Summary:

Mobility Training Principles

• Many people cherry pick what they think is important for their health and mobility without much thought given for the overall situation. This leads to neglecting key areas and muscles of the body, which in turn makes you susceptible to injuries.
• A more systematic approach is therefore required, one that leaves no stone unturned. We start by doing the initial movement tests so that you can see where you have the restrictions compared to what is considered the normal range of motion. After these initial results, we direct you to appropriate techniques that you will primarily use to resolve the restrictions for your movement. Alternatively, if you already know where your problems lie, you can move to the techniques section and start working as instructed there.

General Instructions To Mobility Workout Sessions

1. Find out what is going on in your body. This will involve testing the functions of your neck, shoulders, arms and upper back.
2. After the initial tests, make sure to record your findings. We provide you the template for the recording that you can download or print. These are important as they serve to remind you how much progress you´ve made and what are the key areas that you need to focus on primarily in your mobility workouts. You can also make a video or photo recording of your initial movement test results.
3. What you should experience during mobility workouts. There is a lot of confusion and misinterpretation surrounding how mobility training should feel like. For one, people tend to think that the more you force mobility to happen, the better you become at it. Think of trying to force your hands to the ground while bending down even though your hamstrings give you the signals not to overdo it. The correct feeling should be a comfortable, caring stretch. Overtime and after enough workouts, your body begins to adapt into these new positions. In Myofascial & Triggerpoint Techniques, such as foamrolling or triggerpoint ball workouts, people push against the tissues with too much force. In these techniques, it can feel painful at first when you find a really tight muscle knot, but the feeling subsides quite quickly when you work with it. There is no need to force this either. In joint techniques, there should be no pain, only a stretching feel to the workout. Usually Joint techniques are performed with the restricted movements and you recognize the correct technique by feeling more at ease with the movement. Lastly, the Nerve Mobility Techniques should be completely pain free. If you are doing the Slider exercises, there shouldn't even be a feeling of stretching to the movement. Tensioner movement on the other hand should be really stretching, but more on these techniques on later parts of this course.
4. What is the optimal duration for a mobility workout. It is recommended that initially you do some mobility workouts every day for 10-20 minutes. For Myofascial & Triggerpoint Techniques you shouldn't do the same techniques on consecutive days, as the normal response for the techniques is muscle soreness. Let this soreness pass before you do the technique again. Also, don't do a strenuous exercise that involves the areas that you have treated until the soreness is gone. For the rest of the mobility techniques, there is no restrictions how often you use the same technique. It is actually prefered especially in the beginning that you do them daily. The duration of different mobility techniques vary, but as a general guideline you need to work with the same technique for at least 2 minutes to get some results.
5. What you should feel after the workouts. Slight soreness in the muscles is the most common feeling that people get from the workouts. This is somewhat similar to the feeling you get from other types of workouts. If you are experiencing a more intense pain after the workout or the next day, you should either do the workouts with less intensity or scale down of much time use to do the exercises.