Community Corner
The 5 movements that matter more than muscles, according to a South San Francisco gym
Think movements, not muscles.
This is a paid post contributed by a Patch Community Partner. The views expressed in this post are the author's own, and the information presented has not been verified by Patch.
Preserving muscle and strength is the difference between staying active as you get older and slowly losing your independence. It's what lets you get up off the floor after playing with your grandkids, carry your own groceries in from the car, and keep up on a family hike without a bad knee or a sore back holding you back.
Here's the part most people don't know. Muscle mass starts dropping after age 30. If you're not doing something to work against it, you can lose 4 to 6 pounds of muscle every decade. That's a Christmas ham's worth of muscle gone by 40. A Thanksgiving turkey's worth gone by 60.
You can't stop that completely. But you can slow it way down, and it's not complicated to do.
I own The Fitness Tech in downtown South San Francisco, and when people call me for the first time, most of them say some version of the same thing. I'm too out of shape for this. I used to work out, then life got in the way. I don't even know where to start.
Good. That's exactly who we built this place for.
We're a small group personal training gym, not a big box gym and not a bootcamp. Every time you show up, you're working with a coach, not wandering around a room full of equipment you don't know how to use. And instead of trying to train each of the roughly 600 muscles in your body one at a time, which is impossible, we build every workout around 5 basic movements your body needs for everyday life.
- Squat – for sitting down and getting back up, getting on the floor with your kids or grandkids, without your knees complaining about it.
- Hinge – bending at the hips, for picking things up off the ground and protecting your back while you do it.
- Push – for lifting things overhead, whether that's a suitcase into an overhead bin or a box onto a shelf.
- Pull – the one movement almost nobody trains on their own. It does the most for your posture and for keeping your shoulders and back out of pain.
- Core – the foundation everything else is built on. Weak core, everything else works harder than it should.
Hit those 5 in a workout and you're covering what your body actually needs, not just what looks good in a mirror.
One of our members came to us at 60 after an osteoporosis diagnosis with significant bone loss. She wasn't chasing a beach body. She was hoping it would just stop getting worse. After training with us and progressively lifting heavier weights over time, she reversed a meaningful chunk of that bone loss. She sleeps better, has more energy, and her clothes fit better too.
That's what happens when training is built around real movement, at a pace that actually respects where you're starting from.
If you've been telling yourself you'll start once you're in better shape, that's backwards. You get in shape by starting.
If you made it this far, you're not the type who reads fitness advice and just moves on. You're actually thinking about doing something.
We'd love to have you in for a free consult. No card, no cost, just a real conversation about where you're starting from and whether this is a good fit for you. Email info@thefitnesstech.com with the subject line "Patch Consult" and I'll personally get back to you to find a time.
Eric Sorenson
Owner, The Fitness Tech
303 Linden Ave, South San Francisco
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