Do you ever have pain in your muscles and joints when you move around?
I did… and still sometimes do!
I started my career as a Personal Trainer 20 years ago at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.
It seemed like, before we even started into their exercise programming, many of my clients reported some sort of musculoskeletal issue. Even when some clients were symptom free once we started exercising regularly somewhere down the road some muscle or joint issue seemed to develop.
I asked myself – “Was exercise creating these issues or just revealing them?”
How could something that was supposed to be good for my client’s muscles and joints be creating or exposing problems in them?
Since exercise engaged the muscles of the body I started thinking more about muscle.
Do you even think about your muscles?
Or do you take them for granted that they will always do what they are supposed to do?
What do you think about when you think of muscles?
Is there a relationship between muscle function and pain sometimes?
At the time I thought about muscles as something to exercise that would to help with body shape, fat loss, or to improve sports performance.
The number one reason why personal trainers are being hired is to use muscles for weight loss or weight management.
Since muscle is the medium via exercise for weight loss, body shaping, and improving sports performance let’s take a closer look at muscle.
Muscle (n.)- a band or bundle of fibrous tissue in a human or animal body that has the ability to contract, producing movement in or maintaining the position of parts of the body.
Aaaahhhhh… so muscles create joint motions and maintain joint positions.
This gives us some insight into determining if muscles are doing their job and that we are not taking for granted that they would always be able to move you and hold your body in a position.
So this is a clue: when you have lost some joint motion that you used to have or there is pain associated with that motion, or you can’t hold a bodily position comfortably anymore, then there might be a problem with our muscles.
You may have noticed that when our ability to move well and stay and in positions is compromised our quality of life starts to go down hill real fast!
The loss of motion or position, or pain when you are moving, is like your car’s check engine light. The body is letting you know something is wrong. The problem could be coming from the muscular system.
As a Certified Muscle System Specialist, I identify which groups of muscles aren’t working as well as they should by assessing specific motions and positions where you have difficulty. I then initiate a series of very specific exercises in order to improve your muscles ability to move and hold you.
As muscles improve their ability to move in and out of certain positions, as well as improve their ability to maintain a position in response to an oppositional force, pain may decrease.
This reason alone could be a good enough for you to choose to start and maintain a regular exercise process. Exercising your muscles isn’t just for weight loss, body shaping, or improving sports performance. They can help you feel better!
Like the title of the blog says – Muscles: Don’t take them for granted.
Charlie Rowe joined Physicians Fitness in the fall of 2007 after spending 9 years as the Senior Personal Trainer at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. He has also worked within an outpatient Physical Therapy Clinic coordinating care with the Physical Therapist since joining Physicians Fitness. Charlie has earned the Cooper Clinic’s Certified Personal Trainer, the NSCA’s Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, the American College of Sports Medicine Certified Health Fitness Specialist, Resistance Training Specialist Master Level, and American Council on Exercise Certified Orthopedic Exercise Specialist Certifications.
