Learning to Love the Shake: End Range of Motion (EROM) Strengthening Tips

Its fun to do stuff that makes us feel strong and competent, which is why most people avoid end-range strengthening exercises. There is no way to feel strong and competent when you are doing end range of motion exercises because, by definition, you are pushing into an area where your body is not yet confident. Learning to be comfortable in the discomfort, feeling the shake, is essential to building that active range and strong flexibility.

Last week’s post on the principles of end range of motion strengthening covered the difference between training the end range and traditional strength training that focuses on muscle hypertrophy. This week we are covering the specific sensations and techniques that can help you make the most of your training time and avoid strain or injury as you venture in to your body’s unknown territory.

What does end range of motion strengthening feel like?

Training active flexibility through end range strengthening feels very different from either hypertrophy-focused strength training or passive static stretching. Many people describe it as an uncomfortable sensation that lacks the satisfaction of other techniques. It is important to distinguish between productive discomfort and doing damage, so understanding the sensations can help you feel more confident in the weirdness.

The Muscle Shake

There are various different reasons why your body may shake during a workout. Most often it is from fatigue, as when you’ve maxed out a strength training exercises and your muscles start to fail at the end. You may also notice a shake when you challenge yourself in a passive static stretch. The EROM (end range of motion) strengthening shake is a little different.

You do not need to go to fatigue, or even to a really deep stretch, to find the EROM strength shake. It occurs because your nervous system isn’t quite sure how to organize itself in this new position. Your brain is trying to map it out, get the motor neurons to fire, and figure out how to organize the body in this increased range. You aren’t building new muscle fibers so much as figuring out how to get the muscle fibers that you have to perform in a new way. This causes the confused stutter-shake.

As your body is problem-solving through the exercise you can expect to feel:

• A light stutter or tremor in the working muscles

• A surprising amount of effort required for relatively little weight or movement

• Gradual improvement over time with repetition

You may be pushing yourself too far or using too much weight if you experience:

• A heavy shake that makes you unable to stabilize yourself or hold your position and is different than the light stutter or tremor described above

• Any pain, pinching, or numbness/tingling

• Elevated heart rate or other full-body symptoms of over-exertion

• Pain or tension in other parts of the body that you aren’t targeting

The danger with the shake is that it is a vulnerable position for the body, which opens the door to over-training much more easily than with other techniques.

Focus on the Shortened Muscle Not the Lengthened Muscle

Usually when we think of any kind of mobility/flexibility training we think of lengthening the muscles. But any time a set of muscles is lengthening, there is another set of muscles that is shortening. When we train EROM strength we are focusing on the shortening muscles. This is important because we need those muscles to be comfortable and functional to support the joint so that the opposing muscles can lengthen.

Focusing on the shortened muscle feels very different. You can expect:

• Very little or no “stretch” sensation in the lengthening muscle

• A surprisingly strong sensation of hard work in the shortening muscle

• A smaller range of motion that you would usually get when doing a passive static stretch

You may be overdoing the challenge to the shortened muscle if you experience:

• Cramping or muscle spasms in the shortened muscle

• Inability to hold your position for the duration of the exercise

• The temptation to bounce or strain at the end range in order to force yourself to go farther

• Joint pain in the area that is being moved

All of the above can happen if your muscle is attempting to contract when it has been shortened past its ability to function. Muscles are not great at contracting from a shortened position and that ability must be trained carefully, with slow progression over time. If you find any of those sensations, decrease the range of motion until the contractions feel more manageable.

The Mental Game: How to Think about EROM Strengthening so You Don’t Get Frustrated

Many of my clients describe their first experiences with EROM strengthening as “frustrating”, “annoying”, “demoralizing”, and “unsatisfying.” It has all the challenge of heavy weight lifting without the satisfying muscle pump, and all the nervous system activation of passive static stretching without the immediate results.

However, those same clients report positive changes to their flexibility, strength, and overall joint health after adopting some EROM strengthening in their routines. The key is to find a mindset that helps you find peace in the struggle.

Here are some tips that have helped me in my humbling adventures with EROM exercises:

• Celebrate the struggle. These exercises are designed to put you in the positions where you are shaky and unsure so if you find them easy you are not getting the benefit. I always cheer when my clients start to feel shaky because I know we found gold.

• Don’t overtrain. More isn’t more with EROM exercises. Because we are working in our danger zone it’s better to do fewer reps and stop while your from is still good. Great news! You may not like it but you don’t have to do a million.

• Make your ego wait outside. Some exercises look really impressive. These aren’t them. EROM strengthening looks easy and feels extremely hard so an ego check is necessary to keep you from judging yourself. This is all about process not performance.

Next week: How to make your favorite exercises into EROM exercises

Hint: make them much harder but simultaneously less impressive! Woohoo!

But seriously, learning to love the shake may require a dark journey of the soul but the way it can transform your joint health and make your flexibility so much more accessible and sustainable is well worth it.

These days, at the tender age of 50, almost all of my flexibility training is EROM strengthening and I am thrilled with the way it reduces my training time, keeps my mobility impressive, and I have learned to actually enjoy it. Mostly.

Next week’s post will show you how I can take any exercise for any body part and creatively magic it into an EROM exercise. We will also cove ways that you can modify exercises to make them more or less challenging by changing the relationship with gravity. This is great in case you don’t have access to a lot of equipment.

Till then…

Happy Bendings,

Kristina