🔥 MOTOR CONTROL, WHAT IS IT, AND WHY ITS IMPORTANT
✳️ Motor control is the way the nervous system produces movement through a coordination of muscle contractions and co-contractions. Motor patterns are pre-programmed movements that precede the sensory feedback. some motor patterns for exercises may be inefficient or wrong causing poor exercise mechanics which may decrease the benefit of the exercise or predispose one to a higher risk of injury. This is where understanding exercise mechanics is crucial. Being able to identify a improper or inefficient motor pattern for an exercise allows you to retrain the movement with proper mechanics and replace the old motor pattern.
[wp_ad_camp_5]
⠀
✳️ Motor patterns are like habits, they can take a while to break but with time, consistency and focus they can be changed. Some common improper motor patters are the hips shooting up during deadlift and squat, or the shoulder blades protracting during bench press. While there is some contribution of strength variation between muscle groups to these movements at the root is the motor control. We know that focusing on working muscles helps increase activation (mind muscle connection) but there is more to exercise than just the prime mover so shifting internal focus to key moving joints can help with creating new movement patters.
⠀
✳️ It’s important to note that motor patterns for an exercise will vary with the intensity, higher intensity may bring out the weak link in a movement or shift internal focus to it and fixing it through stronger focus in motor control. Therefore, it’s important to work your way up through the intensity making sure the proper mechanics are maintained.
[wp_ad_camp_3]
⠀
✳️ The best way to fix a bad motor pattern is first of course to identify it and learn what the proper movement should be for your body. From there start focusing on all the key movements at the joints and repeating them with light weight or no weight at all. Then begin to put them together repeating over and over focusing on control the portion you were messing up on. Then gradually work your way up to higher intensity.
