My first introduction to mobility was the Naked Warrior workshop presented by Pavel Tsatsouline and Steve Maxwell.
Steve led us through a routine covering the toes to the head. Most of it came quite easily. But I remember that first time trying to move my thoracic forward and back. Ha! It wasn’t happening. It’s a common “stopping point” for many people.
But after that workshop I kept at it.
Later on I met up with my friend Chuck Halbakken while assisting at an RKC in San Jose, California. He was showing off some stuff from Z-Health he could do. Seeing someone do something with their ankle a couple times and then have greater range of motion in the shoulder the first time is kind of paradigm shifting. That which was when I labeled him as a voodoo master.
I started playing around with this Z-Health stuff and its neurologically based mobility training.
A couple of years later I get into the biofeedback training based on the recommendation of Adam Glass. He says that your body may not need to do mobility training each day. Some of those movements may not even be what your body NEEDS and WANTS. Some could even be bad for you.
I stop doing regular mobility work. I find that I feel just as good and my performance continues to increase.
This year at the Super Human Workshop, Eric Guttmann shows his basic mobility routine. Besides a couple of new ideas its mostly what I’ve done in the past.
Bud Jeffries then unveils a brand new idea. Tapping into the fascia with mobility. He leads us through this and my body is positively BUZZING and feeling great. Whoa! Another paradigm shift.
I start regularly working with this new Myofascial Mobility in a morning routine I’ve put together. The more I do it the deeper it allows me to go.
I figure out there’s a difference in Fascia Focus and Joint Focus and thus develop Intuitive Mobility, even though both forms rely on body intuition rather than set exercises and reps. Different purposes and different results from the two.
No I’m not trying to look like a monkey, but instead am following my body as it leads me through mobility to open up my back and scapula.
These leads me further and I realize just how much changing your positions changes everything.
Mobility training is great. And it can be taken further than most people have gone with it. Here’s just a few of the benefits I’ve noticed with these newer forms of mobility work.
- More Energy
- Body “Feels” Better
- Increased Internal Awareness
- Increased Performance
- Ability to work out any “Kinks” your other training may bring
- And it can be done in less time than a “regular” mobility routine
This isn’t the end all, be all of training (as certain mobility systems may claim to be). Instead its just one segment of what I do.
Want to learn all of the above and how to put it all together? Check out Intuitive Mobiltity. I cover mobility training in six modules.