Monday, February 05, 2007

Training mistakes...

Post today on the DD forum about training mistakes has me thinking about mine. And boy are there some good ones!

The one I listed on the forum was not focusing on Mobility, Movement and Flexibility.
This is a recurring theme for me and has been years in the making.

The ability to maintain full, free, efficient movement is of primary importance in any routine. I prefer the Functional Movement Screen as a means of assessing basic movment patterns and the joint mobility drills as means of coordinating the patterns. All to often in the past I have achieved a level of mobility and flexibility and then let it go because something shiny took my interest away - then - Hey what do you know? I end up tight again. Surprise - Surprise!

As much as I love strength and the high tension techniques - they must be balanced by relaxation and mobility drills.

How much of a mistake can this be? I mean really - how important is this?
Well - how does back surgery important sound?

Pretty important? I think so. And that is where I ended up when I finished off a disc injured in High School while squatting almost 4 years ago. I did not have the hip mobility to maintain my arch as I tried to squat deeper and - BLAMO - there went the back. (It didn't help that I was trying to set a squat PR after not squatting in a couple of years - but that is another mistake for another time {tomorrow maybe?}....) Had I been working on my hips and hamstrings I could have avoided back surgery. But hey - look at all I have learned and accomplished since then.

Lesson here is to work on your movement, mobility and flexibility - Foam rollers, massage, Yoga, stretching, joint mobility - all have a place - and before you start screaming about how you don't have time to incorporate all of these things... Target the areas that need targeted.
Hip flexors, hamstrings, soleus, hip rotators - overhead work and pec minor release - target the areas that need attention on you and re-screen and so on...(don't fall into the trap of feeling you have to hit everything - everytime {another blog for another day}...

So - How's your movement, mobility and flexibility?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's cool about this is that strength and mobility are not mutually exclusive.

Maybe this is one case where you can have your cake and eat it too.

Anonymous said...

When I first started doing the zhealth mobility work I took off about 5 weeks of training to just do mobility work, it was really hard but I had to take care of some shoulder issues. Prior to doing this I had started with clubbells, after the month + layoff I picked up the clubs and much to my surprise I had gone from 40 swipes to 100 straight, and if anything it actually felt easier. I really like how good mobility work improves efficiency, it's almost like your body has it's intended path or choice for movement but it's the compensations we develop that make your body have to choose from plan b, c, or d. It helps you move how you're supposed to not how you have to.

Brett Jones said...

hawkeye,
Not only can you have your cake and eat it as well - you have to have both. Besides what fun is having cake if you can't eat it! ;)

Kevin,
"how you're supposed to not how you have to" - that about says it all.

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