Corrective Gym Time Training

If you are a sport athlete, you will notice that many coaches and personal trainers will work you during practice to get better at your sport, but then you'll go to the gym and repeat the same exercises (pattern overload). The logic behind this is that if you train yourself through repetitive motions and then lift with those same repetitive motions with heavy weight, you will become really good at it. This may be true, but at the same time everything else suffers. You are creating further imbalance in your muscle structure which, in the long run, is ruining your posture and moving your bones out of place in your joints from imbalanced tension on them.

How I have been effected by this:

I have been dealing with this situation regarding my ankles and Achilles tendon. The repetitive pushing off of my toes and flexing my Achilles tendon over six years of running has caused it to become very tight. I have been to see a doctor to specializes in the feet and legs of athletes. He grabbed hold of my foot for one moment and tried stretching the tendons in my lower calf muscles and right away said "this is way too tight". I have been stretching the muscles, but not nearly to the degree in which I was working them. To fix the problem and get rid of my ankle pain, I have to stretch and roll it 3-5 times a day for several months. This is quite the process, but in the long run, I will feel much better and the pain will be gone so I can continue my long runs.

I have three videos for you guys from my favorite workout YouTuber, Elliott Hulse, where he talks about pattern overload, fixing it in the gym, and stretches to improve posture. 

Pattern overload and how to fix it at the gym:

Fig. 1 How to Fix Soulder Pain for Athletes by strengthcamp (Elliot Hulse) on www.youtube.com.

Improve your posture:

Fig. 2 Stretches to Improve Posture by strengthcamp ( Elliot Hulse) on www.youtube.com.

So, the basics of fixing pattern overload is by strengthening the muscles on the opposite plane as the ones that are strong from the overload. As a runner, my hip-flexors are very tight which causes my butt to be pulled in when standing up. This is causing an unbalance when I am trying to stand up straight and giving me some lower back pain. To fix this, I am stretching my hip-flexors and strengthening my abductors to pull my butt out more until my spine is straight. So far I have noticed a tremendous improvement.

The main point:

If you are doing a sport that requires repeating motions over and over, when you are at the gym, only strengthen the opposite muscles you don't use in those repeating motions. You will feel better and you will perform better too! Do extra stretching every day on those muscles that you use the most. Stretching them 3-5 times a day is good (unless you're having some severe pain or they are injured. In this case, don't stretch and see a doctor first).

Blog Question:

Are you involved in sports? If so, which sport and what are the repetitive motions you face every day?