So Simple

A pushup. It’s how you get your body off of the floor. It starts on the ground, finishes with locked out elbows. I would say the majority of people could correctly identify this movement and tell you where it starts and where it ends.

A squat. It’s how you lower your body to do a vast array of things. It starts at standing, ends with your hip below your knee, and finishes at standing. I believe that the majority of people could identify this as well. Excluding minor details like knee tracking/depth/foot placement I think most of these people could tell you where it starts and ends.

A situp. It’s a method of getting up when your back is on the floor. It starts lying on the ground and ends with your shoulder over your hip. I would say the vast majority of people can recognize this movement as well and tell you where it starts and where it finishes.

All three of these are very basic and very natural for us to perform. You could say they are some of the building blocks of human movement. We want babies to learn all of these, and we applaud children for completing them. We work with the older population on keeping these movements in their repertoire. Pretty damn important on both ends of the spectrum of life. How come these three movements are some of the most bastardized movements in the general population? I think everyone would agree that they would like to not have trouble moving while outside the gym, but these same humans are quick to leave off a checklist item on these simple movements day to day in the gym. I have the fortunate pleasure of being around an infant everyday, and also have the fortunate pleasure of being around some stellar 70-80 year olds, as well. In both of these cases, we are continually searching for the fine points of movements. Both experiences in their own way make all the other that much more special.

The greatest example that blows my mind is not locking out elbows on a pushup. If we were to flip the script and move to the bench press, and take it to an extreme like a max effort day. The same athlete that fails to lock out their elbows on a pushup would not fail to lockout on that max effort. Suddenly their is an attention to detail when a number is on the line. If this person was to lock out each pushup, chances are on max day, they would be able to lock out a heavier rep, but the same stakes don’t appear to be present on a pushup as a max bench press.

Don’t let yourself forget about the reason for your training. We are here to become stronger, to become better movers, to gain range of motion, and to use it. At the end of the day, all of those numbers get wiped off the board and all you have is your quality of movement to fall back on. Move better, Live better.

 

High fives all around,

Danny Lesslie

@dannylesslie