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In general I agree that compound movements are the best, but in my personal experience most people have postural weaknesses and habitual movement patterns that

In general I agree that compound movements are the best, but in my personal experience most people have postural weaknesses and habitual movement patterns that they just might not be aware of that even compound movements have a hard time addressing. When you start exercising your body may overcompensate for these weaknesses by recruiting muscles that might be less than ideal for the movement, which can lead to injury (which happened in my case). For me personally, one of those postural imbalances turned into an injury (shoulder), and I found doing exercises that targeted a very specific muscle (infraspinatus) really helped in my recovery. I think everyone could benefit from spending some time exploring their body by targeting muscles that may be easy to ignore in larger compound movements, if only for bringing awareness to them (which should benefit the main movements in the long run by making them more efficient).

deleted 6y ago
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sharadov 6y ago
I agree about posture, see too many people with postural issues, almost makes me want to tell them to go see a physical therapist/personal trainer. Body awareness, I realized is only possible if you have been athletic all your life, for most people that awareness is just not there. Yoga is great - it stresses strength, flexibility and balance. And the complex movements bring attention to those "weak" muscles. I do it once a week with weight training and it has improved my flexibility and kept me injury free.
- mtalantikite 6y ago
  Absolutely, once you start working on your own postural issues you start noticing it in everyone around you as well. I do think anyone can gain that body awareness though, it's not just for those that have been athletic all their lives. I didn't come to having a physical exercise practice until my early 30s and the amount of internal body awareness I've gained in the past few years has been amazing. It really deepened my seated meditation practice as well. Yoga definitely is great and I practice asana 5x per week. I will say that my injury came up during an asana class, though, and it wasn't until I really targeted my weak scapular muscle groups that it got better.

deleted 6y ago

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sharadov 6y ago

I agree about posture, see too many people with postural issues, almost makes me want to tell them to go see a physical therapist/personal trainer. Body awareness, I realized is only possible if you have been athletic all your life, for most people that awareness is just not there. Yoga is great - it stresses strength, flexibility and balance. And the complex movements bring attention to those "weak" muscles. I do it once a week with weight training and it has improved my flexibility and kept me injury free.

mtalantikite 6y ago
Absolutely, once you start working on your own postural issues you start noticing it in everyone around you as well. I do think anyone can gain that body awareness though, it's not just for those that have been athletic all their lives. I didn't come to having a physical exercise practice until my early 30s and the amount of internal body awareness I've gained in the past few years has been amazing. It really deepened my seated meditation practice as well. Yoga definitely is great and I practice asana 5x per week. I will say that my injury came up during an asana class, though, and it wasn't until I really targeted my weak scapular muscle groups that it got better.