Compensations, inevitable in life, in exercise, in sport. But in the gym or our exercise classes – the last thing we want to be doing is cranking through these compensations. This will diminish range of motion at the joints quickly, make tissue feel tight and stiff and see our overall movement/mobility negatively impacted!
Now if you’ve ever worked with me or seen me on the gym floor – I will talk a lot about internal rotation throughout the body. Let’s simplify what this is – as all these compensations that we see are due to a lack of internal rotation.
Internal rotation is simply being able to produce force into the ground (to resist gravity) and the ability to absorb force. It’s simply bones and joints (focus just on the white structures) that rotate, move, bend towards the midline of body (hence the internal word). If we cannot create those shape changes, movements, rotations towards the midline of body… then the body will find other ways to do it. This is referred to as a compensation for lack of internal rotation
The most common compensations to look out for:
1. Hip hikes up. When we step up onto a box, descent into a lunge or split squat, you’ll see normally towards bottom phase the hip hike up. You’ve run out of space and motion here completely!
2. Low back extends and arches. See this far too often. When someone runs out of hip extension, pressing motions, rowing, long planks, I could go on.
3. Shoulder rounds forward. Normally when someone rows a weight past their range of motion. Or when pressing – coming far too low with the elbows.
4. The kyphosis’ tenting. This is a chest bone that is being pulled and compressed by the ‘6 pack muscle’. In the mirror you’ll see a ‘hunch-back’ presentation. Your chest wall will be compressing. I personally wouldn’t ever programme the standard crunch sit-up for people because of this reason.
5. Rolling on outside of foot, or dumping foot inwards. No one even thinks about the feet and their contact points on the ground when they train. It’s so concerning.
6. Dumping the knee inwards, known as a valgus knee or ‘knock-knee’. Can’t produce internal rotation so will dump the foot and knee inwards excessively.
The bottom line is that everyone should be coming to the gym to strength train, but strength train with as few compensations as possible! Right now you’ll be doing the opposite.
By removing some gravity initially, you will be able to achieve more internal rotation and therefore see less compensations. I use resistance bands or cables when doing tough leg exercises. I use the wall for people to lean on when loading the lower body. I utilise ramps, play around with ranges of motion – meaning make the row, press or squat slightly less and the step-ups smaller/lower.
Remove some gravity, make the body lighter initially to lock in some internal rotation and you’ll really start to improve movement, mobility and diminish pain as well as getting the all-important strength workout in!
Your programme or session should follow this blueprint:
1. Improve range of motion, create the shape changes at the joints that are missing with a very low amount of gravitational force (close to floor, using walls, cables, bands, TRX, etc). Compensations should be virtually zero.
2. Maintain or improve range of motion as you strength train against more gravity. But make sure compensations are as minimal as possible.
3. Maintain or improve range of motion as you strength train with full gravity. You can then even increase gravity or make the body heavier by adding more weights. Again make sure compensations are as minimal as possible.
Remember, if you’re not testing after each exercise or each session, how do you know that you’re not making your mobility much worse?