Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello, welcome back to another episode of Train for a Great Life. This one is going to be about asking questions and kind of going deeper into something, that you do, something you enjoy, something that you care about right, becoming a student of what you do, and I think when you do that, you're just going to get a better understanding and enjoyment out of things. So this came from a question that I got from Kristen in our postnatal program, who was asking about mirrors in the gym, just kind of a back and forth and over text. And she said, hey, I was chatting with one of the other moms and, uh, we were talking about how we'd love to be able to see ourselves working out sometimes so we can see, um, for our form, for our lifts, right, and then also went on like, but maybe having mirrors in the gym would make us self-conscious, so, um, you know, a quick video on our phones will do. And I said, hey, thank you for the thoughtful response, and this is not the first time I've heard you know mirrors or been asked about them, and so I'm going to give a depth of a response that I hope is appreciated and some insight into why there's no mirrors. They, they can. They can be helpful, for sure, in some instances, probably more in like a bodybuilding style scenario, a lot less than you think with the movements that we do in the gym.

Speaker 1: 1:37

So when you're doing compound movements with a barbell, squat, deadlift, press, and then by extension as well, clean snatch, cleans, jerks, um, you want a one. You want a neutral head position, which means you could only really watch yourself from the front. Um, arguably less on a deadlift, for example, because in the start position you want a neutral spine and you'd have to have your head craned up to like look at yourself. And then with the Olympic lifts they happen so fast that your visual feedback during the lift is not even useful, even from head on. You have to rely on proprioception, proprioceptive feedback, kinesthetic awareness, basically body awareness, feeling the movement right. It's why we drill, drill, drill, um, and to this end, video of yourself can be super helpful, because you actually get to see what you look like and you may notice maybe not, but you may notice when a coach is really going to have a look and break down your lift and give feedback. They're usually going to stand at a diagonal, like a three-quarter angle type thing. You can see the most from this spot by far. It can be helpful to go head on, it can be helpful to go directly from the side, but usually less so.

Speaker 1: 3:01

So back to the mirrors. You can't even see yourself from angles that would be helpful, right, helpful, right, um. And so when we're doing on-ramp sessions and there's a lot of feedback and demoing, um, or, for example, in Anatoly's weightlifting class right now, there's no amount of like looking in a mirror that's going to help someone with their, with their lift, um, there's going to be a lot of like positioning. He'll show the movement, he'll get you and he may adjust you. No, hips down, hips up, knees back, you know, tighten up your lats, bar path, right, it's that type of thing. But, but you have to. It's the type of things that you have to feel and once you feel the movement, you know how to, how to do it properly and you don't need to rely on, you don't need to need to rely on mirrors either.

Speaker 1: 3:49

I would, I would. I would give the analogy that it's almost like in sports, watching yourself in a mirror while you're doing movements in a sport, versus like we get, we get the, the mirrors in gyms from the bodybuilding world where like, yeah, that's, it's essential, and you're always, you know, you're, you're checking things out and I don't know. People just like to look at themselves too. Let's, let's just be honest. But anyway, I think I'm just kind of going on at this point. Anyway, I think I'm just kind of going on at this point. What you can do if you feel like you need a little bit more in that area, is just straight up ask a coach. Ask a coach to watch and give you feedback, whether it's general or whether it's a specific part of your lift. I hope that helps. See you in the gym.