Mobility snacks during COVID-19

Hi guys,

I hope you have all been keeping well during these strange times. I wanted to share with you a few mobility sequences covering what was in the 1st week of the zoom classes. If you found yourself a little lost at times with my explanations and getting the best out of the exercises these should help massively too.

The intent of these sequences is to tackle what I have found most people need to work on in terms of mobility deficits and general improvements of joint health and longevity. But also more relevant to our current situation of lockdown, this will help compensate for what we are not doing enough of on a daily basis due to lifestyle changes. Many of us are moving a lot less now, finding ourselves sitting down more frequently, not using our hips or shoulders to their fullest capacity through movement, over time this will likely lead to physical discomfort.

Few key pointers:

• Both of these sequences are best done separately or after training. Unless you intended to train the opposite body part, i.e lower body mobility sequence followed by upper body training session, that is fine. This is because we are dealing with delicate muscles here that are more prone to injury.
• Both sequences focus on internal rotation of the hip and shoulder, this will create more space in the joint itself so all other movements become easier and more accessible such as flexion & extension. In other words you will indirectly improve your mobility for more linear movements such as overhead positions or squats. Better rotation = Better linear movements.
• In many cases these sequences will help alleviate any pain, tight or discomforting related symptoms for the hips, lower back and shoulder regions.
• Frequency of doing these routines for long term improvements would be 1-2 times per week, i would say no more than repeating 3 times a week giving yourself rest days in between. 
• Once you familiarise yourself with the videos the routine in total should only take 15-20mins.
• During both sequences you will notice i hold you in the passive stretch for the PAILS & RAILS exercise as i explain what we are going to do next without coming out of the stretch. Usually it lasts around 2 mins passive stretch, followed by 2 rounds of PAILS & RAILS which totals 5 mins of holding a stretch. The 2 min hold at the beginning of the stretch is important when the intent is to expand ranges of motion (flexibility) and improve your cold mobility (range of motion you have access to without having to warm up). 

Below are the links to the follow along routine

• Hip internal rotation sequence
• Shoulder internal rotation sequence NOTE: we only work at 60-70% max efforts as these are delicate muscles. I would advise you to only increase the intensity after a couple of sessions by 10-20%

I hope this helps you guys, once in a while i will post a few sequences i find useful. if you have any questions or need any specific help you can email me on [email protected]

Keep well and much love

Ant