Whether you’re an athlete with a regular training schedule, or just someone with a weekly workout routine, you’ve probably encountered periods where progress diminished, taking your motivation right along with it. It’s called a plateau, and it happens when your body becomes accustomed to the familiar stresses put on it by a regular fitness routine. But it doesn’t have to happen. A little variation in your workout regimen can go a long way to keeping both your mind and body challenged.
One thing to remember when you incorporate any exercise, or variation thereof, into your fitness routine is that your body naturally moves toward conserving energy through recall of movement or muscle memory. As soon as this happens, the benefit of an exercise begins to level off. In other words, you reach a plateau. As a result, muscles are no longer challenged to grow, develop, and strengthen.
Choose any exercise. Get into position, begin your movement, and you will notice subtle attempts by your muscles to move toward greater efficiency. Muscles are built to both exert energy and conserve energy. What we need to do during our workout is confuse our muscles so they don’t move as quickly toward recall and conservation, but rather toward greater confusion and exertion. We want to engage them through stimulation, not put them to sleep through efficient repetition.
That’s why The Barry Method™ works so well. And when combined with the Total Trainer® gravity system, the variations to common exercises are endless!
The Barry Method and Total Trainer together provide single moves in multiple variations. From deep knee bends on the squat board to single knee bends to various hip openers, The Barry Method for the Total Trainer keeps muscles challenged and constantly striving for greater performance.
The Barry Method, when used on the gravity sliding board, offers an unrestricted range of motion on multiple planes for unlimited possibilities. Multiple muscle groups are isolated and recruited into each variation of movement. The result is greater strength and flexibility-and continued results.
One whole body routine by the Barry Method that’s challenging yet attainable for even the beginner is the Sun Salutation. The Barry Method takes every “asana” to a new level. The Sun Salutation helps to stabilize and balance the entire body while incorporating an aerobic benefit throughout.
With the Total Trainer, we can flow from the standing Mountain Pose to Forward Bend, then kneel to the Flat Back before spreading our legs and arms outward, pressing our head against the gravity board as we move into a deep Downward Dog.
By simply changing positions on the glideboard, you are altering resistance levels and recruiting different muscle groups into every movement. When you apply that to sitting and kneeling positions, you continuously recruit muscles in the abdomen and back for greater core stability and strength.
This marriage between The Barry Method and the Total Trainer gravity machine provides for various movements in unlimited positions, keeping the muscles guessing, muscle functioning at its optimal level, and the mind stimulated-from beginning to end.
For more information on Colette Barry, The Barry Method™, and Healthy Fit Studio, visit healthy fit studio.
