Over the years I have met surprisingly few people who like stretching, or who already have enough functional mobility that they don’t need to bother with it much.
Mobility and functional range of motion are the foundation of strength and function. A pristine golf swing, tennis serve, a swimmer’s stoke, a sprinter’s gait, a slam dunk, etc. Most expressions of movement that you enjoy doing and watching involve full and dynamic range of motion.
And perhaps even more important, maintaining a buffer of mobility is the most direct way to prevent injury. When you trip over a dog toy in the living room, or slip on the wet kitchen floor… to avoid falling, your mobility will probably be tested. Will you pass?
There is a creeping effect as we age, where you expect to be able to do what you’ve always done. To show up a little late or with limited time, and jump into things with little warm-up or preparation, and suddenly… you the story. You often don’t notice the gradual process of time and your body changing, and left unchecked, it can cause you a lot of avoidable pain.
When my client’s get into an overall successful routine of 2-3x/week of quality, well-rounded training, oftentimes they ask me what they might do on their other days to accelerate their progress. Usually the initial thought is that 2-3x/week of strength and metabolic training might not be enough, especially to offset those cookies, right?
So there is temptation to try to add on more robust training, like volume of cardio/metcon. Sweat it off! This generally doesn’t work, especially with older athletes. Intense training creates more recovery demand and stress, as does higher volume of even light or moderate training (e.g. walking 5+ miles frequently). Your body can’t take the wear and tear like it used to, so you’re effectively burning the candle at both ends when you do this, and will run out of recovery ability, and accumulate more aches and pains… where does it end?
This is why my #1 recommendation for supplemental training is mobility. Just 10-20 minutes per day is plenty. Some myofascial release/trigger work, holding your best full flexion squat position for some rounds of 30 seconds at a time, hang or stretch your arms overhead somehow, that’s the basic stuff. You can add or substitute specific exercise based on your needs.
It gets your core temp up enough, maintains proper muscle length-tension and joint relationships, increases circulation, and particularly with our often sedentary lifestyle outside of training, prevents injuries. It also doesn’t add significant training stress, and generally helps you feel better and more ready to do your best work on the days you have committed to fuller training.
So that’s the Why and How, which is important, but I know this often isn’t enough… because for a lot of people, stretching is just… so boring!
How do you make things you don’t like doing but you know are good for you… happen?!
Well, it’s different for everybody, but here are some things that I have found to be pretty effective:
- Automate It: Take a yoga class, a virtual one even. Let someone else drive the bus, and have a sense of community with the other participants. If it’s an hour, that’s a lot, but it will get you what you need and then some. If you’re local to the East Bay, check out our friends Gaia Yoga in Richmond!
- Automate It: ROMWOD, Mobility Mvmnt, Ready State, YouTube videos. Often the obstacle is all the dang decisions you have to make, such that you never start. Having a tidy 10-30 min daily program, even if it’s super generic, will accomplish 90% of what you need.
- Program It: Have your coach write custom mobility sessions for you, and walk you through it a few times in-person.
- Background It: This one only works for some people, but I find that if I follow along with a routine in the background while otherwise watching or listening to something enjoyable, it takes my mind off of the boring-ness or discomfort of the stretching itself.
- Bring A Buddy: Again this won’t work all of the time, but if you can find a partner to co-motivate, that’s how a lot of the boring stuff gets done in life.
- Connect To Your Goals: You may benefit from the occasional reflection on your goals and how this piece of the puzzle fits. If you have a weight loss goal, and a deep motivation for wanting to achieve it, the exercise part of that achievement will be enabled by maintaining your tissues and joints through regular mobility exercises. And of course not doing your mobility will slow down your exercise progress, and if left unchecked can halt it if you pull a hammy. Connect it, it’s real. Write it big on your whiteboard or in your notebook, and revisit at those times when you’re not feeling motivated to do your homework.
One more not on the list, especially for those Masters athletes out there. I’m sure you know, you don’t always get to do what you like, but when it’s important enough you do it anyway. So put on your big girl/boy pants, and do your homework. You’re worth it.
Coach Mauricio