How to Begin Mobility Training

A roadmap to beginning your Mobility Training journey

The very first step to beginning your Mobility Training is simple.

Start a regular CARs Routine.

What are CARs, you ask?

CARs stands for Controlled Articular Rotations.

They help you explore your fullest range of available motion and help you maintain awareness of your joint tissues in space.

Moving into ranges you don't normally move into with normal daily movements, helps keep your joint tissue healthier.

If you’ve followed me on Instagram for any length of time then you’ve seen me doing CARs.

Your second step is to decide on your priorities for Mobility Training usually based on an assessment.

Ask yourself questions like:

• What are the things I want to do or like doing?

• What are my limitations as it relates to these activities?

• What is the biggest mover involved?

Now that you have answers to these questions, you know what you should prioritize.

*going after multiple things at once is possible, but when just beginning, don't be that squirrel trynna get all the nuts in one go.

For example:

If you like Squatting, Golf, or any activity that utilizes the Hips, then work on improving your Hip Mobility.

A Squat, Golf, etc are not Hip Exercises. They are activities that require a Hip that is capable in order for the movements to emerge when necessary.

If you're having trouble with Overhead Pressing or Pulling activities due to Shoulder limitations, work on improving your Shoulders.

If your wrists are giving you issues while doing ground based movements, work on improving your wrists.

It’s a good idea to work to Expand ranges of motion you don't have access to and Strengthen ranges you have, but lack control of.

Just because you are working on your Mobility does not mean you should stop the activities you are trying to improve your skills in, unless those activities are contributing or exacerbating pain symptoms.

But how do we expand range of motion and strengthen ranges we don’t have control of.

Stretching is just one component of mobility training.

Your Passive Range of Motion is our potential for movement. Passive Range is the amount of range you can be moved into. Active Range is the range of motion you can control. We want to minimize the gap between your Passive and Active Ranges of motion.

In order to expand range of motion, we stretch our tissues for 2 minutes and then follow this with Isometrics. An isometric contraction is a contraction that does not involve lengthening or shortening of your muscle.

We call this specific protocol, PAILs and RAILs. 

PAILs stands for Progressive Angular Isometric Loading.

RAILs stands for Regressive Angular Isometric Loading.

Both of these are a form of positional Isometric. Progressive tissue is tissue that’s lengthened and Regressive tissue is the tissue being shortened. 

I know this sounds super technical and to some degree it is. But my clients learn this over time and become Black Belts at this as they learn. The best way to fully understand what I mean is through experience.

If you try the classes available in my FREE Intro to Mobility Training, you’ll get a better idea of what I’m talking about.

Got questions? Reach out.