Making Modifications

by Molly Magunga, MS ATC, CPT, CES

Hello everyone! This week’s “Fitness Tip of the Week” is about modifying exercises. The need to modify exercises is nothing that you should ever feel badly about doing. There are many reasons people may need to modify. Sometimes it’s strength or injury related, but other times it can be for flexibility reasons or pregnancy.

Regardless of the reason behind doing a modification, fitness professionals would prefer them done over doing an exercise with incorrect form. Doing an elevated pushup through your full range of motion is a far better workout then a head-bobbing, tiny elbow bend, pushup attempt. In fact, modifications are used often to help improve the quality of movement. You get strong in one range of motion or difficulty first, then progress to a higher difficulty.

Instead of seeing it as a step back, modifications should be seen as a stepping stone forward toward your end goal. For example, maybe you can’t squat as far down as you want to. Excluding injury limitations, modifying with an assisted squat helps you work through a bigger range. You get stronger and mobility improves, which all helps achieve a successful, deeper squat. The great thing about fitness is that there is always a way to modify an exercise.

Tips on Modifying Movements:

For this week’s tip, I wanted to show different modifications or variations for five common movement patterns/exercise types. Most exercise programs incorporate some or all of these movement patterns, so knowing how to modify will help you get going and stay on track.

Squat

Hinge

Pushup

Lunge

Plank

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at mmagunga@healthworksfitness.com or comment below!