Friday, April 19, 2019

Magic 3 what I wish I had been taught during PE

PE was one of my favourite lessons at school (with the exception of rugby that is).

However knowing what I know now I wish that more time had been spent on the fundamentals that apply to every form of exercise rather than jumping into the specifics that apply to one particular sport.

In particular IMO every child should be taught the basic movement patterns so that they know good form from bad and can move correctly from the off and not develop problems due to years of bad habit.

It really is very easy. There are just 3 essential components

1. The basic basic moves, just 4 of them from classic weightlifting.
  • Squat
  • Deadlift
  • Push
  • Pull
Push and Pull each have 2 variants, horizontal and vertical (so 90 degrees from chest e.g. bench press and row and 90 degrees from shoulder e.g. pull up and overhead press)

As a cyclist I am only interested in building strength not muscle bulk from these so I just go high load low reps. So as much as I can handle for 3-5 reps, 3-4 sets.

Best source I have found is Alan Thrall on Youtube, loads of videos all of them both informative and fun.

 2. Functional strength/movement

 These are exercises that challenge multiple parts of the body to work in a co-ordinated manner to develop  strength and/or stability. It's possible to develop a complete program of these just with body weight drills e.g. bird dogs, single leg squats, lunges planks. 

There are also lots of variants with simple equipment like TRX, kettle bells and the like. As an example of the latter doing this 2-3 times a week would be great https://shoppeaks.com/the-cyclists-ultimate-kettlebell-workout/

3. Mobility

These are focused sessions that work on specific areas to ensure they move correctly.  

They also double up as warmups prior to a workout and/or routines to promote recovery afterwards.

Single best source for these I have found is Mobility WOD. Following the daily drills here is pretty much guaranteed to keep you moving freely without pain for your whole life.

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