Hey MWodies,

Today’s mission is open up the side of your rib cage and improve your shoulder range. 

Collect 4-5 minutes a side.  Retest with pushup and overheadedness.

Kstar

ps. We shoot these videos in one take.  Sometimes the technology isn’t perfect.  This one starts out a little blurry. You are gonna have to imagine mobing while a little wasted.

Today’s episode is one of my favorites.  Because we are in SF, we have the good fortune to be close to Glen Pendlay and his lifters over at Cal Strength.  Last week, we had one of Diane Fu’s lifter crushes drop by.  Who doesn’t want Pat Mendes hanging around your gym?  Actually, he’s annoyingly fast and strong.

I’m reminded sometimes when  I get a chance to work with the world’s best athletes, that they need tools that work appropriately (read actually do something). Pat is a product of super coach John Broz in Vegas, and has legs that can raw squat (deep, really deep) 800lbs.  So, it’s not much of a stretch to see why a tube of white foam isn’t really going to change much in his legs.   It’s not strange that during this smash party, Coach Glenn noted that the Chinese lifters engage in a whole bunch of whole body smashing before and after their training (weird that humans have been around for 2.5 million years and that they figure this out over and over and over…).

By the way, in spite of Pat’s loveliness and incredible abilities, he still get’s a minus one for making  a gristle face. There just isn’t any excuse.  It did take a little longer than two minutes to make change in those tree trunks.  Stay on that tissue or mob until you change something or until you stop making changes.

The weight lifting nationals are just about 2 weeks away.  It’s gonna be amazing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

WOD:  Grab a Barbell or something heavy and go after your legs thighs and quads for at least 10 minutes.  No crazy horse eye.

Kstar

Today’s episode rounds out this cycle on shoulder internal rotation.  While it is relatively easy to understand what is happening in the shoulder in more “simplified” movements (think ring dip and bench),  it is sometimes more complicated to see restrictions and function in more dynamic freestyle types of motion. This is one of the reasons why a good strength and conditioning program is essential.  It makes the invisible more visible.

Today’s episode is starring our friends at Parkour Visions in Seattle.  These guys are amazing (never mind the freaky awesome super kids in the back ground).  If you find yourself in the Northwest and are looking for a new way to apply your fitness, this place is for you.  Be prepared to feel like a newbie at everything.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2-3 min side/mob  test retest with some Free Running.

Kstar

Today is day two in the battle for better shoulder positioning.

Rules are simple:  2-3 min a mob/side.  OR Camp out until you stop making change

Be sure to compare sides between efforts and test your overhead squat after.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kstar

Today’s mission is the first of three addressing the scourge of the modern athlete, missing shoulder IR.  Some of these aren’t “fun”, but damn if your performance won’t improve.

2-3 minutes per side/per mob  Test/Retest with high hang and pushup

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kstar

Today’s episode wraps up this MobRx squat cycle.

Grab 10-12 minutes of a beat down when it works into your schedule.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kstar

Today is day 2/3 for this mini-cycle.

Figure out a time during the course of the day to get in 12-15 minutes of mobzeit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kstar

Post experience and and learned lessons to comments.

Today’s episode is a reminder that when we are experiencing some sort of movement related problem, we need to clean up our movement patterns first. This is particularly true in athletes that have some sort of history of orthopedic trauma.   An easy way to think about this situation is this, the more damaged or severe the injury or problem is, the less tolerance the athlete has for sloppiness or less than ideal mechanics.  For example, a once dislocated shoulder will always be more susceptible to “looseness” problems (primary instability) and Delta-Bravo shoulder-itis.  In Stephen’s case for example, his fractured patella will never be “normal” (it will be normal-ish) and won’t tolerate as much  early compression in range and transitional loading as his other knee.  Functionally, this means that he needs to be mechanically adept enough to maintain his vertical-ish shin as long as possible.  This translates to back squatting being easiest, and over head squatting/snatching being most difficult.  Either way, if he’s running a low-slack system (global stiffness/tightness), that knee is going to start talking to him.  And while the general consensus is that crepitus by itself isn’t an immediate problem (your joints should be leopard-smooth fyi), it can indicate less than perfect mechanics and less perfect sliding surfaces. Tight hinges squeak.  Weird.  You just don’t need a pile of “hinge dust” at the bottom of your door (knee).

Helping Stephen to understand is mechanics with the box squat is the same conversation Louie has when training athletes to squat 1000+.   Weird that overlap?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kstar

Minus 1 for making a gristle face.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Post results to comments.

Kstar

Today’s mission rounds out the 365 mobility project cycle.  About 15 months ago, I thought it was a good idea to begin a serious discussion amongst some friends about better positioning, movement quality, and improving mobility.  I thought that creating 365 videos on the topic would be ambitions and good start.  I told one friend on that first day (BMac from Crossfit Endurance).  We just hit 1.1 million unique users in Google Analytics, covering 201 countries (North Korea is still not supple.  I will try harder.)  You can imagine that the whole thing blows my mind.  Over the course of the last few months I have learned a few lessons to say the least:

1) Athletes need to be treated like athletes.  Tubes of foam are for children.  Mobilization tools for athletes need to be legit.

2) We’ve got to keep  mobilization within the context and language of the movement we are trying to change.

3) Humans are hard to kill.  We have enormous capacity to heal and change.  Anywhere, anytime, anyplace.  We can probably fix about 80% of      our business ourselves.

4) There are no days off.  Fifteen minutes a day is more than enough time to deal with your crap.  But you need to do it everyday.

5) Programming to the movements of the day drives the relationship between cause and effect for athletes. Daily, topical, specific mobility  interventions allow for dynamic programming for large groups and meaningful use of time.  Test and retest progress and position.

6) Prioritize Motor Control through well performed movement first.  Then mobilize second.  Much of the pain and dysfunction with which athletes deal is a result of crappy movement.

7) Never go in the pain cave.  Leopards don’t live in caves. Pony up.

Performance is the only metric that really matters, because good mechanics and technique is never a compromise .

9) You should never sit down.  Ever.  Don’t you even think it.

10) People are clever, smart, and greedy.  Empowering athletes to deal with own crap before it becomes critical is the way of the future. And they can do it.  Tying changes in behavior to ego (everyone likes going faster, being stronger, and hurting less) always works.

11) We have so much untapped potential.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The question is, what’s next?

We are working on a version 3.o.  and it will probably be a few months out.  We have some ideas.  Programming, a forum, better searching, mobility prescriptions, anatomy lessons, research, protocols, warm ups, etc.   Imagine a webMd, but about fixing yourself and heavy squatting. Hang tough.  It’s coming.

How has the MWod changed your life?  Post experience to comments.

And be sure to collect 10 minutes in the bottom of the squat.

K-Supple-Leopard-Prime-Star

PS. Jstar is now the unofficial world record holder for mobility cinematography.  Let them try.