Re-establishing Equality in Your Body

Let’s face it; for years weight lifting has qualified as the activity confined only to the “meat-heads,” “gym rats,” and the ever popular athlete. The generalizations made to those that consider the gym their sanctuary, the weights their friends, and count out reps in their head as if they were prayers, have been endless. However, weight lifting is far from being restricted to the muscle bound, but rather offer as a way to improve a person’s overall quality of health and lifestyle, and in this day and age, trying to maintain an optimum level of health in the face of an obese epidemic can be difficult. Nevertheless, the journey to increase levels of health can be a path that few tread, but still all the more satisfying when one reaches the apex of vitality.

When the term “weight lifting” comes to mind, one thinks of a prodigious, and possibly even grotesque looking man with his veins protruding all over his body; his physique is to the point that he almost looks inhuman, and he parades about the gym as if it were his own. However, this is not the case. The fact of the matter is that people, be they man or woman, of all ages can participate in weight lifting, it is just a matter of how it is approached and the methodology involved for an individual to acquire the desire results. From body-building to cross-fit, the variety of methods a person can utilize in order to become healthier encompass a broad spectrum, and since the world of fitness is constantly evolving new revolutionary ways are constantly in demand to keep up with the times. A new approach to weight lifting that is on the rise is the philosophy of “unbalanced training”; the process by which an individual engages in the typical workout scheme with weights, but has a little bit of a twist: the person is required to remain in a state of unbalance (i.e. standing on one leg, a bosu ball, or both) in order to not only train the specific muscle, but to also increase strength in areas such as the core and lower back. There are two types of muscles within the body: the mobilizer, which are the muscles that give a person the ability to move and perform tasks (i.e. quadriceps, biceps, latissimuss dorsi), and then there are the stabilzers, which are the muscles that grant the body things such as posture and hold it upright (i.e. transverse abdominis, piriformis, sternocleidomastoid). The stabilizers are often times the muscles within the body that are neglected, due to the fact that they are difficult to isolate and reside in the “inner layer” of the muscular structure of the human anatomy. Choosing to engage in unbalanced training will do a number of things: it will increase strength in the inner core of the torso, enhance balance and equilibrium, and improve kinesthesia (the body’s awareness of itself in contrast to its environment).

The unbalanced exercises are two sides of the same coin; when participating in this particular exercise, the mobilizers will be unconditioned; all the while the stabilizers will be isolated, and therefore, conditioned as well. The traditional methods of weight lifting may still prove to be effective today, there is also a means by which everyone can be active and improve their vitality.