Mobility class – September
Hello all,
As many know during lockdown mobility classes were running online which eventually moved to tuesday evenings in the park. We have now decided to move these classes back into the gym and will run every tuesday from 6:30pm – 7:30pm. I realise that we have many new members that have recently joined Momentum and so i wanted to briefly explain what the mobility class is about and provide the itinerary for the next month.
The mobility class is to help make you stronger, move better, feel younger and stay injury free so that you can continue to see progress and enjoy the most out of your training. Over the course of the year teaching this class some of the very positive feedback has been building a better understanding & awareness of our body, and as a consequence how we can better use our body within all other classes be it GPP, Barbell, StrongCon, gymnastics and so on coming out a little less beaten up.
You can also think of mobility as the active approach to developing flexibility, that goes to say there is a strong aspect of strength training involved.
Without going deep into the science side of things here are the 3 main objectives we aim to achieve.
Mobility Development – In a training sense mobility can be defined as STRENGTH + CONTROL in order to expand upon usable ranges of motion, articular resilience (i.e. load bearing capacity), and overall joint health.
Joint Strength– While improving mobility and movement potential, the approach of the class acts to ‘bullet proof’ or safeguard your joints so that movements can be executed efficiently and safely.
Body Control – Think of this as improving awareness. We aim to improve the function of your nervous system. This can lead to a reduction of pain and injury, joint health and longevity, as well as an increased ability to move freely and easily.
For the month of September the classes will be focused on the common physical demands of what we do in the other classes mentioned above and also what most people need to work on in order to meet those demands. Basically shoulders, hips & spine.
Here is the itinerary for the following weeks with some videos attached for you to take away some of the main exercises used. Where explained these can be used in your own free time to help give you more out of what we cover in class.
25th AUG: Lower body class. This will focus on improving compound movements like the squat and deadlift, help address and reduce any niggles you may be feeling such as tight hips or knee and lower back issues. I will be covering hip rotation, an area i find most need to prioritise and for this see Hip Internal rotation sequence video we will be covering some of the main exercises found here, this sequence alone performed 1-2 times a week for a few months will help give you some great overall results so feel free to add this to your routine.
3rd SEP: Upper body class. This will focus on improving pressing/ pulling movements, especially those overhead positions many of us struggle to get into like the handstand, push press & snatch. Again this will also address a lot of the niggles people tend to experience somewhere around the shoulder, elbows and neck. I will be covering shoulder rotation, again this is an area most need to prioritise and for this see Shoulder Internal rotation sequence video we will be covering some of the main exercises found here, this sequence alone performed 1-2 times a week for a few months will help give you some great overall results so add this to your routine if you feel you need it.
10th SEP: Squatpocaplyse 2.0, a class devoted to perfecting the squat, i won’t lie this is a hard class and your legs will feel smoked but amazing for days afterwards. There is a big focus on building more awareness on how to actively move in the squat from start to finish, I find this very important when it comes to doing squats with external load in order to minimize any injuries. See this video Supine Hip Flexion PAILS & PRH for one of the main exercises that i also use as a quick warm up to the squat.
17th SEP: Scapula (shoulder blades), The shoulder joint is pretty complex, I notice many of us struggle to independently move the shoulder blade from the shoulder joint, especially when it comes to any pulling and pressing exercises under load. Learn this and you will notice your lifting numbers go up. A good starting point is to try this Scapular Protraction/ Retraction PAILS & RAILS Stretch out that will be covered in class.
24th SEP: Spine, this is a complex beast that alone needs a class just dedicated to spinal movement if you want to see some improvements beyond just a quick fix. One of the key exercises I cover is spinal segmentation, learning how to control each moveable bone in the spine. See this Spine Segmentation video that we will cover in class. I do recommend trying to incorporate 3-5 mins a day of this stuff to compensate for the amount of time we spend not moving the spine the way it was designed to.
There have been some enquiries as to whether more mobility classes will pop up in the schedule, for the time being the answer is no. However my best advice if you are serious about working on your mobility is to see me privately, i offer 1-2-1 or 1-2-2 coaching in-person/ online where i will be able to go through a thorough assessment to then provide you with exactly what you need to work on based on your current mobility and goals. Feel free to get in touch by email and we can discuss more about options: [email protected]
Lastly I am looking for 5 participants to trial a treatment package I am putting together, this is manual therapy so it will involve a combination of hands of treatment (soft tissue therapy/ sports massage) and mobility work. What I am looking for is committed individuals who are willing to do 5 one hour sessions with me over 2 months and also able to do a little homework on the side (2-3 x 20mins mobility work a week). Ideally anyone who has any physical issues that needs addressing, this could be anything physical/ pain related symptoms or simply having a desire to move better in a particular area. But I am willing to consult any other goals and see if this service will suit you. Email me if this is of interest and we can discuss further.
That’s it for now guys, look forward to seeing you in class.
Anthony