How do you use feedback to improve functional exercise performance?
Feedback is a crucial element of functional training, as it helps you monitor your progress, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and adjust your exercise program accordingly. Feedback can come from various sources, such as your own body, your trainer, your peers, or your devices. In this article, we will explore how you can use different types of feedback to improve your functional exercise performance.
Internal feedback is the information that you receive from your own sensations, feelings, and thoughts during and after a functional exercise. It can include physical cues, such as pain, fatigue, breath, heart rate, and muscle tension, as well as psychological cues, such as motivation, confidence, satisfaction, and mood. Internal feedback can help you assess your level of effort, intensity, and comfort, as well as your emotional and mental state. To use internal feedback effectively, you need to develop your self-awareness and mindfulness skills, and pay attention to what your body and mind are telling you. You can also use techniques such as rating of perceived exertion (RPE), goal setting, and self-talk to enhance your internal feedback.
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Internal feedback is a way of, and product of developing self(body) awareness. An essential art in balancing effort with rest. It can be the crucial element guiding you on how you are responding, esp. if and when things don't feel right, normal or amiss as response to the effort being exerted. This awareness can allow safe and timely adjustments to prevent injuries and ensure safe, periodic progressions in exercise patterns and intensities. Balanced with external feedback, internal feedback is essential to maximizing health and fitness gains.
External feedback is the information that you receive from sources outside yourself, such as your trainer, your peers, or your devices. It can include verbal cues, such as instructions, praise, corrections, and encouragement, as well as visual cues, such as demonstrations, videos, mirrors, and charts. External feedback can help you learn new skills, improve your technique, correct your errors, and track your progress. To use external feedback effectively, you need to choose reliable and relevant sources, and seek feedback that is specific, timely, and constructive. You can also use tools such as fitness trackers, apps, and wearables to measure and record your external feedback.
Feedback frequency is the amount and timing of feedback that you receive during and after a functional exercise. It can vary depending on your goals, preferences, and skill level. Generally, feedback frequency should be balanced between providing enough information to guide and motivate you, and allowing enough autonomy and challenge to stimulate your learning and adaptation. Too much feedback can be overwhelming, distracting, or discouraging, while too little feedback can be confusing, boring, or ineffective. To find the optimal feedback frequency for you, you need to experiment with different options, such as constant, intermittent, faded, or delayed feedback, and evaluate their impact on your performance.
Feedback quality is the accuracy, relevance, and usefulness of feedback that you receive during and after a functional exercise. It can affect your learning outcomes, motivation, and satisfaction. High-quality feedback should be clear, consistent, and aligned with your goals and needs. It should also be positive, supportive, and respectful, and focus on your strengths and improvements, as well as your areas of improvement. To ensure feedback quality, you need to communicate your expectations and preferences to your feedback sources, and ask for feedback that is specific, actionable, and realistic. You can also use tools such as checklists, rubrics, or scales to evaluate and compare feedback quality.
Feedback integration is the process of using feedback to modify and improve your functional exercise program. It involves analyzing, interpreting, and applying feedback to your practice and performance. Feedback integration can help you optimize your results, avoid plateaus, and prevent injuries. To integrate feedback effectively, you need to review and reflect on the feedback that you receive, and identify the key points and suggestions that are relevant to your goals and needs. You also need to plan and implement changes to your exercise program based on the feedback, and monitor and evaluate the effects of those changes on your performance. You can also use tools such as journals, logs, or diaries to document and organize your feedback integration.
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Digital devices (like smart watches etc) can aid in this integration by capturing and providing multiple data points over training timeliness. A seasoned coach can be an invaluable asset in helping integrate this feedback data in conjunction with other performance parameters and (re)design training protocols to achieve relevant goals.
Feedback loop is the cycle of receiving, processing, and using feedback to improve your functional exercise performance. It involves four steps: collect, analyze, act, and repeat. Feedback loop can help you create a continuous learning and improvement system for your functional training. To create a feedback loop, you need to collect feedback from various sources, analyze it to identify patterns and insights, act on it to adjust your exercise program accordingly, and repeat the process regularly to track your progress and outcomes. You can also use tools such as dashboards, graphs, or reports to visualize and communicate your feedback loop.
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