3 Moves Your Body Is BEGGING You to Do! (UNDO LOST MOBILITY)

What do you think is more important, strength or mobility and flexibility as you age? Which one do you need to

you age? Which one do you need to maintain more? And you would think maybe

maintain more? And you would think maybe as a strength coach that I would obviously say strength. And while it's incredibly important, it's the base of the pyramid, as I've actually shown here in previous videos, ultimately what really matters is maintaining your

flexibility and mobility. Today, I want to show you how you can start from the ground up again. literally from the ground up back to the basics to be able to do the things that you're losing every decade and you don't even know it

because it's more of a silent loss than actually an absolute loss in strength would be. Surprisingly, we are losing 7%

would be. Surprisingly, we are losing 7% of our strength almost every decade. But

we're losing more flexibility because a lot of people can't even cross their feet like this and just stand up from that position. That's not a good thing.

that position. That's not a good thing.

You should be able to stand up and down without using your hands. More people

even just struggle to get up off the floor because they'll just feel more aches and pains or it just becomes more of a labor to get up off the ground and that's a bad thing, too. Others will

actually have a hard time touching their fingers right behind their back, one arm or the other. The issue is you're losing mobility and you have to reclaim it. And

the best way to think of mobility is to think of it as an insurance policy for everything else you do in the gym cuz you need to maintain this if you want to maximize the strength that you're building. So, what we do is we start

building. So, what we do is we start here at the ground. And all I want you to be able to do is actually get into this deep squat position with your hands flat on the ground. So, if you can get

into this position here, then we know you're starting off in a good place. But

the thing is is a lot of people that are watching this video right now won't be able to get into this deep squat position here with an upright back, hands down flat to the ground, and heels in contact with the ground. Most likely

what you're going to see is either a rounding of the back, which we want to work on progressively by just pushing off of the fingers, okay? Not working on getting the hands flat just yet, but pushing off of the fingers to get to

that more upright position. We also want to make sure that those heels are in contact with the ground. And so what you're going to find is an inability to get them down when you're squared up.

But if I turn to one side now, I've actually freed up some mobility to get into that ankle. So I could work on one ankle at a time. if you're losing or missing mobility there. Same thing on the other side. If I was squared up and

they're both off the ground, if I just turned in one direction here, now that ankle goes back down to the ground flat, and I can work on leaning into it to get more of that ankle mobility and uh

flexibility of the calf. Okay, the next thing is I want you to be able to move from these positions and have dynamic mobility. So, what that means is, can I

mobility. So, what that means is, can I move to the side from this position?

because every time I step here, there's more of an adductor stretch and a mobility requirement in this frontal plane that a lot of us don't have. So,

can you get in this position? Just

simply work on moving side to side one or two steps in each direction. And

again, trying to keep your hands as flat as possible and trying to keep these heels down. Okay. The next thing is, can

heels down. Okay. The next thing is, can you go backwards? When I go backwards now, I'm kind of opening up the hip. I'm

opening. So, more of this adductor mobility in here, flexibility and also hip mobility and rotation. So, as I step back, I'm dropping. I'm actually using

my elbow to push and assist with that mobility. So, drive it back. Take this

mobility. So, drive it back. Take this

elbow. Drive it back. Push in. Drive it

back. Another step. Drive it back.

Finally, can you walk forward? So, when

you're in this place here, walk and lean. So, what is this doing? I'm

lean. So, what is this doing? I'm

leaning more into hip flexion on this side. If I turn, you can see it. I'm

side. If I turn, you can see it. I'm

here. Step, lean, lean. All that hip flexion that we're getting in here. And

hip flexion is one of the first areas that we lose mobility, especially when we start to get degeneration of a hip.

So, if we can keep hip flexion mobility, then we're doing something really, really good. Remember that strength

really good. Remember that strength question I asked in the beginning? If

you took an 800lb squatter and had them squat on a Bosu ball, you're not going to have an 800lb squatter anymore. That

strength is being undercut by that lack of stability. Stability tied into all

of stability. Stability tied into all this mobility is incredibly important.

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nutrient gaps that you're overlooking right now. It tastes good. you can

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actually have it every single day and not have it taste like lawn clippings like most of the greens products out there. So, doing these groundbased

there. So, doing these groundbased movements is important, but if you're just focusing on the ones that have you facing down, then you're missing a giant opportunity to not only mobilize

specifically the hips and shoulders, but also to increase the strength of the hips and shoulders and therefore the stability we just talked about. So, all

you have to do is flip over to this other position here. Now, for some, just sitting like this with the chest open and the head up is difficult because they don't even have the mobility in the wrist to be able to get down into this

position, let alone put any kind of weight on it. So, if that's you, you want to progressively work on getting more of that mobility by getting in this position and just leaning back further and further over the wrist so you get

more and more of that flexibility through the flexors and into the joint itself. Now, let's say you're beyond

itself. Now, let's say you're beyond that point though, you're looking for more of a challenge. Then what you do is you just simply lift up, right? We get

to a sort of reverse crab position. Now,

what you're looking for here obviously is some glute activation to get as high as you can, but you don't want to let the shoulders stay behind cuz a lot of us will try this position and we'll just round the shoulders to compensate for

the mobility we don't have in our thoracic spine or shoulders. That's not

really good enough because here is where you really have to work on getting open.

Okay, open here. Even if you don't have that wrist mobility to work on getting open, I'm okay with you kind of cupping your hands or tenting your hands like this, putting the bones of your fingers

on the ground here and getting them off of the completely flat position cuz that gives me some leverage that I can actually push off of and get higher. And

this will allow me to open my shoulders as far as I can, try to push my chest up through the ceiling. And working on this position is really, really important.

Now, we take this groundbased movement, we make it even more of a challenge by adding some of that dynamic mobility like we talked about before. And that's

just with this saw movement. I'm just

trying to slide back and forth. So, when

I slide here, what's happening at the shoulder? I'm getting more of that

shoulder? I'm getting more of that extension at the shoulder, more mobility to actually move my arm back behind my body and still keep my chest open. And

when you get all that mobility that you need in the wrist, you can do it now from that flat position. So now I could do that same rock here out of that flat position. And now we're working on all

position. And now we're working on all these joints and we're actually letting the ground assist us. You're not having to do all the work cuz the ground is actually helping you to do that. We

could take it one step further. Now if I slide back just a little bit more. Now I

can work on getting some more of that dynamic glute strength to support it. So

if I take one leg and I march it out and I take the other leg and I march it out, now I need the muscles of the posterior chain to be able to support my body up.

Okay? And I come back and back and I perform in this sort of alternating march out and out. Try not to fall. Keep

them up, back and back, out, out, back, and back. And that's a pretty

and back. And that's a pretty challenging exercise, but again, it's not just strengthening you, but it's also building up that flexibility and mobility that you're lacking right now

and actually allowing the floor to help you along the way. Now, I know you're probably thinking at this point in the video that if you just focus on doing some stretches to gain some more flexibility that you're going to be fine. As a matter of fact, that actually

fine. As a matter of fact, that actually might be the wrong thing to do because flexibility without that stability combined could actually introduce more risk for injury. Because if you can get

into new ranges of motion but can't control them, you can become more vulnerable to an injury. So, what I want you to do is really focus on how we can combine those two. The last thing I want

you to do is a drill that's really simple, but it has good functional carryover to even helping people get off the floor even easier. So, if I was down on the ground like this, right, and I had to get up, the first thing I want to

be able to do is roll to my side and at least get to this position here. If I'm

in this position here, then I could use my hands to walk myself up in this way, right? And get myself up to a standing

right? And get myself up to a standing position like that. However, I can reinforce the mobility and flexibility needed to do that if I focus on a few

key things. When I'm in this position,

key things. When I'm in this position, as soon as I come up, I'm in that classic bear stance or that bear crawl position. What I want to do is I want to

position. What I want to do is I want to try to drive my knees back and push at the same time. So, as I'm pushing off the heels of my hands, I'm driving my knees back, which is going to reinforce

the knee for a lot of hamstring flexibility. A lot of people will find

flexibility. A lot of people will find it challenging to keep your heels down and your knees back. But I want you to work on forcing that to be the case and pushing through all the way back to

where you're here. Now, you'll find it easy to actually stand up. You go back in the same position. You walk yourself out. So now I go back down, push my

out. So now I go back down, push my knees backwards, use my fingertips until I can get my hands flat on the ground. I

walk myself all the way out. I'm in this good classic plank or push-up position, and I push myself back again all the way, keeping those knees driven

backwards and trying to walk myself in.

The idea here is that when you're trying to just work on something as simple as getting off the floor, you can hear I'm out of breath because I'm focusing on using a lot of muscles and controlling

joints that are not in control right now and they're costing you in terms of how you can move and how you can function every single day. Remember, this is the insurance policy for making sure that everything else you're doing in the gym works. You don't want to lose your

works. You don't want to lose your flexibility and mobility as you get older. Guys, if you're looking for an

older. Guys, if you're looking for an insurance policy in terms of nutrition, you can try the Athleen Greens, brand new product from Athleen RX, available at athlex.com. This is your insurance

at athlex.com. This is your insurance policy to fill any of those nutrient gaps that you're overlooking right now.

And it helps you cuz it tastes good. You

can actually have it every single day and not have it taste like long clippings like most of the greens products out there. All right, guys. I

hope you found the video helpful. If

you're looking for more of them, make sure you click subscribe, turn notifications, and if you're looking for complete programs as a physical therapist, guys, we focus on how we do things, not just what we do. All right,

guys. You can find them at athletics.com. See you soon.

athletics.com. See you soon.