A few years ago I had an older client who, after some thoughtful, consistent work, had made significant progress on their strength and fitness. But as it goes the results were starting to come more slowly. Was it normal? Or was it age-related, diet, sleep, and/or stress-related? The question came up of what to do to break out of this plateau. Hmmm.
“I was thinking about adding some long bike rides and endurance training.” The flags went up for me. This wasn’t going to improve their strength or overall fitness. If anything it would blunt the strength progress, as research suggests Long Slow Distance (LSD) exercise causes a switch from fast to slow twitch fiber types. Not helpful for strength. And volumes of repetitive movement generally leads to a global tightening of muscles, plus the added stress and recovery demands… a recipe for frustration. Both of these effects mirror my own anecdotal and coaching experience, especially in men.
Fortunately, our relationship and trust was strong, and so I was able to persuade them to go a different way: keep on the Strength plan, and add some Mobility work.
I suspect that adding endurance work is particularly attractive because it’s so low maintenance. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily easy, but it doesn’t require a lot of thought for the novice, and in our busy, stressed out lives, simplicity and activities where we can mentally zone out is like a mental oasis. And as far as stress relief goes, walking, hiking, and bike riding have a lot to offer there.
But this client was already doing those recovery activities, so the real opportunity was in any kind of structured Mobility work. I knew that Strength and Fitness performance are both hugely impacted by the body’s ability to achieve the important positions and natural ranges of motion without a ton of resistance. Otherwise you have to exert energy just to fight your own internal friction, and of course increase injury risk while doing so.
So the thrust of this article is this: if you have any amount of extra time or energy bandwidth, spend it first on your Mobility. Your body and future self will thank you. 10-20 minutes per day is all it takes, 3+ times per week. 30+ minutes is a workout, which you can decide to go for if you find it engaging for other reasons.
And don’t overthink it, because at first almost any kind will do. Yoga class. Stretch Lab. A list of the same 5 exercises you do everyday. YouTube videos. ROMWOD app. The Ready State. GoWOD app. They all work, but each has their limitations.
In this client’s case, we settled on ROMWOD because it was so simple, equipment-free, and time-efficient. Press play, 15-20 minutes later, done and relaxed. The next session, with relatively little warm-up, they were able to get into a deep squat under load without exceptional effort. Boom, Personal Records started flowing again.
Over the longer arc of time, we noticed ROMWOD wasn’t addressing this client’s shoulder limitations due to it’s hip-centric and perhaps overly simplistic model, so we pivoted to GoWOD which provided assessment and customized mobility exercises based on your relative mobility weaknesses. But only after we had exhausted the utility of the simpler system.
How will this play out with you? It depends on the tradeoffs. ROMWOD is uniquely attractive because it has a narrator that facilitates a very Yoga class-like atmosphere with background music, multiple demo athletes, and gentle, non-specific cueing (“surrender fully to this stretch”). Some people really like this. Others just want a checklist that’s specific to their needs. We all fall on a spectrum of preferences.
Personally, I like to have options, for myself and my clients. Any given week I may wander between 2-3 different mobility protocols, but I always remember: no matter which way I’m stretching, I’m opting in to my restorative care, and that’s always a good thing.
Coach Mauricio