Don’t Forget the 4th Metric! Quality of Movement is a PR!

I believe it is a good idea to pay attention to what your doing. Be it driving (quit tweeting on the freeway!!), cooking, and of course lifting.

Pick up any fitness book in the world and you will find instructions to lift with “perfect form.” They tell you to do that for your safety. I believe I can do this maybe once in my life– On behalf of all fitness professionals of the world: we do not want to see you get hurt. Even the trainers who train people in a way that will hurt people. No one in this industry purposely wants to hurt their clients, or at least I think that for right now….moving on.

What is “perfect” form? It is the photo in the book? Is it how the model moves in the DVD? Is it the way your trainer or coach taught you in the gym?

Maybe, but only if it tests well for you.

Perfect form for you is relative to where you are at. If something tests well and meets the intent of the lift than it is the best form you can muster at that moment.

My good friend retired Master Sergeant Mike Miller says “Practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent.”

That is something to write down. The way you do something now is altering your body. Does this mean “imperfect” form will break you?

Based on what we are seeing day to day with in the field research from hundreds of test subjects- No, whereever you are right now is where you have to work. This is not a ticket to lift shitty by the way…

If you continue to lift with the elements of effort and shitty positioning you will fuck yourself up. I will assure  you of this. Breaking your body is not very easy to do, the way most people hurt themselves in the gym is a combination of several factors with the main culprrt being excessive tension leading to poor skeletal alignment.

The way you move is the result of your tissue. If you try to squat with your arms overhead and you find yourself tipped over, it’s not your nervous system working against you- it’s tissue rigidity which you EARNED by the way you move day to day through out your life. The trick is not some kind of CNS sorcery involving indirect movements- the solution is work where you are reshaping the tissue to better meet your goals.

This may sound complicated, but like your bad ass MAC, the software/hardware is so complicated that your “user interface” is simple. Its so simple you are using it every second of every day.

Movement.

The way we move is the determining factor to how we shape and reshape our body.

Lets get practical here.

I became interested in the Long cycle clean and jerk in 2009 after reading a program detailing its use for mass gains. My early attempts with this lift were ok. I felt like I would run out of room in both phases of the lift. While I have very good shoulder ROM, I was unable to achieve the behind the head lockout with two bells at speed from a second dip. So my double press looked different than my jerk. Here is an early example

This video is from September 2009. Note the neck angle, thoracic spine position, and lumbar/hip position during the movement. Not the most terrible reps, but these were not very good.

That was the best. At the time, it more or less looked the same with each size bell.

Part of the issue was the instruction I had on how this lift was done but the biggest chunk was excessively rigid tissue across the upper body from steel bending work. All that slow compression with hundreds of pounds and nothing to teach the body elastic movement left me very tight.

I didn’t need to stretch, I needed to train my body to move differently.

Here is a set of Long Cycle with the same size bells from April 2010.

Note by this point the changes in both the back swing, and the overhead fix. Still not “perfect form” but much better.

After Frankie reviewed the April block of Long Cycle, he suggested gunning for more speed during the reps, I needed to hit end range of motion and change direction faster.

This lead to a modified Long Cycle style which I use for 90% of my KB speed work now.

In May, my fastest cadence was 19 reps a minute – which is pretty fast.

In June my cadence with this movement has become 25 reps a minutes.

Here is what we can presume fairly easily

• I did not hit that number by stretching my shoulders
• I did not hit that number by being cued to move
• I did not hit that number by foam rolling or ART

I can move that fast now because I practiced moving fast. I did not try to move the way the world champion KB lifters move, because I can’t move like they do yet. I did not post up photos of other people moving to try to move the way they did.

I worked with my abilities, and found my abilities expanded by staying in them.

We will specifically get better at something the way we practice it. We always get better at what we do.

I wanted to move faster, I wanted better overhead mobility at speed. I wanted faster cadence.

I was not fast, I was not mobile enough, my cadence was slow.

Had I listened to popular opinions of “Only do it if you can do it perfectly” I would not be doing it at all. The First Rep is ALWAYS the WORST REP. I would not be able to do anything if was waiting to be perfect at something I have never done before.

I have said a lot to say this little bit:

Celebrate your quality of movement improvements!

As you move better, as you get more fluid, as you drop your excessive tension, and smooth out your breathing you will be able to lift more weight, faster, and easier.

The first time I heard that I was not buying it. I am glad I put it to the test.

It’s fun to move fast. It’s fun to do the “hard” things while making them look easy. It’s fun to make progress.

No need to ponder this too hard, put it to the test.

Your starting points are found in my DVD Grip and Rip 2.1. Brad Nelson and I lay out the foundation of physique transformation and self programming. Once you take control of your progress you will do incredible things. No matter what your goals.

Looking forward to your success story,

ATG