Phyllis asks:
…but why do my shoulders keep popping up? If I know what the proper form is supposed to be, then why do I keep doing the same thing wrong? It’s not like I’m trying to do the exercise in bad form, it’s like they have a mind of their own.
The short answer: Your body is primed for efficiency, not effectiveness. By efficiency, I mean in terms of utilization of energy.
What does this mean to you with regards to movement? Two things:
1. The same exercise load will become less and less “expensive” metabolically as you get fitter. In other words, you burn fewer calories each time you do the same thing over and over again. Sorry.
2. Your body will always look for the path of least resistance (i.e., the most energy efficient path). This likely isn’t the path of greatest effectiveness (i.e., the path in which you are capable of lifting the most weight/doing the most work).
This harkens back to our primordial days as cavemen and women. Food wasn’t available at the local supermart down the block; it had to be hunted (and killed and cleaned and cooked), gathered, or farmed. In other words, there was an energy cost to obtaining food. If the goal is survival, then conservation of resources is key. If you expended more energy to obtain food than the food gave you back, then you’d surely starve to death. It doesn’t make much sense to expend more energy to gather food (or to do anything else, such as lifting a rock or a tiger, for that matter) than is absolutely necessary.
Back to the weight room: What we’re interested in doing is as much mechanical work * as possible. To do this most effectively requires technique, most of which involves using a great deal of energy. Your body, interested in conservation of energy, looks to find the path of least resistance, which often involves bringing you out of ideal form (almost as if your body is trying to slink away or slide around the resistance) - mystery solved.
In this case, use your intellect and ignore your instincts.
* Mea culpa to Fred, Bill, et al: Yes, yes, I’ll talk about metabolic work in a future post.
Phyllis asks:
The short answer: Your body is primed for efficiency, not effectiveness. By efficiency, I mean in terms of utilization of energy.
What does this mean to you with regards to movement? Two things:
1. The same exercise load will become less and less “expensive” metabolically as you get fitter. In other words, you burn fewer calories each time you do the same thing over and over again. Sorry.
2. Your body will always look for the path of least resistance (i.e., the most energy efficient path). This likely isn’t the path of greatest effectiveness (i.e., the path in which you are capable of lifting the most weight/doing the most work).
This harkens back to our primordial days as cavemen and women. Food wasn’t available at the local supermart down the block; it had to be hunted (and killed and cleaned and cooked), gathered, or farmed. In other words, there was an energy cost to obtaining food. If the goal is survival, then conservation of resources is key. If you expended more energy to obtain food than the food gave you back, then you’d surely starve to death. It doesn’t make much sense to expend more energy to gather food (or to do anything else, such as lifting a rock or a tiger, for that matter) than is absolutely necessary.
Back to the weight room: What we’re interested in doing is as much mechanical work * as possible. To do this most effectively requires technique, most of which involves using a great deal of energy. Your body, interested in conservation of energy, looks to find the path of least resistance, which often involves bringing you out of ideal form (almost as if your body is trying to slink away or slide around the resistance) - mystery solved.
In this case, use your intellect and ignore your instincts.
* Mea culpa to Fred, Bill, et al: Yes, yes, I’ll talk about metabolic work in a future post.