9.20.17 Mobility
MetCon// (rain or shine)
Run 1 Mile
Lunge 800ft
Run 1 Mile
New athletes at HCF often have no idea where they're limited in their mobility. And unless you live a pretty active life there is really no reason to know. Once you're exposed to some full range of motion standards and high intensity, all of a sudden, you're all too aware of how your body can and can't move. We typically begin class with a stretch, movement, or tool (foam rolling) with some suggestions specific to the day's workout. It is really impossible for us to address the multitude of mobility ranges in a 6 minute session of workout-specific-stretching. Every athlete should know their own limitations and actively be working on them outside of the gym. Without going into too many specifics there's a lot you can do to work on optimizing your range of motion. Stretching and Foam rolling are like meat and vegetables, they're very healthy and helpful, but just knowing that isn't enough... yah, you actually gotta do them for them to work. There are countless resources for great stretches and foam rolling techniques. Just youtube search a bodypart and "mobility" and you'll find no less than 100 videos. Our go to resource is Kelly Starrett or K-Starr, the OG CrossFit mobility guru.
The basic advice is, look up how to stretch your problem area and get after it, but one mobility session likely won't fix your issues, it'll take consistency. Pencil it into your schedule.
There are some helpful solutions you probably haven't thought about though. One is a basic lifestyle observation. How much are you sitting throughout the day? Being more mobile is an obvious solution for your lower extremities, but the people with the best posture, have the best posture. It's possible to sit with good posture, but its not likely that you're sitting for any significant amount of time and keeping your shoulders back and down. Taking mini breaks or scheduled walks is a way to reduce that sit-time. Do you go watch your kids' sport practices or games? Maybe those are an opportunity to choose standing over sitting.
One time you could be utilizing but maybe aren't is simply after the workout. We write suggested stretches into the cool-down, but if you have bigger fish to fry, feel free to get at that trouble spot!
Finally the thing that has helped my personal mobility the most actually happens in the WOD itself. That is committing to and striving for the full ranges of motion. When I'm all warmed up, and can bend even just a little further in those hard to reach directions, I make sure to stress the limits of my mobility. The answer to the question of "how can I squat deeper," unfortunately is to squat deeper. When pressing the barbell overhead, it looks like really striving to reach my head through and squeeze my elbows into a full lockout. Pulling my hips down into a good dead lift set-up. Pushing my elbows up whenever I catch a clean rather than just letting it hit my shoulders. Pressing mummy head and chest through when in a handstand. Lets say a WOD calls for 100 squats, 100 cleans, or 100 push press. Thats 100 opportunities to increase your range of motion-- probably more effective than a couple minutes of stretching and foam rolling!