Do you want to get stronger but are afraid of getting injured?
If so, you’re not alone.
“I’m getting weaker. How can I build strength without hurting myself?”
“I just read an article about how important strength training is for peri and postmenopausal women. I want to strength-train, but I don’t want to hurt my back again.”
“I know we all need strength building, and it’s hard to know where to restart as many of us are coming back from injuries, especially pelvic floor.”
I’ve been hearing worries like the ones above a lot lately.
Concerns like these are why I love alignment work and why I dedicated myself to becoming an alignment-based restorative exercise specialist.
What’s so special about alignment?
Many of us have unconscious compensation patterns in our bodies.
These patterns can lead to back pain, knee injuries, pelvic floor issues, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and neck/jaw tension, to name a few.
Have you ever caught yourself holding your shoulders up for no reason?
That’s an example of a compensation pattern that creates neck, shoulder, and jaw tension.
Holding your shoulders up when you don’t need to for things like using your phone, watching T.V., or going for a walk creates chronic tension in the neck.
(I built a 14-year-hairstyling career with this painful compensation pattern!)
When you take this lifted-shoulders-pattern into push-ups or weightlifting, you’re strengthening it in your body, making your neck tight and bypassing other vital muscles.
Alignment exposes compensation patterns like lifted shoulders so you can finally strengthen weak spots, stretch tight spots, and increase flexibility safely.
When you incorporate alignment into your exercise, magic starts to happen:
- You get stronger faster because you’re finally strengthening hard-to-reach areas that have been bypassed forever.
- Aches and pains dissolve because you’re addressing weak spots, which helps to relieve overused parts. (It’s often overused parts of the body that hurt!)
- Areas you’ve long given up on start to tone up because your muscles respond to finally being used.
In today’s video, I’ll show you how to align a popular strength-building exercise called the side plank.
You’ll learn to strengthen your arms, deep shoulder muscles, and waist while staying out of your neck.
After you give it a try, I’d love to hear how it feels. Please share your experience in the comments below.
Here’s to building aligned strength,
Sydney
P.S. If you're ready to get serious about safely building more strength and flexibility so you can stay active doing the things in your life you love to do, I encourage you to join my online alignment studio, Pilates Tonic Online.
Registration is opening soon, so stay tuned for more details!
