Injuries Anyone?
After experiencing an injury that would regularly flair up and stop me from having the fun that I was trying to create in my movement, I finally decided to change all my movements. To stop some temporarily and to try out new movement patterns and to honour that my body is made up of so much fluid and fluidity should then be crucial.
To create fluidity in my own body, I needed to pull back on the weights and feel deeply into the muscles that I was activating to get the job done with bodyweight only. This allowed me to step inside and really notice what was not “turning on” or activating and what muscles were compensating because of this.
I was flexible, able to get into splits in all directions, able to perform a “wheel”, able to side legs out in front and put my chest on my thighs as I bent forward. I had passive flexibility but I was lacking in mobility. Good mobility work allows us to stabilize, create muscular strength and create more bone and tissue density and control.
What exactly is mobility work? Stretching? Yoga? Bear crawls & animal moves? It could be any of these things.
Why start working on mobility (or start doing it better)?
Because most people spend so much time in poor, static positions including in front of the computer, TV, or phone, & bodies get ‘tight’ & cannot access both optimal range-of-motion and adequate activation of specific muscle groups. Mobility is essential to help you squat deeper, push harder, & move freer.
Jump into a workout with a limited range of motion, & your assistance muscles will start to compensate.
Because assistance muscles are typically smaller & weaker, forcing them to handle excessive torque is a recipe for pain &/or injury.
Worse, if your exercises aren’t activating primary muscles because you can’t achieve full range of motion, you probably won’t even build the muscle you’re working toward ☹︎
