Good morning…
We are now in March and looking forward to more snow tonight. Yay!
Yesterday the NFLF Winter Pacer training group met at the NFLF Fitness Center for our Saturday morning run. Typically. we meet in downtown Dover at Bagel Grounds for our Saturday runs, because of the convenience of having coffee and bagels right there available for our post run. Yesterday we ran along Spur road (definitely a favorite route), and NFLF supplied the coffee and bagels.
Besides everyone getting to run along the bay, another reason we ran from the NFLF Center was it gave me an opportunity to introduce the group to TRX. After we all got back, I asked everyone to do a body weight squat and as one would expect, there were varied levels of forms and ability to get very deep into the squat. I certainly have no grounds to judge, as I am challenged to get as deep into a squat as I would like and maintain proper back posture.
Squatting may be the most important exercise and everyday activity we do. In our daily living, we are required to squat more often than any other movement besides walking. Movements such as standing up from sitting, bending over to pick something up (or put something down), picking up a child, and on and on... So many activities require squatting and yet we pay little attention to how we do it and just as importantly; will we be capable when we are older?
In strength training and fitness, the squat, full-body exercise that trains primarily the muscles of the thighs, hips and buttocks, quadriceps femoris muscle, hamstrings, as well as strengthening the bones and ligaments.
So, it is easy to see why squatting should be a focus in our everyday lives, and our workouts. However, I have observed that most people have poor squat form or little ability to get my depth into their squats.
After I had the whole group do a simple body weight squat, I demonstrated my own semi-decent squat. Now I probably do more squats than most of them, so I was probably a little better with form, but probably not much better at the depth. We all did the typical laughing and grumbling at our inability to get very low.
After the self-mocking calmed down, I demonstrated to the group a squat using the TRX suspension system. I will not say that their jaws dropped, but when they saw how low I got while maintaining the correct form, I believe they may have thought I faked my previous squat. To ensure that was not the case, I had each of them take the TRX straps and do a squat. Every single person performed a squat that would make any trainer proud! To say they were impressed with what they were capable of, would be accurate. I even had them add some Y movements with their arms as they came up and that ability to multi-task the exercise impressed them as well!
None of this group has had any previous knowledge of TRX, but I am pretty sure they are now fans. We also discussed the importance of single leg squatting for improved running form, and once again after they all struggled doing them, I showed them how TRX can help us do an effective single leg squat that we could only dream of ever doing!
Ever since I took the TRX suspension instructor course back in January, I have been determined to share the value of TRX to the Seacoast. There are very few qualified instructors, so people are either learning from poor sources (YouTube trainers) or have no idea what it is. Slowly I am making progress and I will say that 100 percent of those I introduce it to, love it! Yesterday I made a little more progress!
Send an email to info@nofinishlinefitness.com if you want to learn about TRX. We offer a free session and you will love it!
Time to get along to church. I hope you have a great Sunday and an even better week!
God Bless!
Mike
Quick shout out to Coach Jennifer Miller. Yesterday she passed her American Council on Exercise Personal Trainer certification course! Congrats Jennifer, NFLF is happy to add another certified personal trainer!
