Don’t Be Afraid to Truly Rest
We’ve all heard how important consistency is. We all know how valuable doing just a little bit every day can be. Over time, the little actions add up. This is…
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Last Updated: December 18th, 2024 at 11:27 pm
Have you ever tried modifying an exercise to avoid pain? You try an exercise and unfortunately discover that it hurts in some way.
You try doing it a little differently, changing a detail to make it not hurt, or maybe switch exercises all together. You find that winning movement which doesn’t cause pain but now there is a new problem…it’s too easy…
You’ve gone from not being able to do an exercise because it hurts to now doing an exercise that is way too easy and feels like it’s not doing anything.
Whenever I’m working with a patient and we find ourselves in this position, I always love modifying the variable of time under tension to make the exercise harder without increasing pain.
“Time under tension” is exactly what it sounds like. The amount of time your muscles are under tension while performing the exercise. You increase time under tension by going slower during an exercise. You keep the movement the same, the weight the same, and the form the same. But you make it harder by increasing time under tension Go slowly and increase time under tension For example, you could probably do a bodyweight squat in 1 second. If you did 10 bodyweight squats, it would take about 10 seconds and would be pretty easy.
Now if you took those same exact bodyweight squats and made it take 5 seconds to go down, held it for a second at the bottom, and then made it take 5 seconds to go all the way back up, now each squat takes 11 seconds.
10 squats taking 11 seconds each would yield a set of squats that takes 110 seconds. That’s a lot longer and a more difficult way of performing the squats.
Increasing time under tension can be that one hidden variable you didn’t know you could change to make an easy exercise an effective one. Give it a try next time you find yourself doing an exercise that is too easy.If you’ve struggled with an ache or pain and haven’t known how to get rid of it, we should talk. There are a myriad of different variables that can be addressed to get you working back up to where you want to be.
Click the button below to schedule a free 15-20 minute discovery phone call with me. Over the phone we’ll chat about your problem and see if we’re a good fit to work together.
Your best is yet to come!
-Dr. Michael
