Coach Dustin on Mobility
By
December 8, 2015
The last few weeks it has come to my attention how little I mobilize. I have always relied on our mobility in class, or using a foam roller for 3 minutes after class and calling it good, but my body has slowly been telling me that it is not enough. In CrossFit, we combine all of the points of fitness, but often, mobility gets left out. At the CrossFit Level 2 Seminar, they made it clear that the time spent mobilizing should match the time spent working out.
We live busy lives; rarely do we have 20+ minutes to devote to mobility in a day. Even being a coach and spending a lot of my day at the gym, I still have a hard time finding a moment to grab a foam roller for 5 minutes. As CrossFitters, we never want to just sit down and stretch for 30 minutes. We’d rather go out and “run out the soreness". As great as active rest and recovery is, mobility is often what our bodies are really asking for.
I have a hard time making myself recover and rest. I would much rather go out for a hike or go climbing, and tell myself that if it isn't CrossFit, I am resting. But for me to be able to do all of that, I need to have the ability to move properly. That's where adding mobility comes into play. CrossFit, climbing, biking, running, walking, standing up out of a chair, all gets much harder the more we put off this whole stretching thing. Overhead positions, squatting, picking up a child, bending over to pick up laundry all become more tasking chores with restricted mobility.
I am guilty of this as much as anyone. I tell myself that taking a day off helps my body feel fine, but then I wake up the next morning with that still same dull ache in my back. Regretfully, I recognize that I could have taken down the issue by using the amount of time I spent on Facebook to stretch out instead.
The holidays provide lots of opportunities to use time watching football, posting those adorable pictures of the nieces and nephews, or relaxing with family to get some extra mobility time in. Before you go to bed, instead of moaning and groaning from that food coma, get on the ground and mobilize. Doing something you hate for 20 minutes a day means you will be able to continue doing the things you love the rest of the day.
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