How These Guys Do it
So you want to learn about this mysterious new topic called mobility. You've heard about it and you have probably seen people doing mobility and didn't even know it. If you're wondering why this is such a hot button topic for elite gunfighters, law enforcement, professional athletes look no further. This quick article will help debunk what mobility is and why everyone should be using it. Trust us, it has saved us on many occasions and is one of the main reasons people make it to 20 years of service in the military.
Mobility is movement that helps lessen tension on joints and muscles, assisting in the end range motion of a joint.
Think about it, when you stretch you quads, your knees feel better because you took away the tension pulling on the knee cap causing downward force and knee pain. Its a combination of stretching, yoga, physical therapy movements and it can all be done at home without the need of any coaches, physical therapists or trainers. This is one of the single most effective ways of increasing performance as well as decreasing injury.
How does it increase performance and decrease injury?
Performance increases as you increase the end range motion of a joint, the muscles engaged in finding that new end range of motion during mobility are being activated. Many of these muscles called upon at the end range motion do not spend a lot of time being used. This new muscle activation enables us to command more muscle fibers in everything we do. All of a sudden, we are commanding more muscle fibers in squats, running, dynamic movement, you name it.
Decreased Injury is found in the end range of motion itself. Picture this: you and your mates jump off a helicopter, are sprinting to the, "X," you catch your ankle in a hole and your knee gets torqued sideways. You stumble and fall, but nothing is injured because your end range of motion is 10% more (to put a number to it) than someone who does not do mobility. Because you do mobility, you prevented a muscle tear and cartilage damage that could have set you back months.
Start Here
After years of movement under weight from ruck to kit and more, we have found mobilizations that help directly target the damage we do.
-
The Couch Stretch
- Get into a lunge position with your back knee on the ground, do it so that your rear shin is against a bench, hold for 2 minutes, switch
- This targets hip flexors, quads, psoas - we all use the hell out of these
-
Elevated Pigeon Pose
- One knee across the body in front elevated on a platform, the other leg back in a lunge, knee on the ground if able
- This targets the glutes and back, tight back? this will help
-
Rolling Quads and T-Spine
- Foam roll the front and both sides of your quads up and down three times each, lessens tension on knees alleviating knee pain
- Cross your arms and place the foam roller in the middle of your back. Roll up and down slowly 8-10 times. This is called the thoracic spine of T-Spine. As we wear kit this becomes tight from lack of movement and pulling of various hip muscles.
Tracking Mobility
To make lasting changes, ensure you're doing your mobilizations 3 days a week to start. Keep track of what you're doing and how long in a journal. We put a spot in The Black Book Training Journal just for mobility, right in the beginning, to make sure it's done first. Using any old notebook also works great, just be sure to write down your progress.
More tools for your toolbox
The-OmegaProject is a group of active duty individuals currently serving in US Special Operations dedicated to improving everyone's health and fitness. Using our experiences we want to help the next generation.
Follow us on Instagram and FB for more great content by clicking the image link below
For more mobility simply google or youtube, "mobility (insert body part)." It is that easy
The-OmegaProject