The rise in the interest of mobility lately has gone up a lot from what it used to be. It used to be you go to a gym and you see somebody just change clothes then they just start their warm up sets on squats. Now a days though you go to a gym and you typically see the person come in, change clothes, spend 15 minutes on a foam roller, then 5 min on a warm up cardio machine, then another 15 minutes of dynamic stretching and before they know it they spent already 45 minutes at the gym before even getting to there warm up sets. So on one extreme you have the person that does nothing to mobilize and on the other extreme we have the person that has to warm up as if they are going into war for the last time. Today we are going to discuss my experiences i have had, thoughts on mobility in a pro and con context, how much you should be doing, how much is too much, and then i am going to provide my personal total body 15 minute mobility routine that you can use as an outline. If you enjoy this article please give this a share as i would greatly appreciate it.
My Personal Experience
I have been training for over 7 years now in a consistent fashion and through my years i have been the person that would just go straight into their workout, I have been the person that would spend over 40 minutes on various mobility and foam rolling drills and in my personal opinion i found the less i did the better my workout and focus was (to an extent). I found that when i would come home from work and then start foam rolling before my workout it would make me tired and less focused. Then when i finally got around to training i was just too relaxed and not motivated to train anymore. Then i tried my next approach which was i stopped rolling pre workout and just did some simple running in place to get my heart rate up and i started training. At first that method worked amazing! I would stay focused, i would have great workouts and i felt warm! Everything felt right.... Until 3 weeks into doing this on one of my routines i was going into my first heavy set of squats, i unracked the bar took my 3 steps, braced my core, got my deep breath, went down and on my way out of the hole when i contracted my glutes i had immediate pain in my back and i had to rack the weight. I was out of squats for over 2-3 weeks just from that mistake of not spending a little extra on my mobility, several weeks after that a similar thing happened on bench and i messed my shoulder up and was out from benching for 3 weeks. So from trial and error i knew that while my short little warm up would work some of the time there was just to much room for error into screwing something up and getting injured. Now i will say just because your mobile does not mean you will not get injured, there is still chance of injury but mobility can help you move a little better so that you have a higher chance of avoiding injury. So later on i developed a short but efficient warm up routine that i have yet to get an injury from (KNOCK ON WOOD).
Pros & Cons To Mobility
While there are pros and cons to each approach i personally think everyone should be doing at least something before just jumping into warm up sets, but like i already said above that can create s slippery slope into doing to much.
The Pros
- You feel limber and you can move more efficient and gracefully
If you spend some time mobilizing every now and then, then you know what I'm talking about. After a nice mobility session you just feel good and you walk more gracefully and upright.
- Lower Chance of Injury
By spending a little time mobilizing you can greatly decrease the chances of getting injured.
- Allows time to get focused
While doing some mobility it allows you time to get your mind right before training.
- Mentally you feel more complete
If you don't do any mobility and jump right into your training you might feel as if your missing some aspect to your training and that can be a little mentally challenging to where it could effect your training session.
- Better range of motion during training
Some studies have shown that by mobilizing before a training session can allow you to have greater range of motion in your lifts than if you just went in cold.
- Allows time for your pre workout to kick in
Most people don't know it but if you take a quality pre workout supplement like Carbon Prep it takes about 30 min for you to fully get the effect from it, so doing some mobility can allow it a chance to hit your system before you get under the bar.
The Cons
- To much mobilizing/stretching can increase your chances for injury
By doing to much mobility you might get to relaxed and when you go to train your nervous system might not be prepared for the weight and then it could cause you to loose tightness and spark a chance for an injury.
- Decreased motivation to train
I used to be guilty of this like i mentioned above. I would spend so much time on mobility that i lost complete motivation to train.
- You get too relaxed
This goes with what i already said but too much mobility can just allow you to be in to much of a relaxed state and mentally thats not always the best way to train. If you have some hard AMRAPS to do i don't know about you but i like to be pretty amped for those test sets.
So as you can see the right mix of mobility lies somewhere between spending forever on it and only 2 min on it. An interesting thing to point out here is it seems like it has a non linear effect meaning that some of it is good but if you take it too far then you experience a worse effect than when you started. Remember just like strength mobility is not linear. (more is not always better in this case)
So How Much Time Should I Spend On It?
This is going to be completely dependent on the person. If i take a person with a desk job and a person that is on their feet all day then those two people will have completely different mobility requirements. A good rule to follow is that you should spend your time mobilizing on what your not doing doing during the rest of the day. Example would be since a desk jockey is on his/her butt the majority of the day he/she will need more lower body mobility than a person that is on his/her feet all day. Simply put if your on your feet most of the day then you probably don't need to spend much time on mobility and you would probably be fine with just doing some running in place and arm swings and your probably good to go. The desk worker tho will need to spend some time usually opening up the hips, Lunges, ect. to get them ready to get under a bar. Be honest with yourself and do enough until that you know your ready to go.
The pre workout mobility test
If your new to training then you might not be as familiar with your body as someone that has been training for a while so if your new to training and not sure how much mobility you should be doing then i have provided you with a quick test you can do before you start training that will tell you what you need to spend time on.
The Test - The overhead squat
The overhead squat may be something that you don't hear of much because its mainly only known in the olympic lifting world but the truth is the overhead squat is the one move you can do to diagnose any type of mobility issues you may be having.
Simply take a broom stick hold it above your head, get in your squat stance and squat down. If you have good mobility this will feel very smooth, your heels should be able to stay on the ground, and you should be able to keep a neutral spine and you should be able to keep your arms raised without feeling any tightness in the shoulders. If you don't have those things happen when you do this exercise then thats a notification you need to spend some time on ankle flexibility, Opening up the T-Spine, band pull aparts to warm up the shoulders and also arm circles and just hanging out in the bottom of the squat position to open things up. Once you can perform the overhead squat with a very good smooth motion and form thats a sign you are pretty much mobile enough for any training session.
Work On What You Need
So while the overhead squat test is a great test for people that are not very familiar with what they need. The work on what you need approach is another method you can take. Say for example you have a squat workout and when you come in the gym your hips and ankles are tight but your shoulders feel fine, that person knows what they need and they can just spend the time needed on exactly what they are after and when they are mobile enough then they are ready to begin their session. I used this approach for a while but for me i am a very routine and organized person. Me personally i have an organized approach to everything in life and the same goes for my warm ups. I tried this method of warming up but i just felt so unorganized and when i would train i always kept asking myself "could these squats have felt better if i spent some extra time on my shoulders ect." so doing that approach was just not doing it for me. I needed a routine that i could stick to to keep it organized but i also wanted it to be short and rememberable from memory so thats when i came up with the quick 15 min mobility routine. The routine below will address everything you need before going into any session. You cover upper body and lower body and even get your breathing set for the routine as well which we all know is one of the most important parts.
The 15 Minute Mobility Routine
1. Hang from pull up bar and just swing around on it allowing your back to decompress and increase shoulder flexibility and mobility.
2. Arm Swings horizontal and vertical (use force on these) you want your joints and muscle prepared to train so use force on these motions.
3. Arm circles forward and back
4. Crack your back and also side twist to crack your back as well
5. Wrist stretches in all directions with arms straight and bent in a front rack position
6. Cable Face Pulls, rows, and pull downs all quick and powerful
7. Band suspension of shoulders - simply wrap a band around a pull up or high bar and grab the other side of the band with your hand in lean into it allowing you to open up different parts of the shoulder, this one should feel really good and really helps set you up to stay more upright while squatting.
8. Band pull aparts horizontal like your benching and also vertical like a straight arm pull down
9. Band tricep ext to warm the triceps and elbows up
10. Side bends left and right
11. Sit in a wide squat position opening the hips
12. band shoulder dislocations
13. grab 2 five pound plates and bring them up horizontally and vertical to activate rear delts
14. keep the 2 five pound plates and do some side laterals
If your just training upper body then you can stop there, if you have lower body as well then keep following below
15. Scorpion left and right
16. lay on ground knees parallel up and side to side
17. Lunge right foot, deep lunge right, rotating into lunge right, then bent knee over foot while in lunge on right side, then repeat on left side.
18. Get in squat stance, put hands under toes and squat up and down
19. stand in squat stance and thrust hips back and forward, looks funny but it activates the glutes
20. Calf stretches on wall leaning into
21. Leg swings side to side and forward to backward
22. Quad activation - pull your knee into your chest while standing and thrust it up 2 times with force, repeat on other side
23. Glute activation - same thing as quad but pull ur ankle up
24. Long Knee Up jumps (only do 5) stand in squat stance and long jump and jump as high as possible. make these as powerful as you can make them. this will prep your legs for explosiveness.
25. Stand with your hands placed on your stomach and breath deep into the stomach allowing you to really open up your lunges and prep your respiratory system.
THATS IT! then you can proceed with your warm up sets
so while that may seem long its only 15 minutes and if you just do the upper body part thats only around 8 minutes. Do not spend a lot of time on each one, this should just be a fast fluent routine that flys by and gets you ready, there is NO static stretching in this. Also this routine is mainly for someone like myself that is on there ass all day at a desk. If you walk a lot during the day then you might not need most of this. Experiment on what you personally need.
Lets Wrap Up
So to wrap this up Mobility is a tool that you should use to prep for your workout but there is a chance of doing to much and screwing up everything your trying to accomplish. Even with the routine i have provided feel free to edit it for what your individual needs are. Mobility / warming up is very individual and what works for one may not work for another. Trial and error is your best bet when it comes to mobility and warm up. The simple rule to keep when creating what you do for mobility is to follow the K.I.S.S. Principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) hope you guys enjoyed this article, like i said above if you liked this article please click the social media share buttons below to show your appreciation. Also i want to hear from you. What do you do for mobility? do you follow a routine? do you not do any? tell me in the comments below. Till next time guys
Stay Strong,
Shawn Fausey
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- Shawn Fausey is the Founder and CEO of Fausey's Fitness. With Over 6 years experience in Bodybuilding, Powerlifting and Nutrition. Shawn offers services of online fitness coaching, programing and consulting. Shawn is also a Graphic Designer and can be reached for graphic services on www.rev-graphics.com
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