Mobility Training For REAL People
2022-08-7
When I work with clients I have never been hired because people were feeling too good, moving too well, and too strong. The job of a coach is to help people with problems they are experiencing even if they aren’t sure what is causing their issues. For so many of my clients, lack of mobility played a HUGE part in why they were having issues.
Moving well makes sense, it allows you to train hard, load the body in the right ways so you are less likely to experience any injuries, and to progress so much faster in your training. Sadly, so many mobility training that I see nowadays isn’t targeted to those that need mobility training, it is for those that are already really mobile!
You often don’t see or hear about the years of martial arts training or yoga they had been performing when they “discovered” their new mobility training system. This type of mobility training isn’t really helpful for the individual who hasn’t been training in a long time, is battling an injury, and isn’t someone who has spent decades in other forms of activities that have a heavy emphasis on mobility and flexibility (like yoga and martial arts).
What do we do for REAL people that need mobility training, but don’t have decades of doing “this or that” to gain that movement capability? Science can lead us A LOT in the right direction!
There is a great deal of research pointing to the fact that proximal stability plays a big part in the enhancing the mobility training we can do with people. In other words, a large percentage of people (for a host of reasons) don’t possess great core stability. As a result, the nervous system perceives that as a threat and in order to protect our body from injury it will reduce the motion of our body (especially areas like the shoulders and hips).
Renowned physical therapist, Gray Cook says it so well!
That is why you see in DVRT we do a few things very differently when it comes to better mobility training.
Step 1: Integrate The Core
We accomplish this goal of creating better core stability by holding the Ultimate Sandbag in different ways. You will commonly see us Front Load or Press Out the Ultimate Sandbag in order to create that better proximal stability. The position of both these motions allows us to integrate the lats/core very easily to make our core training better. The key is to be ACTIVE in these positions like pulling the weight apart with our forearms while keeping our elbows in for the Front Load, or pulling apart in both the Press Out and pulling of the Ultimate Sandbag.
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Step 2: Give Feedback To The Body
While using bands is not unique to our DVRT system, why and how can be! Many will say they are aiming for joint distraction when they employ bands (which may happen) but that opens up a whole can of worms as physical therapist, Jessica Bento, often says as doing true joint distraction requires a lot more knowledge of the position and force application of the joint. What we do in DVRT is use bands for feedback (if we get some distraction awesome!) especially in using the feet to help create core stability from the ground up. This also allows us to gain better awareness of where our body is in space which can help with alignment.
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Step 3: Use Integrated Movements
Often when people find a mobility restriction somewhere in the body, they assume we just have to crank on that area. However, that shows a lack of understanding of how our body functions. In a 2012 paper in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning it was found, “this study incorporated hip stretching protocols that include torso and arm positioning, to address the concept of myofascial stretch. Given the large improvements in hip mobility, it appears that these stretches are beneficial and should be considered as another mechanistic choice when recommending a stretching protocol.”
Seeing that our whole body should be integrated when we perform mobility training helps us also appreciate that the body is very interconnected. This is well known in neural therapy practices and is why neurologist and world authority in myoskeletal medicine, Karl Lewitt, had the famous saying below (as well as showing he looks like fun guy!).
Instead of trying to isolate the joint area, using integrated movement like amazing coaches like Martin Adame and Sean Lettero show below. When we ACTUALLY understand the science of movement we can create better solutions that are easily adjustable to meet the needs of anyone looking to improve their mobility training and functional fitness. Getting stuck in outdated ideas and not realizing WHY our body often creates movement restrictions can hold us back from achieving great results!
Save 25% ALL throughout DVRT including our Ultimate Sandbags/Water Bags, Online Workouts, and Online Certifications/Courses like Physical Therapist, Jessica Bento’s Restoration and DVRT Rx Programs (only excludes live events). Just use code “summer25” HERE
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