Training Clients with Low Body Awareness

As much as I would love to say all my clients are rock stars and can pick up on everything I say almost telepathically, there’s always going to be those who just can’t figure it out. I have clients who have worked with me for years and are still trying to master the basic movements, like a squat, lunge or pushup.

It’s not that they’re not trying or that I’m a crappy coach/trainer, but some people just learn motor skills slower than others. This is not to say that they lack effort or best intentions at all, quite the opposite. But much how I’m probably never going to be the team captain of the Math-lympics team anytime soon, some people just aren’t able to put their hips and knees in the right places even with the most dedicated of coaching.

The gym can be a confusing place at the best of time. A squat and deadlift are very similar in a lot of regards, but where a squat involves almost equal flexion of the knee and hips, a deadlift involves a 2:1 or even a 3:1 ratio of hip flexion to knee flexion, all while trying to keep the spine from flexing forward, shoulders from rounding, eyes from looking at the floor. neck packed, breathe FOR THE LOVE OF GOD BREATHE, relax and have fun all at the same time.

While some clients may come in and attack every movement with the vigour and intensity of a spider monkey eating an apple, there’s those who wind up struggling to connect the dots and pretty much have to do a full system re-set after each rep. Repositioning their feet, knees, hips, shoulders, head, etc etc etc in order to not wind up snapping a disc or something like that is the norm and not the exception.

I’ll be honest, if a coach says they can get great results from an elite athlete with no history of injuries, it’s not that impressive. You’re dealing with people who are designed to see positive adaptation in pretty much everything they do. Show me the coach who could train the person with low body awareness and a history of low back pain and I’ll give that sumbitch a slow clap like no other.

Now, training a client with low body awareness can be frustrating for some. They use every trick in the book, cue like no one’s business, and try to manually position their clients to get the best idea of where and what they should be feeling/doing, and then regress and regress as much as possible to find a place where the client can be successful. Then it all goes out the window on the second rep. Some trainers will take it on themselves, saying they aren’t teaching appropriately, others will yell at their clients because they aren’t learning the exercise properly. So what if there’s 50 conditions to the movement? They should know it today!!!

Perhaps it’s just not the right activity for them to be doing. From my experience, people who tend to have low body awareness tend to excel in other activities. Maybe there’s something to whether they’re predominantly right-brained thinkers versus left-brained thinkers. In any regard, there’s always going to be some tasks that some people just can’t do. Some of the athletes I’ve worked with who have really low body awareness are swimmers (at least on dry land), distance runners, and highly creative individuals who’ve never been involved in dance.

Take me for instance. I can’t dance. Like, at all. I grew up mountain biking, playing basketball, football, wrestling, and anything else I could get my hands on (except hockey. I know, a Canadian who never learned how to skate. Shut up). I do the sixth grade side-to-side slide like no one’s business, but beyond that, I’ve got all the moves of a rusty door hinge. This is about the extent of my sweet dance moves.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qMj9NHsBVo’]

The good thing is I also have sweet bowstaff skills, hunting/gathering skills, attic insulation skills, and turtling-in-the-corner-during-a-vicious-beatdown skills to fall back on when the time is right.

Now while I can’t figure out the dance moves beyond the two-step shown above, I can drop it like it’s hot and hit some sweet hip mobility movements to make all the ladies look.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WVU5cfLRiM’]

Following a workout program that involves more than 2 steps can pretty much make me wind up in the corner in a fetal position, whereas if it involves only one or two moving sections, or remaining epically still like in a plank, I can rock that shiz like a boss.

Conversely, take someone with low(er) body awareness and have them simply try to maintain a half kneeling position, and they’ll wind up doing an interpretive dance routine just trying to maintain their balance and figure out their foot and leg position, or they’ll wind up face planting it a few times, so that wouldn’t be the best option for them.

The goal is always to get clients to improve from their current level with the appropriate addition of stress that’s enough to see adaptation, but not so much as to see guarding or failure.

Exercises that show the greatest success rate are the ones that involve little technique, have definitive end goals, and that require minimal adjustments with technique. A movement like a squat can be very technical, from the weight shift positioning in the feet, to knee angles, hip movements, upper back positioning, adequate depth, etc, whereas something like a sled drag still works the muscles and it’s tough to mess up.

Like wise a pushup can be messed up or over-coached, but it’s tough to screw up something like the incredibly technically named movement “lay down, stand up,” which is the first two steps of a burpee, just missing the jump at the end. Loaded carries, sled push-pull variations, and machine based movements all work really well, as do ballistic movements like throws. You could also do some of this as well.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_KHh_c6Ha4&list=LLVEVIEb8t9r-GmkeANOyvAg’]

Finally, an acceptable use for the Snake Shake.

In many cases, people with low body awareness can still get a great workout, see fantastic results, and become stronger and leaner, but it may take more instruction on the part of the trainer, or switching to a completely different means of training than the trainer would prefer to use. The big take-away is to find the method of working out that gels best with them, not necessarily trying to get them to bend to your programs. You can adjust things on the fly as needed, remove variables, and get them to feel successful with the program they’re on, which will go a lot farther than trying to coach something like a deadlift or a kettlebell snatch.