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| Ideally this medical professional |
However, my body is a wonky, injury prone mess that feels like it was thrown together from left over parts that don't quite fit together right, so to keep myself somewhat functional and pain free, I've had to learn a little bit about how to keep one's body in something approaching good working order. As I seem to find myself noting in every article, to explore every aspect of this subject would require far more than one small article, this is simply my attempt at providing a bit of an overview and a few tips that hopefully you find useful.
Warm-ups
The Venn diagram of warm-ups, mobility and flexibility exercises overlaps largely, but I will attempt some distinction. Warm-ups are movements that are performed before a workout to prepare the muscles, joint and nervous system for exercise; while specific warm-ups where one performs a few sets of a given training exercise with successively heavier weights are encouraged by almost everyone in the S&C field, that is not what I'm covering here, rather more general warm-ups which can be performed first in a session to get one moving well. A general warm-up does not need to take a long time (and can in fact be worked in between sets of specific warm-ups) and will generally pay dividends in allowing for range of motion and quality of movement.
The ways in which you can warm up are myriad, google the phrase and you will see thousands of articles with the 'ultimate' warm up routine, so I will not try to add too much to the noise, below I will simply list some of what I have found to be the best bang-for-your-buck warm-up movements to get you maximally moving in a minimum of time.
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| This doesn't really show form, but it does show butt. |
Deep lunges - get the legs and butt working and dynamically stretch the hip flexors all in one sexy movement.
You know how this works: with both feet pointing forward and your torso upright, step forward, then slowly lower your rear knee to the floor, keeping your front knee directly over your foot. Add a slow twist of the torso towards the front leg in the bottom position and/or a forward lean for a greater stretch of the rear hip musculature. Push back to the start position and go again with the other foot, repeat as you see fit, try not to make eye contact with others.
Cossack squats - is there a better warm up for the entire leg musculature that also serves as a great groin and ankle stretch? is is it okay to call them that? no and probably not.
Get in a wide sumo stance with your hands held in front of your chest. Squat down towards one side, keeping that foot flat on the ground, whilst keeping the other leg straight, with the heel in contact with the floor. Try to keep the knee of the squatting leg in line with the toes, but let it move forward over the toes or you will likely fall backwards. If this is too difficult, keep your hands on the floor to maintain balance and make the movement easier or if you are a true Cossack warrior, hold your arms directly overhead for additional demands on the upper back and core. Descend as far as you can then reverse the motion and repeat on the opposite side. Feel the connection to your Eastern European brethren.
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| According to my scientific Google searching, this is a Cossack. Become the Cossack. |
Glute bridges - If you sit for most of the day, your glutes will likely need some activation for optimal athletic performance. I've talked about glute bridges before, refer there for more information, or watch the handy video provided. Basically, lie on your back with your legs bent, push through your heels, bridge up, squeeze butt. Repeat. If you are strong you can do alternating single leg bridges. Maintain eye contact with an attractive member of the opposite sex at all times.
Something for the upper back - another area that tends to get screwed over by sitting and working all day is the upper and mid back, also known as a thoracic or T-spine, correct hunched posture and improve performance by using the upper back muscles. As you can see, I've been super specific with my recommendations here as there are loads of possibilities, quadrupled t-spine rotation, band pull aparts, LYTPs and light row shrugs are all good ways to go about this, but to hit everything with one move, I find the face pull hard to beat. Grab a cable rope attachment/2 D-handles/a resistance band at shoulder height. Pull slowly towards the face (hence face pulls) keeping the elbows paralell to the floor or higher, externally rotate the arms and extend through the upper back, hold and reverse the motion. This exercise should be felt all through the upper back and rear delts, while also providing a bit of a stretch to the pecs.
Shoulder dislocations - these prepare the shoulder joints, surrounding muscles and scapulae for all of upper body movements. Personally, since putting these into most workouts, my shitty shoulders feel and move significantly better. To perform, grab a broomstick/PVC pipe/resistance band with an overhand grip at about twice shoulder width, more if you are made of wood, less if you are limber like a Russian gymnast. With your arms remaining straight throughout, move the broom/pipe/band in a controlled motion from in front of you in an arc over your head until it touches your back. Repeat, slowly moving the hands in if your flexibility allows it.
Push ups - an absolute bloody classic, warm up the arms, pecs, shoulders, serratus and core in one move. I'm not really sure how you managed to get here if you don't know what a push up is, but there are a few finer points to get the most out of them. Set up so your upper arms are at an approximately 45 degree angle to your torso in the bottom position, if viewed from above, you should look like an ↑, not a T; this allows for better utilisation of chest musculature and chance of shoulder discomfort. When performing push-ups, make sure the hips don't sag which will cause the lumbar spine to fall into a bad position, tense the abs and glutes as if you were doing a plank to maintain full body tension. Finally for added serratus activation and scapular movement, when the arms are locked at the top of the rep try to push your upper back further from the floor by 'sliding' the scapular and shoulders forward.
Mobility and flexibility
Onto mobility and flexibility exercises, which really overlap, but generally refer to movements which allow you to move comfortably through a normal range of motion (generally called mobility) and increase the available range of motion for a joint or series of joints (generally called flexibility). Splitting hairs and discussing semantics won't actually achieve anything so I'll just plow on with things that I find useful for mobility/flexibility and probably use the two terms interchangeably.
There is regularly confusion over when, relative to a training session, one should perform various mobility and flexibility movements; do you foam roll before a workout? what about static stretching? Whilst there isn't perfect agreement on this issue, most of the experts (and namely Dr. Kelly Starrett, the expertise of whom I will be calling upon throughout this section) agree that before a workout, some dynamic stretching, as in many of the above warm-up exercises, and maybe a small amount of myofacial release massage, is appropriate. Longer massage, myofacial release and static stretching sessions are best left to after a workout, or an entirely separate session on their own, ideally late at night as they will active the parasympathetic nervous system, putting you in a relaxed state.
For your flexibility and mobility practice, there are a few things tips that will help you get the most of it.
- Post workout massage of the muscle groups trained in a workout may have a small positive effect on recovery and reduction of muscle soreness, don't expect any miracles here though. 10 minutes of broad foam rolling of the muscle belly should be enough if you are eager to (maybe) experience a little less DOMS after leg day.
- When it comes to more specific mobility exercises, don't feel like you have to massage and stretch every single muscle in your body. After a while, you will likely know which of your joints get stiff or muscles get tight and knotted up, so need some TLC; focus on a few of these and don't waste your time on areas where you have good mobility.
- When stretching or performing myofacial release breathe deeply and slowly to further active the parasympathetic nervous system and facilitate relaxation of the muscles.
- If something feels tight or a little painful when you are massaging it, it likely means it needs attention. As cliche as it sounds, listen to your body, if something doesn't feel right, see to it. If you experience real pain (not just a bit of discomfort, don't be pusillanimous), stop what you are doing and see an expert.
- If you are doing a static stretch, it needs to be held for a long time to be of any use. No more quick counts to 10 and waltzing off like you achieved something - you didn't. 30 seconds is the minimum for stretches, 1-2 minutes is ideal.
- Mobility and flexibility are probably the most boring part of training, but try to work them in little and often, 15 minutes 3 times a week is probably better than an hour once a week.
Lacrosse/Hockey/Golf ball mashing - The smaller, yet meaner companion of the foam roller. The small size lets a ball hit some areas that a large roller can't and put an awful lot of pressure through your tissues and work out any knots or tightness in the muscles. Top places usually in need of some mashing are the glutes (in particular the piriformis, or the muscle that is underneath the side-ass dimple), upper back (everything around and and on top of your shoulder blades), chest (especially up near the shoulder) and feet.
As far as technique goes there isn't too much to say: get yourself in a position where the ball is between your muscle and a floor/wall. Support some of your weight with muscles that aren't being mashed (eg. if you are mashing your right pec, try to support yourself with your legs and left arm only) and put as much of your weight through the ball/muscle as is comfortable. Slowly move your body to lengthen/shorted the muscle being mashed as well as moving yourself around the ball to hit different areas of the muscle. Breathe deeply, try to relax, swear loudly as necessary.
Couch stretch - A Kelly Starret classic and probably the best way to balance out the ill-effects of sitting on hip mobility and leg muscle flexibility. Tight hip flexors are one of the biggest road block to optimal lifting performance; this should take care of that. It was called the couch stretch by Starrett but all you need is a floor and wall/chair/sofa at a right angle; get in a lunge and put you back foot up against the wall, get your knee right in the corner then move your butt back as close as you can to your foot (just look at the picture).
Now, it is crucial that you don't flex in the lower back, this isn't the time for booty popping; instead you should be flexing the abs and glutes hard to force posterior pelvic tilt and increase the stretch in your quads and hips of the back foot.
Hip capsule stretch - This one is a weird one, but everyone that I get to try it sees immediate improvement in their hip function. Our aim here is to give the ball and socket hip joint a little more wiggle room (technical term) so it can achieve greater range of motion and clear up and impingement which may be occurring. To perform, get on all fours (hey now), hands directly below shoulders, knees directly below hips. Now direct your weight entirely through one knee, leaning to that side and taking the weight off the other knee. You want the line of force to give you the somewhat grisly visual of the ball of your femur being forced back through your butt cheek, which should give you a nice deep stretch in the hip and piriformis. Move the shin of the leg being stretched across your body to further stretch the hip in external rotation. Repeat on the other side. Stand up and feel the amazement at how good your hips feel in a full squat. Write me adoring fan mail.
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| They don't make 'em like they used to. |
Gymnast's/Wrestler's bridge - This one is a bit more of an isometric strength move than a stretch/mobility exercise per se, but it is an isometric strength move that will pay dividends in mobility benefits. Got that? Good. The bridge is a classic, also referred to as the crab by some, it essentially involves a tight back bend while supporting your weight on your hands and feet (gymnast's) or head and feet (wrestler's). To assume the gymnast's position, lie on your back, bring your feet towards your butt, keeping them flat on the floor and put your palms on the floor next to your head, fingers pointing to your shoulders and elbows up. Now push with your hands and feet, squeeze the glutes and upper back and pop yourself up. Walk your feet closer to your butt if it all feels a bit too easy and push your chest as high and towards your head as you can to really work your thoracic extension and open up the chest. You can simply hold the bridge at full extension for as long as possible, knock out inverted push ups from this position, or lower yourself onto your head and rock back and forth for the wrestler's bridge which will build up the neck muscles. WWE here I come.
Pike stretch - it's a classic for a reason. Hammies, calves and spinal erectors regularly get tight and short, this bad boy hits them all. You can do this seated or standing, I honestly don't know if one is inherently better, but I'd say probably only go for the standing version if you have decent flexibility and spinal health already. There isn't a lot to say for this one, sit/stand and reach for your toes in a controlled manner, be less shit than the people in the photo above. If you are standing, gravity does a lot of stretching work for you, otherwise, grab your feet or the backs of your legs and gentle pull yourself further into the stretch, if you are total weaksauce like the fella above, a rope or band around the bottom of the feet can be used to pull yourself towards a less shameful position.
Doorway stretch - The chest can get pretty tight on desk workers and the 'every-day-is-bench-day' brigade. If you fall into both then your chest is probably so tight that your knuckles face each other and you can't touch your own back. Open your chest up by standing in a doorway, holding your upper arm parallel to the floor and your elbow bent at 90 degrees and placing your forearm vertically along the frame. Pull your shoulder blades back and down to protect the shoulder and lean your weight forward, allowing the arm against the door to gently pull back on the pec, you can overdo this one so go easy. The stretch can be done on both sides at once, but that limits position; stretching one side at a time allows you more freedom to get the stretch hitting the right places, going single armed also allws you to turn your head away from the stretching side to increase the stretch. To bias the pec minor over the pec major, place your entire arm, shoulder to palm, down along the door frame and proceed in the same way, this has less of a stretching feeling, so take care not to force it.
Overhead lat stretch - Most people don't train back, so probably don't have to worry about the muscles being short, but for strange backwards people like me, lat smashing and stretches are a necessity to avoid tightness which leads to bad shoulder movement and anterior pelvic tilt (those aren't good). Anyway, the overhead lat stretch is a good 'un and is also pretty much unlimited in how you do it.
It basically works like this: grab something sturdy around shoulder height with one hand (a band also works nicely), keep your arms straight and hinge at the hips, sinking the torso down and leaning until you feel a stretch. You'll likely need to do some moving around to find the position in which the stretch is greatest, feel free to lean the hips towards the side being stretched and also rotate the torso to target different areas of those big bastards. Repeat for both sides. Stand straight and feel the amazement at how good your arms feel in overhead extension. Write me more adoring fan mail.
