In a previous post I’ve looked at how viewing different elements of fitness as separate entities causes more strain on your time and your finances.
If you missed it, here’s a video explaining it
The best way to save time and money with mobility is to start thinking in terms of joint mobility rather than fitness elements.
Once you’ve focused your attention on your joints, then it’s time to start looking at ways to SIMPLIFY your mobility efforts.
Most people make the mistake of thinking that they need to cover the entire body before starting their training, but that only leads to a very short time being spent on each area, which might make you feel a bit better, but does nothing to make a real difference.
The SMARTT™ way to make the most changes in the shortest amount of time is to pick one or two joints and focus ALL your time and energy on those.
Obviously, if you know where your restrictions are, you can put all your efforts into those areas, but even if you don’t, you’ll know which joints are most likely to be affected by the training you do.
If you’re running, hips, knees or ankles are a great place to focus on.
If you’re cycling – it’s GOT to be hips.
And if you’re swimming, spinal rotation, ribcage or shoulders are a great place to start.
I know it’s VERY unlikely that your training schedule will only have you doing each one of these activities once a week, so all you need to do to make mobility really easy is choose a different joint each time you do each of the activities (with the exception of cycling. Always choose hips with cycling).
Let’s say your training schedule had you swimming 3 times per week, cycling twice and running twice.
That’s 6 different opportunities to choose a different joint (cycling is always hips remember).
But what if your training schedule has you training twice in a day? Simple, choose a common joint for both activities.
Even if it’s swim and run, poor hip extension and spinal rotation will damage your performance in both activities.
Choosing just one joint to focus on each day helps you to cut out all the clutter, simplify your mobility and just get on with it.
When you’ve got a plan to follow that deals with that joint, then you can completely clear your mind of anything else to do with mobility.
It’s pretty simple really.
Pick a joint. Have a plan. Get on with it.
It really is the quickest way I know to forget about mobility.
Most people try to cram too much into the time they have, try too hard to think about what they need to be doing and then end up doing the same thing every day (if anything at all).
Don’t be like them.
These simple, FREE movements will give you a great way to get started with your hip tightness (which is also hugely involved in Lower Back Pain).
Give them a try, then come on over and join our little Facebook community to tell us how you got on