How I learnt about Project Quality Management from Exercise regime
My colleagues in Quality Management or Project Management would know very well what a Fishbone Diagram is . Also known as the cause and effect diagram, It's one of the Quality Management tools to help list the various causes that lead to an effect or a problem.
Put simply, the effect or the problem is the head of a fish and the branches or the bones are the possible causes. Once you have put down all the causes, much like a mind map, you can more likely, find the critical causes, which you can eliminate to ultimately fix the problem.
At the gym, My personal trainer and I started noticing that my exercise form was deteriorating , especially at dead lifts and any exercise like squat which uses a bend-to-extend pattern. I used to frequently complain of back pain. It certainly did not mean that I was getting any weaker.
According to my trainer , my back was arching more and I was over-compensating and using my back to lift the weights more instead of the muscles that are supposed to aid in deadlifts , which are my glutes and my hamstrings.
He showed me the mirror , and pointed to an arch in my lumbar spine. It was an anterior pelvic tilt. It meant that I had tight Hip Flexors due to overuse. When I bend in a squat or a deadlift, the hip flexors resist because they are tight and do not allow me to maintain the good form. This consequently puts pressure on my back which tries to over-compensate , resulting in the back pain.
My exercise "Project" now had a few defects. I needed to zero down on the various causes through a Quality Management tool on my "Exercise" Project . What better tool to use than the Fishbone ? Going through the exercise of categorizing the causes and elaborating, I indeed came upon some causes. one of them was sitting at an office desk for 8 hours. I have since shifted to a standing desk at work. My trainer and I have begun work on the tight hip flexors and have started releasing them using foam rollers and other techniques.
The biggest achievement and learning from this?? - I have learnt to use a Quality Management tool on any Project !!