Welcome! This is my inaugural post for this blog. I'd like to dive right in with Gray Cook and Mike Boyles 'Joint by Joint' theory. For anyone interested in knowing how to move well and pain free, I suggest googling it. It's basic premiss is that when we move our bodies, there are certain regions that should move a lot, and certain regions that should move much at all. Why? They were designed that way. Take, for example, the hips and the low back. When we do an activity like squatting, so much of the depth we get while descending is ideally coming from hip flexion. Ideally not much comes about through lumbar spine flexion. Why? If you have 100 pounds on your shoulder, or are doing countless reps, you're adding significant stress to your low back.
I recently presented on this topic to Crossfit East Boca and I got the question, 'why is it that I can't seem to have good dead lifting form, and after I perform the exercise my low back is always sore?'.
Why?
Like stated earlier, during a complex activity like dead lifting, ideally, just like squatting we get our depth from hip flexion. The CrossFitter in question probably has a lack of mobility (or flexibility if you prefer) from his hips and hamstrings, so he's not able to maintain ideal form during a dead lift. Now he can still perform the movement, but he's going to compensate. He's going to get a lot of his dead lift depth from his low back, drastically increasing the stress in that region and decreasing it from his hips and glutes (the intended target). That's why the next day his low back is sore. If he continues this without addressing his hip mobility he's going to end up with a low back injury. Whether that ends up being a herniated disc, arthritis, degeneration, or one of the more fancy diagnosis, it really doesn't matter. The core problem is the lack of hip/hamstring mobility.
So based on Cook and Boyle's theory, there is a pattern of alternating mobility and stability requirements throughout the body. The foot requires stability (otherwise you end up with flat feet), the ankle requires mobility, the knee requires stability (otherwise you end up with Iliotibial band syndrome), the hip requires mobility, the low back requires stability (otherwise you end up with some version of back pain), the upper back requires mobility, the shoulder girdle requires stability (otherwise you have a separated shoulder), the shoulder requires mobility, the elbow requires stability (otherwise you get golfers or tennis elbow) and so on.
This is a big post because it's really the basic premise behind so much of the coaching/instruction/education that will follow. We'll make it fun to look at, but at the same time, this is an important theory to understand. Exercise over a lifetime without giving up your favorite activities requires efficient movement. To move efficiently you must be mobile in the right areas, and stable in the right areas. We'll explore this much more in depth in the future and we all keep moving! Happy exercise people! To check out more visit
www.Mobility-4Life.com
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