Every time I go to the gym to lift, or on the occasions that I go to my other gym to use a treadmill for run workouts I notice something.
It seems like everyone is spending time lying on the floor or rubbing themselves against the wall doing various contortions in the name of stretching or foam rolling or soft tissue work or whatever.
And in talking to people it seems like everyone is complaining about an injury of some kind or another that is persistent and never seems to go away. Almost like what they’re doing is actually aggravating it.
Now I’m not saying this stuff doesn’t have any value because certainly in some cases it can be useful. I use two particular simple drills on the days I bench press that keep my right shoulder from getting cranky. But not for nothing I spend about 30 seconds total on this.
Maybe I am just an outlier, maybe I’m just lucky. Although it would seem that if I compare my gym clients and coaching clients to what I observe in other gyms maybe that isn’t the case.
But I don’t do any of this stuff, and I don’t have any persistent complaints. Besides the fact that it saves me a bunch of time, it’s nice that I don’t have all the complaints and pain issues!
I go to the gym, I get on the treadmill, I walk for a few steps and then I begin my run workout.
I go to the gym, I head to the squat rack, I start warming up with just the bar and I proceed from there.
So I don’t do what most people do before and after their workouts. But, I do perform my actual workout pretty differently from everyone else.
I use biofeedback to make sure the movements I’m doing are good for me.
I also don’t push past elements of excessive effort like extra tension, breathing pattern changes, or alignment shift.
I also generally keep my workouts relatively “easy” even when easy is sort of objectively hard.
I also use biofeedback to modify movements to make them work even better for me – to suit me perfectly.
Like I said, maybe this is is just an observation that doesn’t really mean anything and I’m an outlier.
Or maybe not. Maybe what I do differently makes a difference.
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