Why Your Shoulder & Hip Mobility Training Doesn’t Work
2023-01-22
There is no shortage of people talking about mobility training, but oddly, most people don’t improve in their movement. Don’t get me wrong, the people that are already mobile look great, but ever notice that the people that NEED mobility training the most often don’t make that many improvements? Even though you supposedly do the “right” shoulder and hip mobility training drills.
Don’t worry, if you are like many people that struggle to actually see appreciable changes in your mobility training then you will love finally having answers that give you better science to solve your goals.
Mistake: Isolating Joints
Oddly, even though so many people have heard terms like fascial lines, kinetic chains, and even movement patterns, when it comes to using mobility training in our programs we go back to our bodybuilding ideas. “My shoulder won’t move, it must be my shoulder” is typically the thought process by waaaaaayyyy too many coaches.
As we have shared many times, your body is interconnected. What could be a shoulder or hip mobility training issue is actually stemming from a foot, ankle, core, even neck issues (as it relates to your shoulder).
That means when we perform mobility exercises we want to integrate the body as much as possible. This means trying to use the feet, the core, and any feedback that can help people learn how to use their bodies more efficiently. The Ultimate Sandbag and bands are major ways we provide feedback to the body.
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Mistake: Driving UP The Nervous System
There are stats nowadays saying that 77% of Americans suffer from enough stress to negatively impact their lives (this is also a worldwide problem). That is important because it means our body is almost always on guard! This means that our nervous system won’t take the brakes off our body’s movement so just trying to crank on the body doesn’t relate to better mobility training.
People have gotten more aware of how specific breath work can be helpful because breath training can tap into our vagus nerve which has a whole chain reaction in calming down our nervous system. That is why breath has been so integral to movement systems for centuries. Nowadays though breath is usually overcomplicated and/or never even apply movement with breath. This is a missed opportunity to calm down our nervous system as well as teaching our body to move more efficiently. That is why exercises like those from our Myofascial Integrated Movement program are so effective.
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Most of the biggest reasons that people keep having to work on various mobility training is that they still target the wrong issues that restrict our mobility. When you realize our anatomy has so many layers you can see that just getting to the joint itself can be very difficult. Not only is there fascia, tendons, ligaments, nerves, muscle, and the joint, but physical therapist, Jessica Bento reminds us that if there was truly a joint issue we could actually create MORE damage by trying to move into ranges of motion that are problematic for the area of the body.
That is why focusing on integrated shoulder and hip mobility training will not only allow you to get better results, they will be longer lasting, AND teach the body how to take the brakes off so that we can move and train at higher levels.
You can learn to build better mobility training with our DVRT Mobility program HERE and Myofascial Integrated Movement program HERE. Both are 2% off with code “save20” this week along with other great DVRT programs & our Ultimate Sandbags
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