The Importance Of Variability
When it comes to training there are no bad movements just unprepared bodies. With that said there are exercises that are better than others for achieving certain outcomes but regardless of what you’re doing you need to be prepared for variability. Why? Well because your body will falter at some point, whether it be while training or in life, and if you’re not prepared you’re going to get injured. Now I am not claiming that I or anyone can prevent injury as it is impossible to do so but I can tell you that if you train your joints in a variety of positions you will highly reduce your risk of injury and mitigate the damage done if injury occurs.
Most people only train movement patterns i.e. squats lunges, bench press, yoga postures/positions etc… and to make matters worse they try and perfect those movement patterns. The problem is you can’t perfect movement and situations in life will take you outside of those ranges you train. Let me give you a simplified explanation of how movement works. Every time you create movement whether it be picking up a box, deadlifting 550 kg, or doing a downward dog information rapidly goes from your brain to your joints. Then information from the joints is sent back to the brain and with that information your brain decides how it is going to produce said movement. All of that occurs in just under 30 milliseconds, one miscalculation or unprepared joint in that flow and you’re either failing and/or getting injured. Furthermore, research shows no two movements are the same. Every time you perform a movement it differs from the last time you did it, it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve done it, how well you think you are doing it, or if it looks like you’re doing the exact same thing the truth is you’re not. If you were to hook your body up to an electromyography (EMG) machine (a machine that tests muscle response to stimulus) and you were to step backwards and forwards hundreds of times or perform another movement that you are very good at hundreds of times what you would see on the EMG is that every single one of those movements produces a slightly different response. NO TWO MOVEMENTS ARE THE SAME! That is the reason why you can get hurt doing things that you’ve done thousands of times before.
If you increase your range of motion and then strengthen your joints and tissues throughout those range of motions aka improving your mobility you are giving your brain more options to chose from leading to a higher success rate when creating movement and a lower risk of injury. You are also prepared for ranges you might go into when you go for a hike, play with your kids, fall, and/or help your friend move furniture. Life isn’t perfect and neither is movement so always remember the importance of training for variability because failure to prepare is preparation for failure.
