why boot camps are bad for your posture?
TRANSCRIPT
OwnerZeena Dhalla
www.sculptandshapepilates.com
Why Boot Camps are BAD for Your Posture?
We love a good workout. The burn, the sweat and the panting are all a bit miserable when you are doing it, but the after-glow and benefits are tremendous.
It’s rare that we will discourage someone from doing ANY kind of workout, except, when there is a chance the workout is wrecking your body.
After checking out some of the new boot camps on our area that tout a “brand new body”, we have determined that despite the cardiovascular benefits, a majority of these classes can actually do more harm than good.
The concept of a Boot Camp is to combine muscle strengthening work, with high intensity cardiovascular training, into one neat, low equipment workout. “Low equipment” usually means that the activities are performed with limited assistance, therefore relying on body weight to make the exercises challenging.
So what does a low equipment exercise selection in the average boot camp look like?
Every one we tried involved many exercises in the “plank” position; face down, with the hands on the ground and your whole weight loaded on your chest and shoulders.
You can expect burpees, push-ups, mountain climbers and planks to be littered throughout the workout, with little attention being paid to proper form.
What does this mean for your body?
Well let’s talk about the most detrimental postural misalignment in our society today, Kyphosis. Kyphosis occurs when the shoulders round forward bringing the head forward and affecting the curvature of the upper spine.
This posture creates tension in the neck, stress on the shoulders, and even affects the middle and lower back. The chest muscles are usually super tight, and the back muscles are very weak and under utilized. This posture is becoming more and more problematic as our society spends more and more time in front of cell phones and computers.
Now, in a Boot Camp, we take the population (of which most clients have some form of Kyphosis), and we give them a workout that emphasizes this postural problem by working the (already tight) chest muscles and shoulders.
By doing excessive planks, pushups, burpees and mountain climbers (all done in this position face down with the hands on the floor) the client is accentuating this Kyphotic posture, instead of working to counteract this “forward” posture through back strengthening and chest opening exercises.
Other workouts such as Yoga, Classical Pilates and traditional strength training using weights don’t often place the body in this face down position excessively, and these other workouts counteract today’s postural issues through proper exercise selection. Therefore we pick on Boot Camps for a reason.
Of course we encourage you to come try Vertical Pilates, where postural alignment is our number one focus. We will target the proper muscles, will balance out your postural tendencies, and help you feel stronger all over. You will get the same benefits as your local boot camp, without all the rounded shoulders.
Not convinced? Come give us a try. We promise to keep you upright!
