“The body does what you tell it to, but the way it wants to.”
Ever wondered why your body compensates during a workout, even when you’re hyper focused on form? I first began to understand this during one of my clinical rotations during my graduate program. Not sure who told me this but it formed how I view human movement:
“the body does what you tell it to, but the way it wants to.”
The goal of the body is to stay out of harm, while obeying what the brain says.
When the body isn’t able to (or doesn’t think it should) do the exact movement, it starts to compensate. Let’s say your nervous system senses a limitation like lack of mobility or deeper weakness- your body won’t just stop: it’ll find a workaround.
Here are some examples of compensating you’re probably familiar with:
- Shoulders tight? Mid back moves more during overhead.
- Hips weak? Low back works harder during push off phase while running.
- Left knee hurts? Weight shift to the right to complete that back squat.
The body is an amazing machine and keeps us from doing stupid things. So- when we see poor movement that doesn’t get corrected with coaching, we need to take a step back and try to figure out WHY the body is doing what it’s doing. By understanding the root cause of these “workarounds”, we can stop fixing symptoms and get you back to doing cool stuff.
Feeling like your body is compensating because an injury or weakness? Let’s find the ‘Why’ together.
Dr. Caleb Kauffmann is the owner of NorCal Physio and specializes in helping athletes improve performance while reducing injury risk. He works extensively with combat, barbell, and endurance athletes using a performance-focused rehabilitation approach.
