The short answer…YES, we are!
So…how much time would you say that you spend working on your mobility every day? 30 minutes? 10 minutes? 2 minutes? That’s typically the question that I will ask when someone is wondering why they haven’t seen much improvement. 50% of the time I’ll get the shoulder shrug and a “I know…I need to do it more.” Hey at least those people are honest.
Are there days I don’t want to do it? There sure are. Honestly there are days I’m tired, sore and don’t feel like even working out, let alone do my mobility work. But 99.9% of the time I will workout and 83.6% of the time I’ll do some mobility. Hey, I’m human too, but I’m working on it. It used to be down around 20.8% so I’m happy with my progress. In all honesty thought, you have to force yourself to do it. You have to force yourself to do other things like not hit the snooze alarm, eat the chicken and not the pizza, and you have to force yourself to go to the gym. And then you have to force yourself to get stronger. But if you can force yourself to do all those other things, mobility should be a piece of cake (not literally, unless it’s a cheat day or if it fits your Macros). The sad truth about motivation is that it will only take you so far. At some point it fades out and that motivation well is bone dry. And that’s when it’s on you to make it happen.
“Mobility is earned, not given.”
The problems with mobility typically start when people finish their workout and fly out the door as fast as possible. That’s why all of us are our own worst enemy. We’ll come up with 12 excuses why we don’t have time. But we’ll all rush home to get in front of a television or stare at a tiny little screen checking our Facebook account. Think about this, if you spend 8 hours at a desk all day, plus an hour of total commuting time and another hour sitting for lunch you’ve just hit 10 hours on your butt before dinner. Then you come home, watch TV, mess around on the computer all while sitting down too. You might spend 16+ hours sitting per day. That’s scary. That’s one of the big reasons that sitting is sometimes referred to as the new smoking. Maybe it’s no wonder that all the fancy band stretches aren’t helping you out with 16+ hours of sitting. But don’t worry there is a solution. And it’s not hard. It’s actually what we were meant to do.
It isn’t magic or some secret that only the elite know about. You just need to move more throughout the day. If you tend to find yourself slouched with crappy posture in a chair all day, that’s what your body will want to adapt to. Our bodies were designed for survival and adaptation. So if you don’t have to ever squat down outside of the gym, your body will be happy to stay tight and slouched like an Armadillo. So get up and move, don’t be an Armadillo. Actually why don’t you get up and do it right now. Take a quick 5-minute walk and come back and finish reading this. It’ll be here. Unless the Armadillos steal the internets.
Glad to see you made it back from the walk and that the Armadillos did not steal the internets. Back to the semi-serious blog. My posture is far from perfect, but I am constantly trying to focus on it throughout the day and if I catch myself I’ll correct it immediately. If something feels tight I’ll try to work through the range of motion that will open it back up. Since I’ve been more aware of my posture I don’t catch myself in bad positions as often, but I do still catch myself. The good thing is once you reach the point where you notice the bad posture you will begin to finally see how often you are in it and start to fix it.
“If your hips are super tight and all you do is sit all day do you really believe the 2 mins of stretching is really going to fix it?”
Now when it comes to finding time, just start with 10-15 mins a day, every day. If that seems like too much time, start with 5 mins. I know that sounds counterintuitive to what I just said but we need to form a habit and build on it. Like a snowball rolling down a hill. Try to add little things throughout the day to help you as well. Push away from your desk every so often and take a short little walk. If you didn’t take one a paragraph ago take one now! One of my favorite things to do that has worked wonders for me is to sit in the bottom of a squat position throughout the day. If you want to check your Instagram feed pop a squat. It’s little tricks like that that become the foundation for you to build off of.
Try to accumulate 5-10 minutes daily. Grab a foam roller and get rolling throughout the day. If you find a spot that is tender stick around on it for a while. Buy a 3 foot foam roller and cut it into 3 pieces. Keep 1 at home, 1 at the office and 1 in the car just in case. Now you really don’t have an excuse. But foam rolling shouldn’t be fun, it should be work.. If it’s not walking that line of being uncomfortable it’s probably not doing anything for you. You have to get deep; you have to bust out some other mobility tools like lacrosse balls and PVC pipes to really dig in when necessary. It probably should cause you to break a sweat too if you’re really trying to affect change. I don’t want you to be in pain, but you shouldn’t be able to have a phone conversation and the person never ask “What are you doing?”
“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the willow survives by bending with the wind.” – Bruce Lee
If you can move better, all of the other goals you set will come that much easier and faster. The biggest thing that can hold you back from optimal performance is you. Rarely is it a skill issue, typically your body has to work so hard against itself that you waste all of you energy fighting yourself as opposed to fighting the barbell. It might sound silly but it’s true. Watch someone with poor mobility perform overhead squats. You’ll see what I mean. I believe that everyone wants to move better and if that isn’t your main goal, you should seriously consider making it a priority.
The next time you are getting frustrated that you aren’t progressing how you’d like, take a long look into the mirror and rethink your mobility strategy. The lack of time and focused energy towards mobility might after all be what is truly holding you back. Which means you are holding yourself back. Have you noticed the theme yet? If you don’t know what to do just ask someone. If your mobility is that bad in a number of areas the old shotgun approach is a great place to start. Just remember, mobility does not just show up one day. You’ve got to earn it!
“Take care of your body it’s the only place you have to live.”