Posted August 11, 2011

5 Reasons Why Your Mobility Drills Don’t Stick and Your Stability Progressions Have Plateaued

This is a guest post from Dr. Jeff, Cubos, a chiropractor in an Edmonton, Alberta suburb, and co-author on Muscle Imbalances Revealed: Upper Body. Don’t sleep on this guy, as you’ll see he’s wicked smart.

Before we get into the post, though, I have to tell you that today is the final day of the early bird sale for Muscle Imbalances Revealed, and Rick has thrown in a few extra goodies for anyone who buys the set today. The biggest ones include such tidbits of awesome like:

Free access to a teleconference with the MIR creators. Feel free to ask whatever the hell you want, and listen to a bunch of guys try to sound smart about training!

Free CEC’s for all your professional organizations. You know as much as I do, CEC’s are a pain in the butt to try to accumulate, so freebies are always fantastic.

The freebies are the kind that Rick could easily sell for a tidy profit, but he’s a quality guy and wants to build the value of MIR even more!! Seriously, for $77 dollars, you WON’T find a better deal on an information product anywhere, so pick up your copy HERE. The sale ends tonight at midnight. Muah-ha-ha!!

And now, on to Jeff’s guest post, on why your mobility is crap and you haven’t seen a change in performance since the Clinton years.

Reason #5. You Guessed

While many of your clients probably display both upper and lower crossed presentations and would likely benefit from the same exercises that help 80 % of people in your gym, it is still important to first assess and analyze their needs. Speaking specifically of movement quality and not of performance gains, it is paramount that you, as a professional, owe it to your client to open up the hood and figure out what’s up. Whether you use the FMS, Assess and Correct, Charlie Weingroff’s assessment in Training = Rehab, Rehab = Training, or some other assessment tool, you need to find and address those key links that will take your clients to the next level. So stop guessing.

Reason #4. You Ignore Soft Tissue Work

There’s so much talk about fascia these days that you probably get excited every time you get home from the grocery store and skin your chicken.

Well, stop ignoring the research and get your clients some soft tissue work. This can be in the form of regular visits to the massage therapist, a referral to an ART or Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization practitioner, or a $25 foam roller.[Note from Dean: or step up to the best of the best with a Travel Roller, and see what a bit of extra duckets can get you.] Just get them to do it and do it regularly. So consider it your body’s toothbrush. 

Reason # 3. You’re using the wrong exercises

If you still think an abdominal crunch is a stability exercise, think again. It may indeed be an ab exercise, but it certainly isn’t a stability exercise and you certainly haven’t read Dean’s “anti-abs” post. I’ll admit, finding the right exercises for each of your clients isn’t a simple process but just like #5 above, you really need to be individualizing your programs. And individualizing your programs often means staying up to date with the most effective exercises. While the existing research may help you understand which exercises are most effective, I understand that you may not have access to this research. So in this case, you’ll need to pull out your filter and scour the internet. Wait, let me do it for you. Click on this link

Reason #2. You haven’t tried loaded stretches

Have you heard of Pavel Tsatsouline? Well you have now. The first time I worked with a Russian Kettlebell Certified (RKC) instructor, he asked me why I performed some mobility work prior to training. I gave him my reasons but he countered with loaded stretching. While I still like my reasons, I really enjoyed his as well. And hopefully you’ll enjoy this 

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 Reason #1. Your client doesn’t have respiratory control

In my opinion, respiratory control is one of the most important key links to improving both motility and stability gains in any exercise program. And gaining respiratory control is essentially training your body to own the exercise. Clicking on “save” if you will.

But how do you train respiratory control? Well you just have to check out our new “Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body” to find out!

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