Being able to identify motor pattern dysfunction can accelerate your success as a personal trainer. When you recognize typical dysfunctions, you can create programs designed to reverse them.
During any movement, your body is continuously integrating strength, mobility, and balance. The stronger the muscles, the more control they have over the movements. Although training the muscles around a joint helps to improve its stability and overall balance, poor reflexes can cause havoc in movement and strength. Instability due to poor reflexes and balance can hinder the total amount of force produced during movements.
Balancing is a complex skill that we learn as infants, master as young adults, and lose as we age. Older adults aren’t the only people to struggle with this however. Pregnancy, weight changes, injuries, and inhibited neural motor responses can all negatively affect balance. Individuals with poor balance will often develop a sub-optimal gait to compensate, which then leads to further motor pattern dysfunction.
Balance exercises improve your ability to control and stabilize your body’s position. A critical predictor for longevity is marked by the time that a person can stand on one leg. Balance training combines muscle strengthening exercises and reflexive activities within functional movements.
Want to know more and get some drills you can use in your next personal training session or group fitness class? Read all about it here.
