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Exercise More articles below Your Body Cheats
By Richard Brownkatz
I often see people in my massage practice who have injured themselves exercising because they don’t realize their body cheats.
Yeah, cheats. Your body doesn’t necessarily share your goals. It thinks you’re just trying to get some work done, to get an object from here to there, as easily as possible. Although the body loves to move, like loving to dance or swim or kayak or walk in nature, it’s not so hot about working and it’s pretty slick about getting out of it.
Which is why gyms have mirrors and why even people who have tons of exercise knowledge and experience use personal trainers, exercise teachers or workout partners.
Biceps curls are an excellent example.
Wait a minute. Why would anyone who wasn’t into bodybuilding or running for governor want to do biceps curls anyway?
Well, to lift stuff. Your biceps (which, by the way, means two heads) is the muscle that pulls your lower arm up. Picking up your kid, your grocery bags, your garbage cans, all these everyday moves work your biceps. Just lifting a gallon jug of milk or water or bleach is, essentially, a biceps curl. I have some senior citizen clients who used to have trouble with such common tasks. They thought it was the normal consequences of aging. But it’s more the normal consequences of a lack of exercise.
The classic, basic biceps curl is done standing with a barbell. You begin with your arms fully extended, so that the bar is resting on your thighs. You keep your elbows right against your sides, and, using only your biceps muscles, lift the bar toward your upper arms.
Seems simple enough. But…
“Look in the mirror,” I’ll tell a client.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Keep curling, but stand sideways and watch yourself in the mirror. What do you see?”
“I’m rocking.”
“Exactly. You’ve got a slight rocking going from your lower back. Your body is swinging to use momentum to lift the weight.”
Bad for the back. Negates the exercise. Waste of time.
There are lots of variations on this. Sometimes when doing curls with dumbbells the body will get the arms swinging back and forth, again using momentum to lift the weight. People have actually bonked themselves in the head doing this.
As your arm moves upward, the direction of gravity’s pull on the weight changes, until your lower arm is vertical and there is very little strain on the biceps. That’s why you feel a little rest at the top of the curl.
Your body knows this and will try to cheat by sneaking your elbow forward while you lift. The faster it gets the elbow out and under the weight, the sooner it relieves the biceps of the strain.
Or it will start lifting your shoulders, bringing the weight higher, then dipping your shoulders and sneaking out your elbow.
Or it will do all of these until your swinging and dropping and dipping away and thinking you look really great moving all that weight except your biceps don’t get any stronger and you’re complaining of low back pain.
To help my clients learn to avoid all this, I have them begin doing curls standing against a wall, knees slightly bent, abs pulled in and elbows tight against their sides. I remind them to use the mirrors. Then I watch, closely. More Articles
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