In addition to teaching an exercise or movement block well, instructors have the responsibility of designing safe and effective workout routines. Understanding how to create a movement block and then safely teach the routine is important to ensure participant results and success.
When developing movement patterns, consider building choreography from base movements. When teaching complex patterns, break movements up into digestible parts to improve participant understanding. Give participants the opportunity to master movement patterns to increase their sense of achievement.
There are several different teaching strategies to accomplish this goal.
Linear progression
A linear progression takes base moves and builds them into a continuous movement pattern. Movements are linked one after another, not necessarily creating a block.
An example is teaching base movements such as walk in place, side tap, knee lift and hamstring curl. Additional movements can be added in this linear progression, as no pattern is being created.
Slow-to-fast
In this teaching strategy, the exercise or movement is practiced at half-time or slower so that participants can learn the movement well before doing the exercise at the base speed or tempo. This is a great way to introduce a new movement or exercise. It is especially beneficial to new participants or those managing chronic conditions that may require more time to transition from one movement to the next. Participants have the time to learn the movement with a slow transition and feel successful when it progresses to a faster tempo.
Repetition-reduction
Repetition-reduction begins with teaching a higher amount of repetitions followed by reducing the number of repetitions that make up a movement block. Incorporating a higher number of repetitions improves cardiovascular or muscular endurance. Safely reducing the repetitions can train agility, coordination, speed and power.
As a reminder, be mindful of the total number of repetitions performed to avoid overuse of a joint or muscle group.
Review the warm-up drills in Lesson 1.1. Lower body combination 2, 2:40 – 4:20 demonstrates the repetition-reduction strategy.
Part-to-whole or add-in
The part-to-whole strategy allows participants to progress into compound or challenging movement patterns by mastering the base level movement first. Teach the base form of an exercise in isolation then connect to the next exercise. Practice the two movements together. Teach the next exercise or movement in isolation, combine with the next exercise, then put the four movements together to create an exercise block. Add variations as each part of the exercise combination is mastered.
For example, if the compound movement combination is:
Squat with arms by sides + stand and lift arms into double biceps curl + overhead press + double calf-raise.
- Teach the squat first.
- Teach the biceps curls.
- Combine the squat and the curl.
- Teach the overhead press.
- Teach the calf-raise.
- Combine the overhead press and calf raise.
- Practice the combination as a whole.
Simple-to-complex
The simple-to-complex is a more complex teaching strategy. It is sometimes referred to as layering. As opposed to separating movement patterns into sections teach the combination in its more basic form. Add layers of complexity as the movement block continues to be practiced.
For example, 4 single step touch (8ct) + 2 double step touch (8ct) is the base movement.
- 4 single step touch becomes 4 small hops side to side + 2 double step touch.
- 4 small hops + 2 double step touches progress to side rhythm run > run-run-hold.
- 4 small hops progress to 4x ¼ turn step or hop + rhythm run.
- 4x ¼ tun step + rhythm rum + 4ct balance hold.
Progressively adding variations layers complexity and challenge into the exercise combination.
The warm-up and variation drills practiced throughout this course incorporated the above strategies to create various movement blocks and patterns. Be aware of how many repetitions are being practiced. Avoid overuse of a joint or muscle group.
The next lesson teaches a strategy to assist choosing correct exercises when creating movement blocks.