I’m embarrassed to admit this but here goes: [inbreath] It wasn’t until I was injured that I started taking it seriously.
And the reality is, if I took more time to work on mobility, I probably wouldn’t have injured myself in the first place. If it’s boring and it hurts/is uncomfortable then you most definitely need to be doing it. I don’t really know anyone who LOVES working on mobility, but they LOVE what enables them to do. Increase their flexibility, allow more range of motion, and prevents injury. If you are someone who likes strength training and lifting weights, then mobility is key. And if you want to level up your strength training and lift more weight, you can’t do that without mobility.
How to improve mobility by (I) increasing the frequency to doing it every day (2 times a day) and (II) coaxing yourself to do it.
Let’s jump in:
Focus on stretching and mobility movements. GMB is a terrific resource for this.
Incorporate it into your routine
As for timing: My ballet teacher would always tell us to work on our flexibility after a bath. I still remember her saying this. I’d never do this of course, but it makes sense because after a hot bath or shower you’re more elastic in some ways. So that’s a good time to do it in addition to after a workout. Before a workout you want to do the warm up and that’s comprised of dynamic stretching where you’re not holding the stretches for too long. You’re loosening the limbs, joints, muscles up. Now, I like to do a little bit of morning mobility or stretches after my morning walk and I’ll do additional stretching after my workout for sure. I’ve also started stretching before bed. So now I do 10 minute sessions three times a day.
But what if it's a snooze fest?
If it’s boring to you what to do?
(A) You could do a full body yoga, some people are really able to get into it and I think that’s just wonderful. I’m not much of a yoga person, but I do enjoy it when I do it. I don’t have a yoga practice yet, but who knows maybe one day I’ll want to do it more often. So for people who like yoga, I’d say do that because you’re getting stretching and you’re working on your mobility that way.
(B) You could also listen to a podcast or audiobook while stretching. This is something I was doing when I was dealing with extremely tight hips and had to spend more time doing specific hip mobility. And yeah, it’s a slower pace and for me quite boring but I had to do it and one way that made it less boring I realized was listening to a book that I was reading at the time (City Girls by Liz Gilbert probably one of my favorite books now) and that made it more bearable.
(C) I know that other people like to stretch during commercials while watching TV or even during a film or show. So that might work for you?
So those are some ways to improve your mobility. The reality is that you just have to start doing it. Your flexibility will increase over time and so too will your mobility.
I put it off for a long time and I’m at the point now where I cannot put it off anymore. I’ve been making it a top priority and now do mobility training at least once a day sometimes two or three times depending on what other movement I’ve been doing that day.
What about you? Do you prioritize mobility? If so, are you going to incorporate it more into your daily routine? It might be slow-paced and boring (at least that what I used to think) but your body will thank you for it and you’ll be happy and pain free for it. We need to treat our bodies well, right?
Be sure to share this video with anyone who might benefit from it!
I’ll see you in the next video, ciao for now :)
Thank you for reading!!
