This past weekend I spent a good chunk of time with two of my nieces. They’re a bit older and bigger than my daughter and so that opened up the possibilities for playing a lot more. And I played hard. Wrestling… Throwing the girls high up in the air… Gymnastics… …
HOW to do Rehab Exercises
“For rehab, is this a fair summary: find the drills that hurt and do more of them… gently?” -Laurie Kind of. If you go into pain you’ve gone too far. Pain is a signal that something is wrong, so you want to be sure to not go that far, though …
The Value of Shaking and Vibrating
In addition to stretching and mobility work, simply shaking and vibrating your body is a helpful practice to relax your body and promote health. The following video demonstrates what this looks like: I’ll often do some amount of this between sets of exercises, sometimes without even thinking about it. Shaking …
Chiropractic vs. Mobility
I have a friend that has had an on-again, off-again spine issue for…well, years now. Sometimes, it’s not bad at all. But other times it’s horrible. Sometimes it makes it so that her leg falls asleep when she’s trying to sleep, which stops her from being able to sleep. Kinda …
Flow in Workouts
I’ve been reading through Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. This book has been gracing my bookshelf for years now, yet I hadn’t read it. I was dissuaded as I heard it is a tough read, something like a textbook. Well, some textbooks are worth reading… The flow …
Soft vs. Hard Muscles
“What is this?? Are you saying a person can build soft muscles rather than hard ones??” -Ricky Two weeks ago, I wrote an email about muscle control to which I received this reply. Now, I’m not exactly sure what he meant by this. But here is what I mean by …
What are Assistance Exercises for?
Yesterday, I talked about how many people do assistance exercises wrong. And that was to do them without rhyme or reason, simply because you think or heard they were a good idea. Because this idea of assistance exercises often gets attached to the idea of isolation exercises (like those hamstring …
When Getting Injured is a Good Thing
This is kind of funny… And it’s happened more than once in a similar fashion too. So, I’m filming the Intuitive Mobility course. Module six, or the bonus module, is about using the Intuitive Mobility practice in order to fix pain and injuries. I’ve touched on elements of this here and there, …
Movement Feedback Systems
Isn’t it funny where the ‘AHA’ moments strike? A couple months back, I was at a marketing seminar. The speaker was talking about feedback systems, specifically his hobby of creating audio speakers, and how this related to marketing. Well, just the previous day I had been filming Module 5 of …
What is Mobility?
Mobility. Undoubtedly, you’ve heard this word before. The definition is: “the ability to move or be moved freely and easily.” That’s a pretty good definition…though maybe not defined as clearly as could be useful. One of my favorite things I learned from Frankie Faires: how he talked about athletic qualities. …
My Favorite Mobility Drills
In this video, I walk you through some of my favorite mobility drills: When it comes to something being a favorite, there are several ways you could label it that. It may be something you’re good at. It may be something you like doing. Or it may be something you …
5 Minute Intuitive Mobility Routine
I figured it might be helpful to share an example of me doing an “intuitive mobility” routine. By intuitive, I mean that I’m not just doing the 3 circles per joint, then move onto the next. I start with a movement, feel into my body, and let that guide what …
Move the Damn Things!
Two weeks ago, I shared a mobility drill that I first learned from studying muscle control, and then further worked with through what I call “Intuitive Mobility.” Specifically, it was the Shoulder Blade Box Mobility Drill. (In case you missed it, you can find it on the blog here.) Well, …
Jaw Traction Mobility Drill
The jaw is a joint that is often neglected. I call these traction circles because you’re moving in protraction and retraction, that is jutting your jaw forward into an under bite, then pulling it back into an over bit. After practicing this forward and back motion, add the side to …
Shoulder Blade Box Mobility Drill
The shoulder blades don’t get enough attention. Even in mobility, most of it surrounds the ball and socket joint of the shoulder, and not all the movement these can make. A lot of my practice in this began in doing muscle control; as control of the blades is one of …