This is a post for both clients and coaches.
Learning new movements can be either very rewarding or immensely frustrating. Everyone has a different ability to learn new movement but is there a way we can, as a rule, give the mind the best chance of retaining a new movement pattern or change in lifting technique?
I’m going to use this article to explore the idea.
First of all let’s tackle the issue of sleep.
First of all to maximise your learning capacity you need to have a good night sleep where your deep sleep is undisrupted. In an ideal world that sleep will be between 7 and 8 hours and will be fully restorative.
By sleeping like this you are looking after your motor cortex.
My motor what?
When you have a good night sleep the healthy motor cortex gets to work adapting, learning and repairing like a champion.
When you have a good night of sleep the neurons ‘reset’ and can begin again the next day with a heightened ability to take in new information.
As THIS study shows, when you disrupt the motor cortex preventing deep restorative sleep learning ability the next day isn’t reset to optimal like it would be after a good night of sleep.
So the take home from this is that if you want to learn a new movement or perhaps you need to tweak your deadlift after many years of lifting you should choose a time of lower stress where your motor cortex can get the recovery it needs thorough sleep.
So the day before a driving test for example might not be the most productive time to learn new movements.
But what if technique changes are programmed in for the day after a night of bad sleep?
I would say do some other exercises that are already bread and butter for you and don’t require much processing and pretty much zero new learning so you have a good workout and don’t further add to the stress of the situation as no-one likes being seep deprived at the best of times!
If you’ve had a great restful night of sleep then go for it, your learning capacity is at it’s highest especially in the morning. Later on in the day other things can get in the way of this process but if you’re well rested the situation is still infinitely better than when sleep has been terrible.
What about after your session to learn movement or to improve technique?
Ideally you’ll have a nice nap at around 2pm followed by a great night of sleep. Unfortunately most of us don’t live a life that would allow such a routine so the best recommendation I can give you is that on the night of a learning session you should prioritise sleep, go to bed at a time that allows you to get 7-8 hours.
Stop having caffeine in the very early afternoon, if possible try not to cram lots of other information you’re trying to remember in too as your brain can only process so much.
Then the next day, after a great night of sleep try the new movement again or if you’re very sore or your coach has given you a different programme MENTALLY PRACTICE THE SHIT OUT THE MOVEMENT YOU WANT TO LEARN OR IMPROVE.
How does this help you out?
Well, if you must know…
“Your physical and mental training will cause significant increases in electroencephalogram-derived cortical potential, a measure previously shown to be directly related to control of voluntary muscle contractions. We conclude that the mental training employed by this study enhances the cortical output signal, which drives the muscles to a higher activation level and increases strength.”
The above is taken from a study you can find HERE.
So you’ll be able to use the muscle you have more effectively. You’ll be more coordinated and therefore you should be stronger in your newly learned movement patterns or slightly tweaked movement pattern.
How would you go about visualising the performance of a particular movement?
Get yourself nice and relaxed (hopefully in a well rested state) focus on the specific movement pattern. Watch videos of people performing the movement pattern. Think about feeling strong and accomplished. Think about the place where you last performed the movement. What colours can you see? What does it smell like? Imagine what each joint feels like as you move. What can you see as you perform the movement? Perform the movement mentally as many ways as you can.
Fast,
Slow.
Upside down.
While sailing on the Black Pearl (look, it’s your imagination not mine!)
Practicing visualisation will help you learn a movement far quicker.
Now we can address how to specifically learn a new movement.
The old method of learning new movement would be keep practicing until you get it right god dammit! but it turns out this probably isn’t the best way to learn new movements or how to change old movement habits.
The best way to learn a movement it would seem is to practice lots of very subtle variations of whatever you are trying to learn.
Say you are learning how to squat.
Perform a session, say 30 minutes performing the squat as a coach would teach it. Then in the next session (at least 6 hours later but maybe the next day or whatever) perform a subtle variation like manipulating the tempo. The next time you perform the movement perform them as fast as you can. The next time pause at various stages of the lift. The next time perform them with your eyes closed for example.
You’ll have full ownership of the movement pattern in very little time.
Once you’ve cycled through the variations a few times you can safely assume you can add resistance or weight to the movement and begin to progress it because of your high movement competency.
How else could you improve your ability to learn a new movement?
It’s time for me to tell you to get a coach.
You know it.
I know it.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer knows it.
A coach will rapidly increases your learning speed (if they are a good coach) because they’ll take out the guess work and eliminate the mistakes that you otherwise wouldn’t spot.
They can write you a programme and make sure you are preparing your body adequately for the ensuing training.
A coach normally makes the learning process less stressful and for that you will sleep better at night, and as I keep banging on about, low stress levels and sleep make for much better mental health and I’m all for that!
Conclusion
To learn new movement patterns the most effectively you should prioritise your sleep the days before and after learning new movements to help your brain process the new patterns and improve as you rest.
You should practise lots of subtle variations of the new movement pattern or position to maximise learning potential.
You should practice the art of visualisation training as in some cases it can be nearly as effective as actually training.
And finally you absolutely should get a coach.
Thank you for reading my friends!
By Chris Kershaw
Chris is a Personal Trainer, Strength Coach, Writer and man of small stature and reader of The Discworld Series with a decade in the industry. He trains everyone from beginners to high level athletes. His favourite clients are people getting into the gym for the first time because they can make the biggest changes in their life.
You can contact me through the email address chris@kershawstrength.com
Chris Kershaw Strength 