Why focus on joints more than muscles in the gym
Written by FGF Trainer Nicholas Falkenstein
Ensure optimal range of motion in your lifts
When we view strength training in terms of joint ranges of motion, it can ensure that we are getting the most out of our efforts. Over time this makes us more aware of these ranges of motion, allowing for a more usable range of motion throughout our daily lives. This also optimizes muscle growth because the muscles are responsible for moving us through the ranges of motion. Our focus is the joints but it impacts muscular adaptation.
Nourishes the connective tissue around your joint (non-vascular tissue)
We’ve all heard that it is better to break a bone than injure a joint. That is because joints are made of non-vascular tissue. Moving our joints through their full ranges actually causes the fluid to move more effectively in the connective tissues. This helps to nourish the tissue that makes up your joints which has a hard time receiving new nutrients effectively since there is no blood supply.
Injury Prevention
Having more awareness of your joint’s capacity gives your nervous system a better map of your body and more options for movements throughout your daily life. More movement variability is key for your body to be able to choose the right movement in the moment and sometimes that decision could be needed in a split second. Also, if you do happen to get injured because it is an inevitability in life, you can bounce back from that injury more easily because joint training increases tissue tolerance to minimize the injury and you most likely will be comfortable with any homework a physical therapist gives you since physical therapy typically is focused on optimizing joint ranges of motion for function.
Self-Assessment
Moving our joints through their ranges of motion on a regular basis can be used as a self-assessment tool to help a manual therapist do their job better. If I go to a massage therapist and say “my shoulder hurts” they have a little information to work with. If I instead say “my shoulder hurts when i put it in an overhead range”, the manual therapist has more information to work with. This is a win/win for both the client and professional. Those visits can be expensive so optimizing your time is important.
Ending Note
This does not mean that we don't focus on muscles when we train. Muscular Hypertrophy (Growth) is linked to a ton of benefits when it comes to quality of life and longevity into our older years. We just shouldn’t forget to focus on our joints while growing that muscle for well rounded composition and all the other reasons i have listed. Happy Training!
