From the Gym to Every Day Life
“Fitness Focus”
by Luis Bracamonte, Director of Fitness & Wellness
Fitness training can develop and increase strength, speed, power, agility, balance, stamina and more. The exercises we choose in our program can lead to improvements in aesthetics, function and performance. Therefore, the time we spend in the gym transfers to enhancements in multiple aspects of physical life including every day activities such as lifting objects around the house and sports like golf, tennis and pickleball. To ensure that your time in the gym is as effective and efficient as possible in relation to what you want to accomplish, we recommend the following:
1. Evaluate and assess basic movement patterns to detect any areas that need correction before increasing complexity, load or intensity. There is a popular saying in the fitness industry: first move well, then move often.
2. Choose exercises that are going to give you the best ROI for the specific goal that you want to accomplish. While improving overall athleticism is always a good thing, different sports have different qualities and if you’re training for sports performance, then your fitness training should reflect those specifics.
3. Simplify your program by spending more time performing high ROI exercises. It is better to do more sets and reps of exercises that have a higher transfer of specific performance than to do a high variety of exercises that do not have the same impact in relation to the goal.
4. Focus on feeling the muscles that are primarily involved in the exercises. For instance, the row is primarily a back exercise and secondarily an arm exercise.
5. Focus on refining the form and technique of each exercise. This refers to moving with the right range of motion in the correct movement pattern sequence. Failure to move with good form increases risk of injury and reduces the effectiveness of the exercise.
6. Stay consistent. An average program followed consistently will outperform a better program that lacks it. If being successful is important, we must plan to make fitness training a habit. To do this look at creating space in your day to exercise. If time is limited, then a shorter session should be scheduled rather than skipping the workout all together. Our fitness results are the sum of all our training sessions, long and short.
7. Do not ignore or skip recovery exercises such as massage and stretching. Our bodies improve during recovery and our risk of injury is significantly reduced when we spend time stretching and massaging.
Fitness training is essential if maximizing our quality of life is important. Make gym time part of your daily routine and enjoy improving and maintaining a body more capable of your favorite activities. To enlist the assistance of an ORC Fitness Specialist, please contact us at 305-367-5820
SAVE THE DATE
Saturday, November 6: Member Fitness Welcome Back Party