Stop Multi-tasking in the Gym and You Will Achieve More in Less Time
I am sure you have once heard the phrase that “women are better at multi-tasking than men”
And “you need to multi-task to get more work done during the day”
It seems like an obvious statement that if you can do more things at once you will be better off.
But is the quality of work just as good when you are multi-tasking?
Through my own experience…I can tell you that it is not at all.
And various studies have shown that multi-tasking is actually significantly detrimental to your IQ, productivity and quality of work because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time (see articles here and here)
The only exception to this is when the tasks you are trying to do are mindless and requires no mental effort.
Think about when you first learnt to drive, it was probably a very stressful time for you. You had to concentrate so much on the road, and how you were going to control the car, that you didn’t want to think about holding a conversation with your instructor.
Compare that to now where driving has probably become so automatic that it is easy to perform other tasks such as having a conversation with the passenger.
However, when you are trying to do a task that challenging and/or requires a lot of thinking, it is impossible to perform another task and still maintain the same level of concentration and performance.
Try to hold a deep thought in your head and listen/talk to someone at the same time
It simply doesn’t work and the person you are talking to can detect that you are distracted.
This leads me to the main point of this article…
Functional Training is Exactly like Multi-Tasking.
For those that don’t know, functional training has been a popular form of training of late.
According to a web definition: “Functional training exercises train your muscles to work together and prepare them for daily tasks by simulating common movements you might do at home, at work or in sports. While using various muscles in the upper and lower body at the same time, functional fitness exercises also emphasize core stability.”
Thus, by its definition, functional training is multi-tasking exercise for the brain and body.
When you have a lot of difficultly feeling a certain muscle, you don’t want to make it even harder by having to concentrate on balancing, contracting other muscles or performing a difficult movement.
It is true that in sport, for example, you are multi-tasking but that is just part and parcel of playing the sport…you are running whilst dribbling with the ball, you are running whilst trying to aim and throw the ball, etc.
It doesn’t mean that you have to multi-task to prepare yourself for the sport or activity (although you will have to at some point). It is first necessary to get good at doing one thing at a time, if you want to participate.
If you had the chance, during the game, to stop running (i.e. reduce the number of things you had to do), then aim and then throw, your accuracy would most likely be significantly improved.
Of course, if all you care about is “just playing the sport” then that is fine. But if you want to improve at the sport, avoid injury and get stronger it is absolutely not.
Isolation Doesn’t Exist
First of all, no matter what you do, it is impossible to completely isolate a muscle.
Muscles are always working together regardless of whether you are doing a leg extension or a squat.
And so, when the definition above talks about “muscles working together”, every exercise does this!
In single joint exercises (traditionally called “isolated” exercises), other muscles are providing a stabilizing function to keep things still and so there is no such thing as isolation!
As the Exercise Involves More “Tasks” You Are More Likely to Compensate
The idea with functional training is that you are trying to strengthen yourself by performing everyday movements and hit as many areas as possible in one go.
For example, a single arm standing cable chest press, which requires a lot of balance to maintain the position, a Swiss ball crunch and even the classic squat or deadlift.
The trouble is, as the exercises becomes more complicated, the skill required to perform them greatly increases and all the pieces (joints, muscles, body awareness, etc.) have to be working optimally to perform it correctly (yes, a squat and deadlift are complicated exercises).
If you don’t have either one of these things, you will inevitably compensate (i.e. use things you don’t want to use to lift the weight or perform the movement)
Compensation is any uncontrolled movement
When you don’t have control, injury and dysfunction will eventually happen especially if you use heavy loads.
The best approach is to practise the skill of the exercise with low weight, so you don’t have to worry about controlling it, until you have mastered it.
You can then separately work on optimizing muscle tension (i.e. how well you can contract a muscle) and muscle strength with single joint exercises where the skill level, in terms of movement, is very low so that you can really focus on the specific area.
To Become More “Functional” you need to Increase Muscle Strength and Improve the Muscles Ability to Shorten (contract)
When we are talking about “function”, we are really talking muscle function.
Muscles are designed to contract (i.e. shorten) to control the position of joints (they are not designed to stretch).
Virtually all the muscles we are concerned with growing, and strengthening, are voluntary muscles, i.e. we tell them to contract through conscious action.
What we are really concerned with is being able to activate a localized group of muscles and make them as strong as possible throughout as much of its range of motion as possible so that it will grow and withstand any force you might apply to it.
It goes without saying that, if you try to get strong at a number of things at once, you reduce your ability to get really strong at that one thing.
It is like a sportsman try to get good at multiple sports such as football, tennis, squash, ruby, hockey, etc. If you try to get good at all those sports at once you will never be really, really good at one of them (unless you are exceptionally gifted).
The stronger a muscle is the greater the forces it will be able to withstand in everyday life and thus the greater the function of the muscle.
When the Sensation is Not There You Have to Reduce the Skill
If you have trouble activating or feeling a specific region of muscles, you have to concentrate on it!
You have to use a lot of intention. It cannot be mindless.
You cannot concentrate on anything else, like contracting other muscles, balancing or the skill of a movement (such as a squat or deadlift) or even talking (i.e. you cannot multi-task!)
Muscle sensation is vital for muscle growth, strength and joint health.
And so, if you are doing a standing cable chest press because it is more “functional” but you can’t feel your chest and your using everything to try and move the weight, how “functional” is that?
When you are starting out, it is usually difficult to contract and feel specific muscles
And so how are you going to perform an exercise that requires you to control your body in so many ways if you can’t even consciously contract the muscle(s) you are targeting?!
At first you have to reduce the “skill” of the exercise and focus as much as possible on what muscles are designed to do which is contract.
As soon as you have to start balancing, your ability to contract specific areas, consciously, goes out of the window (unless you are very good at balancing).
The more things you have to control the more your ability to generate force with those muscles goes out of the window because there is no support.
Support is Vital for Optimizing Strength and Contraction
I am sure you have heard of the phrase “you cannot shoot a cannon from a canoe”
It is because there is no support.
This is a fact of Newton’s third law which states “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
When it comes to strengthening muscles, support is vital.
Without support you will compensate; you will cheat (maybe without knowing), and you will generate reduced muscle output.
You are also more likely to strengthen strong muscles rather than strengthen weak ones, and so your compensations will be reinforced.
Without support it is very difficult to fully shorten a muscle because your ability to do so is dependant on how well you can keep everything else completely still.
When you are concerned with keeping everything else still, it is harder to use loads challenging enough for the muscle you are trying to target.
When multi-tasking like this your output of individual tasks will drop compared to solely focusing on that specific task without trying to do anything else.
Do you think you will have better accuracy at firing a bullet at a target whilst standing on bosu ball (a large half ball) or standing on a stable surface?
The Moral of the Story
It is always better to do one thing incredibly well than two or three things reasonably well
When you do one thing incredibly well, you will unlikely have to repeat it to produce the desired effect.
One really good set is way better than four or five poorly executed, uncontrolled sets, which doesn’t target anything specific. It will also substantially reduce your chance of injury.
And so, you can move onto the next exercise and complete your workout faster, more effectively and more efficiently
And that is what Body Engineers do!
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