Grease the Groove & Stay the Course

When you think of training, likely you block out an hour of time to go to the gym, sweat it out, shower, and move on with your day. While this is the norm, it isn't necessarily the best practice especially given the fact most people spend the other 23 hours of life being sedentary.

This is where the concept of grease the groove (GTG) comes in. Originally termed by StrongFirst founder Pavel Tsatsouline in his book Power to the People, GTG is where you practice a movement you seek to be stronger in multiple times a day.

The rep scheme will be low, say 5 reps, and by breaking it up throughout the day you are fresh each time so that you train your body to perform the given movement (for example push ups or pull ups) with "perfection". You will be amazed at how quickly you can gain strength and increase the number of reps you are able to perform in a single set after 2-4 weeks of GTG or how much more weight you are able to move in the given exercise of practice.

This also is extremely important when it comes to addressing compensation patterns such as forward head posture, rounded shoulders, core support, etc. This is something I have been emphasizing greatly with many of my personal training students.  When it comes to altering how your body holds itself up against gravity you are up against a formidable adversary. This is because the central nervous system (CNS) controls how your body moves, in other words the way your muscles engage to walk or to squat or to do any activity really. The thing with the CNS is that those neural pathways are ingrained making it so that if you want to change the messaging from the brain to the muscles in order to move differently you need to repeat that different way of moving a lot!
 
By utilizing GTG in your training you not only give your CNS positive input, you also are moving more throughout the day improving your glucose metabolization. This means you are expending energy more, therefore metabolizing glucose better which means keeping your weight in check. Win, win, win.

Now, the other phrase for you to keep in mind is stay the course (STC).
Be focused on the goal, do not stray. This could take some time. In regards to work with some students who are focusing on altering their posture, changing the way they walk, and building an overall stronger stance, it takes time, diligence, and perseverance. Stay the course.
Keep plugging along. If pain is involved in what you are fixing, this could take a lot of time to make positive changes especially considering the brain literally changes when it experiences a pain signal for 6 months. Imagine how altered and ingrained that pain pattern becomes if it becomes one year or two or more. The longer you have been dealing with something, the longer it will take to change. Remember thought that you can make changes. Stay the course.

What training hiccups have you come across lately in your quest to better health?
I would love to hear from you. Connect with me and let's figure out a solution!