What To Do When You Can’t [Part 2]

Last week I discussed a simple training framework for which direction to go in when you can’t go where you want to. I suggested that there might be yet another route to take, and of course lots of people wanted to hear more about that.

The long and short of it in case you didn’t read that one, you can read it here if you like though, is that when you can’t do the actual movement you want to train, because it hurts or doesn’t test well via biofeedback, you can pursue pieces of the whole. Eventually, when the problem that is stopping you from doing the specific is resolved, having trained the pieces will benefit the whole.

Sometimes, however, you can’t train components either. Typically you’d see this when you’re paying close attention to biofeedback, you have a pain issue you’re working through, and/or you’re training heavily for a sport which leads to a tendency to over-do certain movements.

In that case, the next step is to work on opposition movements. Literally, training the opposite. To use our example from last week, if you can’t squat (hip extension, knee extension, and so on) you would look at training hip flexion, and knee flexion.

An example of this that seems to be coming up lately is that everyone suddenly realized that all the hip external rotation and abduction (legs moving away from centerline of the body) you get from squatting and deadlifting heavy might be overdone and cause some problems.

The solution? Working on hip ADDUCTION (moving the legs toward the centerline). By this logic, probably won’t hurt to do some extra internal rotation as well.

Most of the time training opposition movements aren’t as fun or sexy as doing the things you want to do to get you to your goals. But, it’s a simple, quick, and super effective framework for figuring out how to get BACK to doing those things you want to do when you can’t because you’re hurt or trying to heed your biofeedback so that you don’t get hurt.

By the way, this is the kind of training philosophy and structure that I go over in great detail in my biofeedback training workshops. I’ve got two dates coming up in October, in Toronto and Manila. I’m not ashamed or too humble to say that previous attendees have said that the workshop completely changed how they approach their training (and coaching). I’d love to see you there.