Kettlebell Hello! A few questions about mobility/warm-ups

[Dayz]

Hi everyone,

I've lurked this sub for a long time, but this is my first post. I have a few questions about mobility and warm-ups, but first some info about me and my training and goals.

I'm 29 years old, 80kg (176lbs), 189cm (6'2). I've been training with kettlebells for approx 6 months.

My goals are:

• Improve swings from Simple to Solid.
• Improve TGUs from 5/5 with the 24kg, to 5/5 with the 32kg.
• Chin-ups from 15 to 20.
• Run 5k in 19:59 (current PR is about 21:20)
• Improve mobility and posture!

To achieve my goals, I am doing Simple and Sinister 5x per week, with chin-ups approx 4 nights per week. For my running goals, I have a running program which is designed for the purpose. It's only three runs per week (the conditioning from S&S + three runs has been enough for constant improvement so far).

Now for my questions and the last goal: improved mobility and posture.

So, I have been to a sports physio and had a full check up for my movement. These are the following issues:

• My thoracic mobility isn't great.
• My hamstrings are inflexible.
• I have slight anterior pelvic tilt and slight forward head posture/internally rotated shoulders.

Basically your typical western posture!

What I am hoping to get from this thread are some ideas towards an elegant warm-up and/or mobility routine to do before my S&S sessions. I LOVE the simplicity of S&S. I would love an equally simple/efficient mobility/warm-up routine.

So here are my questions:

1. What has helped you to improve your posture?
2. What do you recommend for improving thoracic mobility?
3. Hamstring flexibility?
4. APT/Forward head?

My current idea is this:

Warm-up:

• Foam roller/lacrosse ball - thoracic, lats, lower body.
• Prying Goblet Squat 3 x 5 (a per S&S)
• Bretzel

Lift:

• S&S plus chin-ups

Post-lift

• Hamstring stretching, 90/90 stretching

Anything you could add or suggest would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Steve Freides]

@Dayz, welcome to the StrongFirst forum.

-S-

 

[Oscar]

Welcome! I've read somewhere that arm bars can help with rounded shoulders. Haven't tried it myself. You could replace the halos in the s&s warm up

 

[Steve Freides]

For your running, I highly recommend "Running Formula" by Dr. Jack Daniels. He was giving guidance on specific zones of training long before I read about it from anyone else. I set my lifetime 5k PR at age 45 by following his advice.

-S-

 

[Dayz]

Welcome! I've read somewhere that arm bars can help with rounded shoulders. Haven't tried it myself. You could replace the halos in the s&s warm up

Hi. Thank you. I've read about arm-bars (specifically: An Arm Bar a Day and Posture: An Easy Way to Up Your Performance ). They're kinda similar to a Bretzel in a way, right? I think using them in my warm-up is a great idea.

Before my S&S workouts and running I could do:

1. Quick Foam roll
2. Circuit of: Glute Bridge, Arm Bar, Goblet Squat

 

[Bauer]

Welcome!

In the beginning I would designate a large portion of my training to "corretives". They aren't as bad as they sound

1. Tall Kneeling Drills by Gray Cook - they are awesome for postureand opening up those hip flexors. This is good for the hamstrings and posterior pelvic tilt. Just be sure to use your glutes and follow all cues.


2. Loaded Carries, especially Bottoms-Up Carries and Farmers Carries. They reinforce good posture. Gray Cook says we should progress from holds to lifts - and prove stability and control before we make it dynamic. Try to put a light weight on your head (like a pillow or a bag of rice) because this reinforces good head and thoraic alignment with a tall spine and builds your reflexive strength.

3. Original Strength Resets (by Tim Anderson): Do as much as you can in the morning and between sets. They are awesome for priming your neurological strength. My favourites are Rocking (tall chest!), Dead Bugs (flat back), various Rolls and Crawling. They are all really good for posture and well being Neck Nods and Diaphragmatic Breathing are also awesome for your neck and posture.
Original Strength

4. Hamstrings: At the moment I experiment with a drill I got from Brett Jones: Lie on your back and do a leg raise (the down leg is bent, the raised leg is straight). When you've reached your sticking point do some ankle circles and some small hip circles. Lower your leg and repeat. Somehow this seems to floss my posterior chain and I get some extra space.

 

[MicahK]

I've had great success with kettlebell arm bars and prying goblet squats. These two exercises have opened up my hips, back, and shoulders like nothing else. No need to use heavy weights, as it's all about mobility and flexibility.

 

[Michael Scott]

I have had great success with some T-Spine Mobility that @Anna C shared with this forum, along with the 90/90 stretch, and the basic stretches from the program "4 Weeks to Flexible Steel". While I do not perform these all enough, I am far more flexible, and I experience less overall body discomfort due to my performing them when I can get at least some of them into my routine.

 

[Dayz]

Welcome!

In the beginning I would designate a large portion of my training to "corretives". They aren't as bad as they sound

1. Tall Kneeling Drills by Gray Cook - they are awesome for postureand opening up those hip flexors. This is good for the hamstrings and posterior pelvic tilt. Just be sure to use your glutes and follow all cues.


2. Loaded Carries, especially Bottoms-Up Carries and Farmers Carries. They reinforce good posture. Gray Cook says we should progress from holds to lifts - and prove stability and control before we make it dynamic. Try to put a light weight on your head (like a pillow or a bag of rice) because this reinforces good head and thoraic alignment with a tall spine and builds your reflexive strength.

3. Original Strength Resets (by Tim Anderson): Do as much as you can in the morning and between sets. They are awesome for priming your neurological strength. My favourites are Rocking (tall chest!), Dead Bugs (flat back), various Rolls and Crawling. They are all really good for posture and well being Neck Nods and Diaphragmatic Breathing are also awesome for your neck and posture.
Original Strength

4. Hamstrings: At the moment I experiment with a drill I got from Brett Jones: Lie on your back and do a leg raise (the down leg is bent, the raised leg is straight). When you've reached your sticking point do some ankle circles and some small hip circles. Lower your leg and repeat. Somehow this seems to floss my posterior chain and I get some extra space.

Thank you! This is so informative. Watching now !

 

[Shahaf Levin]

Welcome!

In the beginning I would designate a large portion of my training to "corretives". They aren't as bad as they sound

1. Tall Kneeling Drills by Gray Cook - they are awesome for postureand opening up those hip flexors. This is good for the hamstrings and posterior pelvic tilt. Just be sure to use your glutes and follow all cues.


2. Loaded Carries, especially Bottoms-Up Carries and Farmers Carries. They reinforce good posture. Gray Cook says we should progress from holds to lifts - and prove stability and control before we make it dynamic. Try to put a light weight on your head (like a pillow or a bag of rice) because this reinforces good head and thoraic alignment with a tall spine and builds your reflexive strength.

3. Original Strength Resets (by Tim Anderson): Do as much as you can in the morning and between sets. They are awesome for priming your neurological strength. My favourites are Rocking (tall chest!), Dead Bugs (flat back), various Rolls and Crawling. They are all really good for posture and well being Neck Nods and Diaphragmatic Breathing are also awesome for your neck and posture.
Original Strength

4. Hamstrings: At the moment I experiment with a drill I got from Brett Jones: Lie on your back and do a leg raise (the down leg is bent, the raised leg is straight). When you've reached your sticking point do some ankle circles and some small hip circles. Lower your leg and repeat. Somehow this seems to floss my posterior chain and I get some extra space.

That...

I personally would prioritize (by-the-book) Original Strength resets first, than holding and carries like @Bauer suggested. But see you what makes you feel better.

I suggest you would prioritize posture and mobility over your other goals, since it is a more fundamental and will aid with achieving the other goals.

 

[User 4484]

For your running, I highly recommend "Running Formula" by Dr. Jack Daniels. He was giving guidance on specific zones of training long before I read about it from anyone else. I set my lifetime 5k PR at age 45 by following his advice.

-S-

Great tips!

Never Heard of it or him. Will check it out!

 

[manuelp22]

Personally I recommend the Barbell Overhead Squat.
You don't even need a barbell, a broomstick does the trick as well.



What I followed by Christian Thibaudeau (if you google the fragment you can get the originating forum thread on T-Nation).

I suggest holding the bottom position of the overheadsquat with an empty barbell (or even just a wooden stick) for a total of 3 minutes (take as many sets as needed), focus on perfect position. Do that at the beginning of every single training session. Focus on exaggerating the first 2 points I mentioned and the problem should be fixe rapidly.

Of course everyone is different, and I am not a Doctor. But if I had to prioritize something, it would be this exercise.
As in, researching how to better achieve its form.

 

[King Cobra Fit]

welcome @Dayz
those are some great questions.

Mobility is very important. and yes you're right, your posture issues are quite common.

Here are a few suggestions that I have
1) See someone for an FMS if you can. The FMS is a great way to pin point your biggest "sticking point" and attack it.

2) Check out Super Joints or Relax into stretch (Pavel T.) and/or Flexible Steal (Jon Engum). These have some excellent tools to help you with all of your "issues". Original strength is also a great option. I think at the end of the day, just choose one and follow it.

3) If you can, go to see a good Massage Therapist (someone Registered or Licenced would be best) and follow that session up with a hot bath and a mobility session. The massage can help to release some of your muscle tension (assuming there is some) then following up on that you can make some gains in increasing your mobility. This isn't 100% necessary but is money well spent if you are able. Once per month for a few months if you can swing it.

4) Follow the template: Mobility/Flexibility -> Stability -> Strength. What that means is, as you start to add mobility, you need to make sure that your body knows what to do with it. This could mean adding things like Arm bars (love these) following your bretzels, Half kneeling/tall kneeling chop/lifts etc to your hip flexor stretches, single leg deadlifts to your hamstring work and bottoms up work (ie getups, carries, cleans and presses). Add in these stability steps as your mobility increases and before attacking those areas with a bunch of strength training. There isn't necessarily a hard black and white line as when to switch from mobility to stability to strength, but if you notice the your mobility gains aren't sticking, you might be challenging them a little too aggressively too early..........or not enough, there is a bit of a "feeling out process". However, the best way I've discovered to help keep mobility is to challenge it with stability work followed by sensible strength training.

These things can take a little time but one thing I tell my students all the time wrt mobility/stability is "frequency trumps duration". spending 5 mins 2-3 times per day is better than 1 hour once per week.

Keep us posted on your progress and good luck

- Matt

 

[Im out]

1. What has helped you to improve your posture?
2. What do you recommend for improving thoracic mobility?
3. Hamstring flexibility?
4. APT/Forward head?

1. Deadlift, Pull Up, Bridge (progression for reps), shoulder dislocations, shoulder external rotation (physio), currently I hope to further improve posture with kettlebell ballistics, arm-bars, bent press, and turkish get ups
2. Arm-Bar, and in later stadium, Bent Press, Bridges are great for opening the chest aswell !!
3. inflexible hamstring usually means 'weak' hamstring, stiff-leg-deadlift might help, or any standing active stretch
4. Forward head.. sadly I haven't addressed this myself much either, but I suppose the muscles on the front of the neck (throat) are weak, and therefor remain in a shortened state. This also correlates with rounded shoulders, thoracic spine muscle weakness might be the main cause. I also have a very slight forward neck posture, and haven't really fixed it (yet) So besides what I already mentioned... not sure

Additionally you could try to put yourself in correct posture, possibly using a wall and hold the position for time. Eventually you could do it without a wall, throughout the day. I used to have a great video from some american chiropractor, but I no longer recall her name or how to find it. This helped me a lot too.

I'm no physiotherapist or chiropractor, and haven't studied anatomy, nor do I really care for it. All I care for is what works, and what doesn't. These are my personal observations.