Eyes wide shut

The last few weeks I've noticed in clients and in my own training something unusual. 

I'm always interested in getting the "right" movement for each exercise. Balancing both sides of your body and ensuring good muscle symmetry. Making sure your weight is resting evenly on either feet, or the sit bones for seated exercises, etc. There's so much movement possible at each joint and a fair whack of it is not really wanted. Strong stabiliser muscles do a world of good to improve the movement quality, and keep movements smooth and even... Until they fatigue. Then you get spine movement, twisting, uneven power and can do some serious throwing out of balance! Not only that, but your muscle gains may just be uneven.

I started closing my eyes for a few reps in exercises that don't require precarious balance (eg squats, bench press, shoulder press etc where the weight could fall). 

And voila! What a thing to actually experience!

All of a sudden you can block out the sights and distractions of the gym and really focus in on the correct muscles and joints! It is actually amazing what kind of feedback your joints and muscles give you, when you aren't taken up analyzing things visually. 

Movements just felt easier to control, and I could work on "feeling" the balance between left and right so much better. This whole world of opportunity arose - correcting form by analyzing it from the inside.

I've tried it now with a few clients, and continue to do at least half my sets at the moment with eyes shut (or at least trying to focus on the internal feeling -- let's just say it looks a little odd me working out with eyes closed, and it's not something that everyone should be doing!). The results are looking (feeling) good!

For the last few reps of a challenging free weight exercise, where normally I'll see the start of spinal/torso movement to compensate for a slightly weaker side - with "eyes shut" I can immediately notice an improvement in balance and movement quality. 

Pretty thrilled at the moment ! 

I will have to say though that it is not for everybody, nor for every exercise or rep. Total body co-ordination requires feedback from as many senses as possible - and vision is still our biggest by far when learning basic moves. 

But if you want to hone an exercise you're already pretty experienced at, give a few SAFE reps a go with your eyes shut, focusing on the muscles being worked on both sides. It'll add great quality to your workouts, and best of all help improve imbalances and muscle asymmetry.