When I was in college, a local fitness company had created an ad and put it on a billboard over a major thoroughfare. Apparently, by saying “when the aliens come… they’ll eat the fat ones first” you can create a memorable slogan, but also offend a great many. It was somehow fat shaming people, before fat shaming was a thing. I always thought it was a creative way to attract people who were interested in working out by making light of a condition that made folks unhappy. As it turns out, like often happens, the controversy created more buzz than the ad ever could have produced on its own.
And….With the U.S. government admitting the existence of UFO’s, and the increased possibility that other worldly visitors might be indeed coming for a visit, it seems like we might actually get a real life answer to the controversial ad from so many years ago.
While people in pain come in all shapes and sizes, it seems like body image issues are never put on hold. A simple browse through Instagram accounts of lifestyle influencers, or fitness and health professionals, will show an unrealistic glance at some of the prettiest people in the world. Most of us would like to look fit, would like to have abs, or a strong core, or whatever. But reality seems to be a bit different than what shows up in the average post of the fitness model. And it’s ok to aspire to something. It’s ok to want to lose weight and get fit. In the world of COVID, excessive weight, diabetes, high blood pressure,…etc, are co-morbidities when dealing with a COVID infection. Basically all of the things we improve with better fitness levels, can not only improve our lives, but can save our lives from COVID, and the aliens.
A typical instagram influencer looks like...
Reality for the rest of us is a bit more like this...
Here’s the thing. Fitness can be improved with exercise, we all know that. Your pain can also be improved with exercise. And too many clients feel they can’t exercise until their pain is better. The fact is, your pain is addressed by corrective exercises. These are exercises that put you in balance and allow you to move free of pain. The client free of pain is also free to continue exercising in all kinds of ways to improve their overall fitness. The simple answer to achieving the results you want is to begin. The type of exercise matters, to be sure. But, nothing will change until you decide to begin. And it really shouldn’t take us being threatened with alien carnivores for us to start a process to improve our lives.
A person with movement imbalances, with structural or postural imbalances, will improve with physical activity. And they may get sore. Soreness after an activity is a great way to start understanding your imbalances and where they exist. If you have ever done a workout or a fitness class and felt soreness in one thigh, one calf, one shoulder, or just one side of your body, and not the other, you are feeling your imbalance. And just like with any problem, admitting you have one is the first step in correcting it.
One of the great ways to use corrective exercises, is to perform them before doing a workout or class. We call this a “Pre” or “pre workout routine”. If the pre is the right thing for you to do, you won’t feel the pain caused by your workout. The soreness will diminish or even disappear. This happens because you go into your workout with more overall balance, and you feel less soreness from the workout and make stronger gains.
Try it the next time you show up to a spin class or do a HIIT workout. Or try it the next time you play golf or tennis with your friends. Do your corrective exercises before the workout, and feel the difference. Once you know a workout won’t make you sore…maybe it’ll be more fun and you won’t have to worry about the aliens eating you at all.