Not Just a Man's World

My “Powerlifting progress” series shows that I am starting to undo some of the damage caused by work stresses, but I’ve still got a long way to go.

One of the important areas for my recovery has been focussing on my mobility drills.  I had forgotten to keep adapting my mobility drills and when I started having problems with my lifting it was because my drill was no longer addressing the right problems.

There are three rules I (usually) apply to my mobility drills.

1. Do them!
2. Keep your drills focused on your current needs
3. Progressing mobility exercises over time

Do them

Mobility drills are essential for most people, especially those with jobs which keep them quite immobile, whether that is sitting at a desk or even standing still for long periods of time (eg. surgeons).

Make sure you have a space in every day to do a mobility drill.  If you only have time for short drills, try to fit two in each day (at the start and end of the day, perhaps).  Alternatively try to make the time a couple of times a week (perhaps at weekend) to do a longer drill and pick up on those exercises that get left out of the abridged drill.

Keep mobility drills focused on your current needs

It is easy enough to work out the “perfect” mobility drill with a combination of rolling, stretches and postural exercises to hit the worst weaknesses.  What is harder to do is to continually reassess whether that combination of exercises is still suitable for your needs.

Every workout I do I try to consider where the biggest weaknesses are at the moment.  Am I getting sufficient hip mobility?  Is my thoracic spine mobile enough?  Are my ankles flexible enough?  Is my shoulder locking out in a way that suggests there may be a knot or tightness round the joint?  Are my knees pulling inwards?

I then compare my needs to my current mobility drill to ensure I have some exercises, stretches or rolls that will deal with the issues.  If not, I put something in.  Since I have limited time to do my drills I then have to work out which exercise I do at the moment which is for something that I’m not having so much trouble with.  That then gets dropped for a few weeks so that I can concentrate on the bigger issues.

It sounds easy enough, but it is also easy to just keep doing the same routine.  That is why I ended up with a tight thoracic spine again and had to drop my push press weight.

Progressing mobility drills

Sometimes people have a weakness that they will always have to focus on.  Perhaps they have a job that is endlessly counteracting the good work of the mobility drill.

Mobility drills are like any other workout.  Once your body has adjusted to an exercise you will cease to get the same benefit from it, especially if it is an exercise designed to build strength in an opposing muscle. 

A good example is resistance band lunges (doing a lunge with a resistance band pulling your knee inwards that you need to resist against – it builds strength in the muscles that pull the knees outwards).  I frequently need to do these but if I don’t increase the resistance over time I find that the opposing muscles slowly increase in strength to match the outer muscles.  Eventually my knees pull inwards again, despite doing resistance band lunges every day.

Alternatively, instead of making your current exercise harder, progress to a different mobility exercise that will target the same problem.  There are plenty of exercises and drills out there that can be used as mobility exercises.

Learning my lesson

I’ve certainly learned my lesson now and I will be concentrating hard through my busy season at work to make sure that I keep my mobility drills changing, doing the exercises that I need and adapted exercises often enough to make sure they still meet my needs.

Do you keep your mobility drills changing?

Related posts:

1. Lessons learned this week: Mobility drills
2. Lessons learned: thoracic spine mobility (part 2)
3. Lessons learned: thoracic spine mobility (part 1)
4. Lessons learned this week: stress and lifting