Mobility: Why we need to do more than stretch
Mobility is an act of fitness that is foreign and/or not practiced by most individuals. Mobility is literally about getting your body to be more mobile, agile, loose, and able to support you no matter what activity you are doing.
For many years, all I thought was important when it came to exercise was cardio, strength training and stretching. However, it wasn’t until I joined Crossfit over a year and half ago that I realized my body, our bodies need much more than those just those things – it needs mobility.
So I asked my friend Nicole Crance, Fitness Coach at Crossfit Cayman, to write an article on what mobility is and the importance of everyone (not just Crossfit folk) incorporating it into their daily lives.
So take a read but also, go out there and get some tools to help you mobilize!
Mobility
by Nicole Crance
One recent Friday night, my boyfriend, Max, sat down very slowly on my couch and grunted, “Babe, I’m so sore. I can’t move my arms…or my legs…or my feet…basically, nothing. Help.”
I sighed and asked, “Have you mobilized?”
“Yeah….” (which obviously meant ‘no.’)
I walk over to my ottoman and pull out a softball and a lacrosse ball, and tell him to lay facedown on the ground. Frightened, he inched his way down, saying ow! the whole time. I placed the softball at the corner of his chest, right where it meets his armpit (anterior shoulder area), and told him to firmly lay down on it, crossing his arm behind his back and press his bodyweight into the ball so it could massage the knots. He started, and he screamed.
It was funny.
My question is, how do people, on a daily basis, go workout while being so stiff, so sore, so immobile? Really and truly, it’s because they just assume that’s the way it is and don’t know about the saving healing powers of mobility.
What is mobility?
In a nutshell, it is personal physical therapy (and no, it’s not stretching). There are so many tools and movements designed to pinpoint specific muscles and tissues in your body to enable them to be used to their full potential without pain, either in a workout or in daily life. MobilityWOD’s Kelly Starrett, a certified doctor of physical therapy and a Movement & Mobility CrossFit Coach said it best on his website (www.mobilitywod.com), “[Mobility] is the ultimate guide to resolving pain, preventing injury, and optimizing athletic performance. Humans have been evolving for 2.5 million years and the human body is extraordinarily engineered. While people are born with this incredible machine, they aren’t born with the right software to run that machine.” A machine. Your body is a machine. A car is a machine. What would happen if you stopped taking care of the daily maintenance on your car? The gasoline? The oil checks? The fluids? The whatever else there is to check in the car…? Maintenance is required to keep a machine running to its full potential. Need I say more?
So, what do I do?
At our gym, we have developed an atmosphere of importance in taking the time to mobilize. As a fitness trainer, it is my job to help you ensure you spend your time mobilizing properly before a workout. Everyday, I write the workout of the day (WOD) on our gym whiteboard and right next to it, I write up a bulleted list of some mobility ideas that are catered to the workout. For example, if we’re running a lot that day, I will post the rolling out of the feet with the lacrosse ball, the rolling out of the calves with the kettlebell handle, hamstring flossing with the mobility bands…you get it. When do we do this? Before every single workout, either led by a coach, or on your own before class begins. The beauty of this? Everyone knows what to do because we make it a priority to teach everyone how to mobilize when they first join our gym and go through our Beginner’s Course. That. Is. Awesome.
How much time does this take?
In a perfect world, you would spend hours and hours mobilizing because it’s so great finding all the hot-spots on your body and being able to possess the power to remedy them. BUT, considering we don’t really have that kind of time, all it takes is you deciding what spot needs the most attention at any given moment. What’s hurting the most? Maybe nothing is hurting, but what muscles are you using the most during your workout that day? Maybe you’ve been sitting all day at your office job and now your hips are super tight. Rolling out on the foam roller for 5 minutes could make you feel like a brand new person.
What tools do I use?
First off, we sell most of these tools at CrossFit Cayman, or you could buy them online at places like roguefitness.com or mobilitywod.com.
Each one of these tools and more are strategically placed in various places all over your body to keep the muscles and tissues loose and fully equipped to be used in your daily life.
The Gemini
Mobility Bands
The Voodoo Floss
Lacrosse ball and Softball
Foam Rollers
So whatever happened to Max? After much pain, and almost tears, he finished his mobility. The next day, he sat down on my bed, and I punched him in his quads, he never moved. Then, I punched him in the anterior shoulder, previously his terrible pain-causer, and nothing, he never moved. He just looked at me blankly and said, “Nope. No pain. Mobility, man. It’s magic.”
P.S. If you would like some support in your fitness journey, be sure to grab my 30 Day Fitness Plan that’s FREE for a limited time only >>HERE<<.
