength that is at once empowering, health promoting and practical.

In 2015 several members of the kinesiology faculty at The Universe of Waterloo and The University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada performed a study using 52 firefighters comparing the impact of 2 different forms of fitness training to a control group. One group did 12 weeks of “movement-guided fitness” and the other did 12 weeks of “conventional fitness” training. The control group did no training at all.

Both groups that received training showed improved fitness over the control group, but the study found that the “movement-guided” (MOV) group showed greater joint stability in the knees and spine as compared to the “conventional fitness” (FIT) group. The study suggests that the the MOV group got results from the training that carried over to their work as firefighters, making them more effective and safer.

In a bit more detail, here are 3 important takeaways from this study:

1 – Practicing how to move with alignment in their training improved the quality of the firefighters movement outside the gym and made them more effective at their work.

The firefighters in this study depend upon their strength and agility to perform well. The firefighters who practiced exercises that emphasized correct alignment and movement based training improved their overall fitness in squats, lunges, pushing and pulling, and this improvement carried over into the tasks required in their work.

Most of us do not have as taxing a job as a firefighter, but at Alignment Lab we regularly see that improving the quality of movement directly contributes to improved function and greater longevity. How we stack our joints, having awareness of our body in space and improving the quality of our breathing are all key in having a healthy and strong body and mind.

2 – Firefighters who trained functional movement patterns (MOV group) had fewer injuries when compared to the traditional fitness exercises (FIT) group.

The fact that the firefighters who practiced a movement based training program had more control in frontal spinal and knee plane motions is huge! This means that the stress on their backs and knees was greatly reduced compared to the other firefighters doing both high-intensity training or no training. Reducing stresss on joints means less likelihood of wearing out joints and reducing the chances of a serious and potentially debilitating injury.

3 – Lower injury rate = Higher safety on the job

The improved performance and fewer injuries of the firefighters in the MOV group translates directly into improved safety on the job. This is by no means an insignificant outcome for someone who is employed in such a physically challenging and potentially dangerous line of work.

So what does this study mean for those of us who are not firefighters? Basically this:

*Movement based training produces the same fitness based results as conventional training but ALSO provides benefits that extend beyond the training environment.

*Movement based training regimens like the Personal Alignment Training we do at Alignment Lab train us not just to become good at specific exercises but also to become better at any movement based activity that we choose to do.

*Improvements in our movement come with less chance of injury and therefore less chance of down time when we’re not able to do the things we need to do or love to do.

This study highlights a central tenet of the approach we take to personal training at Alignment Lab, what we call Personal Alignment Training for Health or P.A.T.H.. P.A.T.H. emphasizes the quality of our movement over its intensity because we’ve found again and again that this approach leads to better health and more functional outcomes. Moreover, improving the quality of our movement while training with P.A.T.H. translates directly into desirable movement patterns in our everyday lives.