Say the word better to most people and they quickly visualize being better than they were yesterday. ?
When sports and fitness coaches read the word better they often think of beating a time, distance or weight. ?
However, a few sports and fitness coaches also think of that to be better they need to try harder. ?
On the other hand, when I see the word better, I think about how the system that we’re using to try to get those results needs to be better.
I’d like to share a few thoughts with you about the word better as it pertains to sports injury, especially if you want to help injuries become a thing of past for everyone you coach:
The people we coach want amazing results. That’s why they come to us as coaches. They expect us to be able to help them achieve those results but if the system we’re using is only average at best, how can we live up to our those expectations?
Take the warmup for example. Decades ago, when raising body temperature was seen as a good way to prevent injury, it was probably thought of as being groundbreaking. But now, the raising body temperature is just the bare minimum – and actually doesn’t do a great job of preventing injury.
Nowadays, we know that restricted joint movement is one of the primary causes of injury, so if we’re serious about helping the people we coach avoid injury problems, our warm up needs to be better. WE need to be better. And we CAN be better when we think of improving joint movement instead of raising heart rate.
Here’s the really cool thing that helps every sports or fitness coach deliver better results: ALL movement raises heart rate and body temperature – why not use it to improve joint movement at the same time?.
You can even make this a reality right now! Simply stop calling it “warming up”. Changing the name of the pre-workout preparation gets you out of the old school thinking and into a whole new mindset. It doesn’t need to be complex either… something like “exercise preparation” is perfect.
Oh, and if you want to see EXACTLY how this works on a practical level, take a peek at my excellent new video – Mobility vs Injury Hacking – at https://youtu.be/ihsXkF1_TzU right now.