Strength Training for the Perpetually Clumsy

August 17, 2022 5:06 PM

I might as well be a brain in a jar— I have terrible proprioception and I'm hypermobile! What are good strength training resources for learning to target specific muscles while not overextending my range of motion?

I need really frank tips that describe what's going on like "when doing a hammer curl, tighten your core, keep your wrists straight and your upper arms stationary, and don't let your elbows slide back" because I do not have an intuitive sense of where my body is in space or what's being activated. Even when I look in a mirror I don't really "get it" without a lot of prompting. My sense of form is so poor!

Something that combines verbal descriptions with images and literal pointing would be great. Open to tiktoks, books, paid apps, any resource you think is helpful. Bodyweight or weights. Thanks!

(And yes— I've been seeing a PT and she's very helpful, but I've reached the end of my budget. So I need to continue this good work on my own!)

posted by lloquat to Health & Fitness (15 answers total)

Yes! I had this exact same frustration with PT - felt like I was just going through the motions with no real improvement / targeted muscle activation.

You need to improve your interoception. Google around for ideas how. Here’s one example.

I repeat myself a lot here, but, meditation really helped me, but most specifically “awareness of awareness” meditation. Layman’s / Beginners instructions: cultivate the ability to be aware without that incessantly internal narration; to experience any object (feeling, sight, self) more directly. Just Be Present, Quietly. For example, look at a Tree, and keep pushing your awareness further to experience the “treeness” of the tree. Be with the tree without thinking of it. Your mind will want to “pop up” back to thought but keep it in the nonverbal felt sense. It will feel kind of like keeping an internal balance, hence, traditional balance exercises help with this too - you can’t “think” your way into balance, you do it or you don’t and it’s done by feel. Google around for balance exercises but easiest is just walking on a balance beam. But really feel it. Good luck!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 6:50 PM on August 17, 2022

I'm on the autism spectrum and naturally quite clumsy with bad proprioception. I'm lucky my parents put me in sports as a kid because I probably would have been far worse without the practice. I've found Pilates with a good instructor to be very helpful. It's hard to explain what good means but for me it boils down to great cueing about what muscles to use when. Most of my instruction is in person but I like Move With Nicole on YouTube.
posted by dazedandconfused at 7:02 PM on August 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

You should absolutely check out Liftoff, it's the most beginner friendly way to start weight lifting. You literally start with a broom handle to learn the form and then build up from there step-by-step. There are verbal descriptions of everything as well as videos. If you join the Discord there's a channel where you can post videos of your lifts to get tips, everyone is super nice! In general, taking a video of your lift rather than looking in the mirror will be more helpful. Casey also has written a lot of great articles, including about proprioception and body awareness. You can read the archives here.

The previous commenter is correct that you can improve your body awareness/proprioception with practice and time. If you're interested in meditation I'd start with some Body Scan guided meditations, there are some on Apple Music or various places. Walking meditation might also be good, it even improves your balance! Walking in super super slow motion is way harder than it seems.
posted by 100kb at 7:05 PM on August 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

This is sort of orthogonal to what you’re asking, so I’m not sure if it’s helpful, but I’ve found climbing at an indoor bouldering gym to be enormously helpful in developing my sense of where my body is in space. I’m not very good at it, but just the process of having to shift my weight and flex my limbs in a certain order to keep my balance as I reach for the next hold has reshaped my brain in a pretty remarkable way that I didn’t expect when I started.
posted by mekily at 7:16 PM on August 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

I wonder if any of the gentler forms of martial arts would be helpful here. Having a partner whose body weight you must manipulate may help by providing tactile feedback that’s missing when you are working alone in a mirror. Good instructors will correct your form with precision.
posted by hovey at 7:50 PM on August 17, 2022

If you can afford it, hiring a personal trainer, even if only for a few sessions, may be helpful. They can teach you the correct forms and then watch you do them and give individualized corrections to make sure you're targeting the right muscles and not hyperextending.
posted by Nickel at 8:32 PM on August 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm a fan of Liftoff too, but the way I accomplished this -- starting off very fat, in my early 50s -- was to join a small local gym that was fanatical about coaching support. They made me feel like one of the gang from day 1...and three years later (including time spent working out at home during quarantine) I am deadlifting 135 pounds and squatting and chest pressing heavy weights and I can hardly believe it and I LOVE IT.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:00 PM on August 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

This video by a PT specializing in Ehlers Danlos syndrome offers amazing insights into approaching exercise (and proprioception) - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7OPiIszdAN4

In it, he mentions that focusing attention on what you want to do, vs what you’re not supposed to do, tends to lead to better results.

The right verbal cues/metaphors matter tons - it’s hard to get at good form by merely imitating an action after observing someone else do it, very easy to see/do the wrong thing.

I’ve not found a single particular instructor or PT to consistently offer cues that work for me. I’ve had to collect phrases, images, and explanations across many resources. Like for abdominal bracing, the word that finally made it click for me was “stiffening” your abs (not far away from making them “rigid”, very far away from “sucking it in” [really wrong]), which came from Dr Stuart McGill’s Back Mechanic. For scapular contractions, I think it was someone on Reddit had posted a video referencing squeezing “back and down”, or “putting your shoulder blades in your pockets” vs “squeezing them together”. Just need a really clear image to focus attention in the right way.

But what works for me might not work for you, so I think it’s a matter of doing a search for specific movements you find tricky. (Post questions on fitness forums asking for the best cues for those movements.)
posted by cotton dress sock at 10:17 PM on August 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

This is not exactly what you're looking for, but as someone with EDS who has really struggled with this (also bonus ADHD, which makes me extra clumsy - I'm forever riddled with black and blue marks from EDS making me bruise easily, and poor proprioception leading to me bashing myself against every surface imaginable):

I've found wearing very supportive compression tights plus compression arm sleeves while doing my workouts (and also going about my day to day life) has really helped with this. The compression obviously helps provide some stability to my joints, but mostly, it makes it so much easier for me to keep in touch with where my body is in space.

I'm particularly a fan of CW-X compression tights. They have extra support built into the hips and lower back that is super helpful for me. (The endurance generator is most supportive and the one I use). For arms, I get Juzo arm sleeves, which I bought from here.

CW-X also used to make a fitted T shirt that helped me keep my posture of my upper body in better shape. Very sadly, they stopped making them awhile back - I basically bought all of the ones I can find once I found out they weren't making any other ones.

I sort of think of this as my "exoskeleton" when I have the leggings, top, and arm bands on. Although these days, I mainly stick with my medical compression tights, and then throw on the leggings when i am having particular trouble. But that's after a long time of doing PT and building proprioception.

Also, I like experimenting with new PT exercises in the pool. The water can help me focus on where my limbs are in space, but mostly, it's harder to injure myself in the pool. I mean, I definitely can hurt myself, but it's a bit safer.
posted by litera scripta manet at 5:18 AM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wonder if any of the gentler forms of martial arts would be helpful here.

I haven't tried this personally, but I've seen Tai Chi recommended by a number of EDS experts who I respect. I just don't have the patience for it, myself.

Also, if you aren't familiar with the Muldowney PT protocol (living life to the fullest with EDS by Muldowney), you may want to check that out. You're technically supposed to go through the protocol with a PT overseeing you, but I didn't, because by then my PT/insurance had kicked me out after many, many months of PT.
posted by litera scripta manet at 5:20 AM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I don't think you could do much better than Jeannie di Bon!
posted by iamkimiam at 3:17 PM on August 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was also going to tangentially suggest bouldering as well. Just don't drop down onto the mats when you reach the top, great way to sprain all sorts of things. Work your way down backwards, like it's an extension of the route.
posted by yeahlikethat at 4:20 PM on August 18, 2022

My advice is to go for Physical Therapy that is specifically focused on Pelvic Floor. Regardless of your sex organs, your pelvic floor health has profound effects on the entire rest of your body.

I literally had no idea how to "engage my core" until I had been doing the PT work for a few weeks, We literally started with breathing, and graduated next to moving my legs while breathing.

The benefits of this have been so huge for me. I am significantly less clumsy and more confident. When I took a pair of shoes that I have loved but always been uncomfortable wearing to PT two weeks ago, I was able to just walk around in them with no trouble. (physical therapist did suggest two bonus exercises to continue strengthening and stabilizing my ankles and knees)

In previous bouts of physical therapy that were just focused on "ankles" or "shoulder" I think I wasn't successful because I had never laid the groundwork for feeling connected to my body because I literally didn't understand how anything worked together.
posted by bilabial at 3:06 PM on August 19, 2022

Oh! I am also hypermobile! Strengthening my awareness of where I am, AND strengthening the muscles around my joints have helped tremendously. (I realize PT is extremely expensive. Insurance may cover more sessions if you get a new diagnosis, and there are many diagnoses that qualify a person for pelvic floor pt, these include things like urinary incontinence, difficulty with pooping, pain with sex, or just pain in the pelvic region are all things that might qualify)
posted by bilabial at 3:10 PM on August 19, 2022

I enjoy using the weight machines at my Y instead of the weights (which I used to prefer), and I think they'd be helpful for you: it's harder to do things wrong with them.

I pair them with the Strong app, which has little animated illustrations of a lot of the exercises. And the machines have illustrations showing which muscles are supposed to be getting the most benefit, so I can look at them and then think about those particular muscles while doing that particular lift / push / etc.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:35 AM on August 20, 2022