Power Positions

Commercial gyms are full of all kinds of machines - machines to work your back, arms, chest, abs, and down the line.  Over time, I have gravitated away from these machines and instead try to perform "natural" movements.  I primarily engage in whole-body free weight exercises, such as the deadlift, presses, and rows.

One of the biggest reasons to do this is injury prevention.  When you sit or lay or contort yourself to fit into a machine, your muscles are not in their natural positions.  Hence, your body applies more force to your joints and connective tissue, raising the chance of injury.

The best practice is to try to mimic movements that would naturally occur out "in the wild".  The deadlift is one of the simplest and most effective exercises there is.  You just squat down and lift the weight off the floor.  It's functional, and it involves muscles throughout the whole body.  Man (and woman) has been deadlifting for millions of years.  Yet at the commercial gym I go to, I've never seen anyone else deadlift but me.

Something else I've been working on is to put my body into "power positions".  That is, I imagine that I am performing a real, functional movement, as opposed to an artificial movement in a gym.  Let me explain.  For example, if you deadlift in a gym, you just lift the weight up and then set it down.  But if you were moving a weight in "real life", you would most likely pick it up and then do something else with it, such as carry it, pass it to someone else, or lift it up onto a ledge.  When you perform these movements in real life, you make sure your body stays in balance so you can move with the weight.  This is the feeling I strive for on lifting movements.  For deadlifts specifically, this means keeping the weight on the balls of my feet and keeping my hips over my feet.  Small changes such as this have made my lifts feel more athletic and given me greater body control.