Easy Fitness #4, Mobility Is Your Friend
Making Fitness Easy
No experienced athlete will downplay the importance of stretching and body maintenance. To a person, they will all admit they should have begun mobility work years sooner before imbalances and inflexibility began negatively impacting their physical performance and daily life.
Learn the lesson they didn’t before it’s too late. Make mobility a priority now.
As we outlined in Issue #1, staying consistent on a workout program centered around progressive overload is the key to long-term success. Complete your workouts each week, and you’ll be shocked with the progress you make. Similarly, if you miss or skip workouts, your progress will screech to a halt.
Injury is one of the biggest reasons people miss workouts.
So, it stands to reason that if you can stay healthy, you will miss fewer workouts and make more progress.
Get started today.
There are many ways to incorporate mobility work into your fitness journey. If you’re already having issues (tight hips, cranky neck, frozen shoulder, etc.), address those first. Your best bet is to find a physical therapist in your area who can diagnose the exact problems you’re dealing with and help you come up with a plan of action.
Additionally, there are many great mobility resources on the web today. A favorite of ours is Kelly Starrett’s work over at The Ready State, but there are countless others. Find a program that 1) treats your specific ailment and 2) fits into your life.
Remember: a decent program that you can stick to is worth way more than a “perfect” program that you stop after a few weeks.
If you aren’t (yet) having issues, then simply incorporating an occasional yoga or natural movement flow workout to your fitness plans can go a long way toward cutting off potential mobility problems before they happen. YouTube offers a ton of free videos. Experiment with many different teachers until you find a few that resonate with you.
This video from Aaron Horschig at Squat University outlines “The World’s Greatest Stretch.” Pictured below, it’s one stretch that hits all of the key mobility problem areas.
If you only have time for one stretch, make it this one.
Tips:
Find time for mobility whenever you can. Once you find a couple stretches or movements that you like, do them in the spare minutes you can find throughout your day: while the coffee is brewing, in the shower, you’re waiting in line, you’re on hold on the phone. It all adds up.
If you’re a desk worker, your mobility is probably bad. Sitting hours per day is not how humans were built to function. Consider a standing desk to avoid sitting so much. Drink more water so you have frequent restroom breaks. Anything that will break up your day and eliminate hours-long stretches in your seat will be better for your future self.
Please forward to a friend who would benefit from our tips. Fitness doesn’t have to be hard!