I've a very simple question that came through social media from Billy
Billy asks, "Any daily mobility routine you could recommend?"
This is perfect as I am currently on a bit of a mobility rampage. It's always been a large part of the service I offer, look back over my social media output over the years, be it the blogs, facebooks, Instas, whatever and you'll see the hashtags "Strength, Mobility, Endurance" used over and over.
If "fitness" was stool, then Strength, Mobility and Endurance would be the legs.
Your sport / personal preferences will determine which of the legs need more or less work, but the one I see the most neglected or least understood is that of mobility.
Spending time in the Hurling Club gym where I currently train, and seeing the lads there with horrendous mobility doing ineffective stretching has me a little riled, so Billy's question is timely indeed.
Let's start with, "What is Mobility"
We have three terms that get used a lot by trainers, coaches and therapists.
These are:
Mobility
Stability
Flexibility (active and passive)
Flexibility, as far as I am concerned, is the available range of motion at a joint or across several joints.
Back in my Doorman years, I would watch people walk into the bar, stiff and moving like, well, normal folk, and a few hours later, they're bendier than a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader.
If you've ever tried to lift your passed out friend at the end of a night, you'll know exactly what I mean.
So flexibility is innate, to a large degree. How much range we have is determined by your individual joint shapes, as much as we are built the same, there are nuances and genetic differences that make my hips a slightly different shape to yours, so allow me slightly different movement potential than yours.
Stability and Mobility are often spoken about as opposites.
In my mind they're the same thing looked at from different perspectives. Kind of like heads and tails on a coin.
Stability is often talked about in terms of controlling motion through tension, so isometrics are commonly used to create this.
In my mind, Stability is actually the control of dynamic motion, as in nailing an off-axis landing after a jumping for a ball, or running down a mountain side.
And mobility, well that is dynamic control of motion, or having strength and control throughout a range of motion.
All I did there was move the word dynamic.
Did you notice?
Stability is just control.
Mobility includes range of motion.
It takes into consideration joint angles.
Let's go back to your drunk friend for a moment.
Why do they get more flexible as their alcohol level goes up?
Simply because their muscles are no longer inhibited.
Inhibited by what?
By the nervous system.
What tells the muscles to contract?
The nervous system
What tells the muscles to relax?
The nervous system
How do we improve mobility, stability and flexibility?
By talking to the nervous system.
Understand this, and the rest is gravy.
How do we talk to the nervous system?
Simple, we treat everything like learning a skill.
If I were to start learning a new language, it would be silly to expect to walk into a bar in, I don't know, Krakow, and expect to understand what the locals are saying.
No, I'd have to start at the very beginning, the basics, the fundamentals and repeat them slowly, with high frequency and concentration for a good while.
And gradually progress as the skills improve.
Developing mobility is no different, it's a conversation with the body.
The nervous system is looking for safety, it perceives a certain range of motion as safe.
Our job is gradually to convince it that a greater range is safe.
And a gentle, daily practice is ideal for this.
Just like learning a language, banging away at the same few words or phrases will give limited results. So for mobility, banging away at the same few positions and stretches will offer limited results.
Variety works best.
Playfulness works best Learning to listen (to the body) works best Figuring out what you don't know works best
So, for mobility, how do we learn the body?
I think the basic joint rotations are a great way of doing that, and here's a video:
I've been at this a long time, if you're starting out, or coming at this from injury, start much much slower.
How many reps?
How many do you want?
Warming up I'll do 10-20 maybe more.
But if it's just for mobility I may do 50-100 reps, maybe in one sitting, maybe spread over the course of the day.
When an injury flares up, I may take one or two drills out of the sequence and do them repeatedly every day until things ease off.
This sequence is not magic
There's no big secret, no big reveal, no three letter acronym.
It's simply rotating each and every joint, paying attention as you do so to find out what it does or doesn't do.
It's a systems check.
It's a practice
It's information gathering
It's teaching the nervous system
It's learning about the nervous system
Have a play, be playful.
Have a conversation with your body today, and every day.
It doesn't have to be the same conversation, but this email and the video above will certainly get you started.
Make sure you're subscribed to my Insta, Facebook and Youtubes, as I'll be sharing a good bit of mobility info in the coming weeks and arranging a couple of workshops on the topic if you want to learn in person.
And of course, don't forget to hit reply and send me your feedback, comments and questions.
Chat soon
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Regards
Dave Hedges
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