How to Choose the Right Exercises

So, I was talking with a new client the other day.  We had just finished screening and were talking about goals.  Then we started working on what exercises to choose for her new program.  She brought up how she's always had a strained relationship with exercise mainly because there are just so many of them.

 This got me thinking about an old job I had as an HVAC tech.  Some of the units I use to work on were pretty old.  You'd open these things up and there'd be a ton of wires in there, pretty intimidating.

 I remember early on, talking to my dad who is an electrician.  Something he said stuck with me.  "Even though there's a ton of wires in there, there's only three you gotta worry about.  The one that’s going to fix it.  The one that's going to f' it up.  And the one that's going to f' you up."

 So how does this apply to training? More specifically exercise selection.  We're looking for three things when we go through the screens.  The "fixer" which is your main goal.  The one thing we're trying to accomplish during this cycle of your training.  

 Number two is usually people who are new to exercise.  "The one that will f' it up", is that one exercise that you just absolutely hate doing that will put you off from ever wanting to exercise again.

 The third is avoiding the one that's going to f' you up.  How do we find this one?  That's why we run the Functional Movement Screen.  I take a look at your movement baselines and see where you're at movement wise.  To see what movements your ready for, and to see which movements we should avoid or work to improve.