Julie Cates
Muscle Strengthening Leaving You Feeling Weaker, Sore, or Injured? Read This.
Strength training is a vital part of health and strength now and as you age.
But what if everytime you try it, you feel weaker, sore, or injured?
You are not alone.
There is a lack of proper instruction on how to lift weights safely and effectively. This leads many people to do exercise that is too little to bring about health changes.
There are very simple steps to improve your likelihood that you gain positive results from strength training.
- Check your range of motion before doing the exercise. Do the movement slowly and without weight, stay where it feels good. This defines your range for the exercise.
- Move slowly when you do the exercise. This will help you respect your range of motion from Step #1. It also allows you to adjust for any signals that your body, muscles, and joints may start sending.
- Focus your attention on the muscles squeeze rather than the motion. Stop counting reps and stop thinking “up, down, up, down.” Start connecting with your body and think “squeeze.”
These 3 steps will help you minimize the negative side effects of exercise like feeling weak, sore, or injured. It’s time to start maximizing the positive health promoting opportunities of strength training.
Julie
Julie CatesJulie Cates is an experienced, certified, and insured National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Certified Personal Trainer and mastery level Muscle Activation Techniques® (MAT®) Rx Specialist (MATRx). She is one of 88 certified mastery level Resistance Training Specialists® (RTSm) in the world. This combination makes her style of training impactful and still preventative and restorative of joint and muscle issues and pain that are common with exercise. Julie specializes working with women 50 and over. Specifically, her main focus is working with women with bone density loss, muscle loss, Osteopenia, and Osteoporosis. Julie has incredible experience working with brand new exercisers. Very specific types and styles of exercises are needed for restoring and maintaining bone density, and Julie guides her clients through these in a pain-free way. She is also well experienced in helping women exercise even with various joint, bone, systemic, and neurological diagnoses. Julie is definitely your go-to personal trainer for women with Osteoporosis! Julie graduated cum laude from the University of Florida. She earned her degree in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology with a specialization in Exercise Physiology. Julie is the co-owner of Muscle Activation Schaumburg in Schaumburg, IL. She is a wife and mother of two. Julie can be reached via e-mail at julie@matschaumburg.com. Follow her on Instagram at @julcates!