I saw this quote today and thought, how many of us are really ready to make this "shift in our mindsets." I am assuming we are ALL still children at heart as we like to play, jump, laugh and go to VBC but, are we adult enough to make good decisions for our well being.
We all want the "Ohh Ahh" moment when we achieve some personal goal or a PR we set out for ourselves but sometimes we rush into it and end up with the "Oh No" moment instead.That's when we realize we have pulled or strained something because we were too impatient to put in the time to properly prepare our bodies.
It's real, this struggle within all of us. Daily, I have to mentally check in with my ego. I say I don't like to compete and I do very few competitions. Well, that is to say I do not sign up for competitions at an event but each and every day I compare myself and am competing in the gym. I look at other women's bodies, strengths, endurance, what times they did the workout in, what weights they chose. Many times I know my body is breaking down and I should just work that weakness and strengthen my joints but then that little voice inside of me says... Oh just do it, just suck it up and get through this one workout.
Sometimes we need to step back and see WHY we are doing it or maybe not doing it. I hope that we can as coaches help you see the importance of stepping back and evaluating and listening to your bodies. We expect quality movements and this takes time, but creating this balance in your workouts is a wonderful thing. I believe in this train of thought. I may sometimes be reluctant to do that 30 minutes of shoulder stabilizing or core work but boy to I love it when I can hold up that heavy weight and say, "Damn that felt good, I felt strong". So most days you will see me grumbling a bit as I do some hollow holds, use the crossover symmetry and take a few extra minutes to foam roll.
So take a moment and appreciate the way our programming is set up to help stabilize joints, to slowly mold our bodies into things we want them to achieve.
Come to those extra classes and ask for some help stretching those tight joints or help in gaining some range of motion that may limit you in doing a skill properly. Your bodies will thank you for it. Then in most cases you will have the chance to say Ohh Ahh I did it!! many many times in the future.
So... the reason for my little rant is that on Sunday we will be having gymnastics class. I am going to spend the first few minutes doing some partner stretches and there may be a moment when I stretch you.( yeah I know some of you love and hate this!) Then we will work a few solid gymnastics core movements to strengthen our whole bodies.
you may recognize them...
- Hollow Holds- working our anterior core
- Arch holds- working that posterior chains using the glutes and Mid back
- Chin over holds-The key here is that training your strength endurance at slightly lower intensities builds more than just muscle. Your connective tissue needs longer to adapt, and as such you should spend time mastering the bent-arm chin hang before moving on to more advanced (and potentially injury-inducing) pulling movements such as muscle ups and rope climbs.
- Standing Pike stretch- helping to assess flexion through the hips and those with tight Hamstrings may struggle here.
Followed by Handstands and Handstand push ups in a progression of achieving the strength to safely do them.
Come it'll be fun, and you might even feel a little better in the process.
-Heather
**Thank you to Breaking Muscle for providing some information for this blog
