In yesterday's blog, I wrote about the importance of being in tune with how well your muscles perform.

Today, I will look into what you can do and what you need help to do.

If you haven't read yesterday's blog, click here to read it, before you continue.

The most prominent sign of this type of lack of communication is LACK OF PROGRESS even though you work a certain exercise hard.

The second sign, more difficult to tune into, is that you can't feel an area or a muscle contracting even though you are performining an exercise that involves that area.

The muscle might feel stiff, "dead", you might fatigue after a few reps (even with no external weight).

Personally, it took me years to tune in to my system.

For years, each time I tried to perform biceps curls it felt wrong and I could not feel any contraction in my right biceps. If I just contracted the biceps without weights, I could feel some contraction, but it did not feel anything like the contraction of my left biceps.

I had what therapists refer to as a dysfunctional muscle.

For us trainers - because we have a bias for training, training is OUR tool - it is important to remember that we can't use exercise alone to improve on the dysfunction.

Dysfunctional muscles need treatment from a skilled chiropractor or physiotherapist.

In some cases these dysfunctions might be prevented by:

• Healthy eating (healthy eating might not be what you think - Read "How to Eat Move and Be Healthy" and become familiar
    with the best eating strategy for YOUR body)
• Lots of dynamic mobility exercise for the spine (Read Superjoints or Body Flow to learn what exercises to do)
• Lots of self myofascial release using a foam roller on most areas of the body.

Move With Passion,
Karsten Jensen

Note: This "grey area" of dysfunction without pain is important stuff. Personally I wasted about 10 years, with not getting stronger in the biceps. Don't do that to yourself or your clients. Learn to tune in to the performance of your muscles and then do something about it, when needed.