5 Mobility Drills You Should Be Doing!

 

I know this is a long overdue post! It’s been quite sometime since my last blog because I have been so busy putting these Mobility Drills in use at SportChiro+. So I thought I would start it off with a BANG! So “The Top 5 Mobility Drills you should be doing!”  was a winner! Lately, many people have been talking a lot about adding stability drills to their strength and rehab programs. Stability is an absolute must when training athletes, non-athletes, or rehabbing patients of any kind. While stability is really important, in my opinion, people still need to work on mobility as well! So here’s what you’ve all been waiting for!! The Top 5 Mobility Drills you should be doing!

These drills can easily be added into your warm-up sets or added as supersets to your already existing strength training sets. Let’s start by talking about the areas that we are looking to mobilize. Based on my clinical experience and the joint by joint approach people tend to be hyper-mobile (move too much) in certain areas and hypo-mobile (move too little) in other areas. Everyone’s body is different, however, this rule of thumb has been an amazing guide directly to areas that trainers, strength coaches, physical therapists, and chiropractors can focus their mobility attention. Areas that traditionally need mobility work are as follows: Upper Cervical Spine (upper neck joints that are in charge of the head motions “yes” and “no”), Shoulders, Thoracic Spine (mid back), Hips, and Ankles. Vice versa some common areas to work on stability would be areas such as: lower cervical spine, scapulas (shoulder blades), lumbar spine, knee.  However, that’s a post for another day. So what are the mobility drills you should be concentrating on??

Let’s start from the bottom and work our way up!

1) Front Plank Saws:  Ankle dorsiflexion has a tendency to become restricted in athletes and non-athletes.  Some common problems can be associated with wearing high heels, shoes with elevated soles higher in the back than front (Oly Lifting Shoes), cowboy boots, sleeping with the covers tucked under the bottom of the bed (if your a back sleeper), extended amounts of time driving, or sitting at a desk with your legs outstretched. The plank saw is a great exercise to help regain dorsiflexion in the ankle joint.  Craig Liebenson highlights this exercises in every lecture that he gives. It has an effect on the core strength, shoulder stability, and works on calf length/ankle dorsiflexion! Common mistakes with this exercise is not maintaining the plank position. Be sure to keep the cervical spine (neck) in alignment while performing.  Be sure your lumbar spine does not sag to the floor during the motion,and not allow a piking (butt coming up in the air) during the posterior rock.

2) The Tactical Frog:  This is a maneuver introduced by Charlie Weingroff.  Great for allowing mobilization of hips, the tactical frog can help open up those hips allowing for better depth in squats, and more range of motion during deadlifts.  Be sure to maintain your diaphragmatic breathing during the move to allow for tissue adaptation.  Fun Fact of the day: if you turned the pictures upright (as if he was standing), it would look as if he were in a squatting position.    So…in theory by creating muscle memory in a lower neurological position (quadruped<standing) grooving this motion can allow for carryover into your standing patterns, especially your squatting. Enjoy!

3) The Bretzel Stretch: Made popular by the FMS Crew, taken from the stretch resembling a Pretzel and being created by Brett Jones and combining the two came out with, Bretzel. Luckily these guys are movement geniuses because exercise naming is not exactly there thing!  I joke about the name, however, when done correctly, this exercise creates increases in mobility of thoracic spine rotation, quadriceps length (hip extension), hips/glutes (internal rotation), with minimal torque on the lumbar spine (which is traditionally moving too much, see above).  The key to the Bretzel is keeping each of the thighs each at 90 degrees from one another, this assures us that very little motion is being placed into the low back (lumbar spine). Continue your diaphragmatic breathing into your belly and as you exhale attempting to take your upper shoulder to the ground.  (note: keeping the top knee on the ground is helpful, if you don’t have that range of motion, place a small pad (airex) under your knee to give your brain the perception of ground to allow for more mobility through the thoracic spine and hips. Gradually increase mobility until the knee can be placed on the floor.

4) Kettlebell Arm Bars:  This exercise is highly effective in getting some mobility from the shoulder joint and the thoracic spine.  When done properly patients/clients can feel the pectoralis muscles stretching and chest opening up (typically from kyphotic rounded shoulder posture).  This exercise effectively helps the rotator cuff find its “balance” in stability/timing of firing. The scapula (shoulder blade) has 17 different muscles attaching to it.  These muscles have to work in harmony to create a balanced structure and have to fire/activate in the proper order to create the proper gliding of the scapula through movement planes.  The muscles attaching to the scapula are:  Serratus Anterior, Supraspinatus, Subscapularis, Trapezius, Teres Major, Teres Minor, Triceps Brachii long head, Biceps Brachii, Rhomboid Major ,Rhomboid Minor, Coracobrachialis, Omohyoid inferior belly, Lattisimus Dorsi, Deltoid, Levator Scapula, Infraspinatus, Pectoralis Minor.  That is a ton of muscles, do you think the shoulder complex might be a good think to take care of??  I think so!  Common mistakes during this move is to let the shoulder hike up by the ear, be sure keep the lat activated.  Making sure your wrist is neutral and facing forward will also help with this problem.  Note: Progressions can be added such as: crooked presses, screwdriver mechanisms of the arm, etc.

5)  Half Kneeling Halos: A case can be made that this exercise (as with all of the above to an extent) is a stability exercise.  I finished with this exercise because its neurological maturity was the most advanced (11 month old baby).  This exercise can be utilized to not only create stability in the core, but also increase your thoracic extension and shoulder mobility.  As you begin to halo around the head with the Kettlebell/weight you will begin to feel the increased or lack of mobility in the shoulders and thoracic spine (mid-back).  Maintaining and upright position and not altering from the position during the move will increase the extension through the mid-back (thoracic spine). Engaging the anterior core throughout the halo will ensure the hyperextension of the lumbar spine is not used.  Note Activation of the kneeling leg’s glutes will increase stability to the core.

But wait……….. here is a bonus Mobility Drill!! This is a move that I have all my training clients and athletes warm up with prior to sport or training.  It is a combination of yoga, stretching, core activation, and locomotion (moving).  I find it extremely useful in grabbing mobility in all the above areas that we spoke of while making sure the core is engaged for stability and balance.  It has the longest name ever, Walking Spiderman Lunge with Bilateral Overhead Reach and Deep Squat to Standing Position.  I’m going to have to think of something different.  Take a look!

There are my mobility drills of choice.  Not saying that I don’t use others.  And not saying I don’t use a foam roller with every patient/client.  However, these are just 5 Mobility Drills you should be using.  Hopefully these help add to your programming with training clients or with patients.  Remember that MOVEMENT MATTERS!!!