5 Coaching Cues To Improve Your Home Workouts

More and more people are working out @ home.  Here's 5 coaching cues to keep you moving safely.

At-Home workouts are great for keeping us healthy and active outside the gym.  However, it's important to use good form; not just to get the best results but to prevent injury.  This can be hard for beginners or those that have never been coached before.

One of the ways we guide our clients through new exercises is with coaching cues.  Coaching  cues help create awareness to movement. They help people be more mindful of what they’re doing and present exercises in a way that fosters success.

Using external coaching cues in particular helps remove the guess work from performing exercises without their coaches.  Why? ... internal cues focus on the body movement, while external cues focus on the the outcome.  

For example:
* Internal Cues = Drive feet through ground / Explode through hips
* External Cues =  Push the ground away / Touch the sky

Here are 5 Coaching External Cues guaranteed to give you better results and help prevent injury.

1.  Chin to your spine - When performing planks or push-ups, it's important to keep your entire body aligned; from the top of your head to your tailbone.  Without drawing in your chin, you can create added stress to your neck and lower back. 

HOW: While in plank or push-up position, keep your gaze down between you hands and draw your chin in towards your spine while performing exercise

2.  Prepare to take a punch - It's important to keep your abs engaged while performing exercises to protect your back and better isolate muscles being worked. 

HOW: Prior to starting an exercise, tighten your stomach and pretend that someone is about to punch you. Keep core engaged as you perform your exercise.

3.  Push your ankles out - Without correct activation and alignment throughout the feet, ankles and toes, it’s impossible to perform any lower body exercise correctly.

​HOW: Place feet straight (equal sign), with no internal or external rotation whatsoever.  Push ankles out (slightly supinated) by placing more weight to the outside of their feet.  Press the base of the big toe into the floor to ensure you're not over-supinating and toe muscles are engaged.

4.  Show off your bUTT  - Being able to hinge at the hip is essential for movements not just in fitness but in life. Starting with the correct hip flexion takes the load off the spine and knees.  The glutes are the largest muscle group and using them properly can save you from a lifetime of orthopedic issues.  

​HOW:  For a squat, stand with your feet slightly wider than your hips. Your toes should be pointed slightly outward (~5 to 20 degrees outward). Find a spot to look at ahead of you. Engage your cores, flex at your hips, show off your butt and drop it towards your heels.

5.  Put your shoulder blades in your pocket - Lots of people hold tension in their traps and neck.  As a result, people tend the shoulders to the ears when they get tired.  Sitting all day can lead to poor posture — and you don’t want to further encourage that at the gym.  It also helps prevent injury by allowing  the shoulder joint and thoracic spine to move more freely.

HOW: While keeping your ribs anchored to your pelvis in the front, roll your shoulders up, back and your scapula down as if you were putting them in your pockets.