I have never been a morning person and always found it hard to get my body into gear and my energy levels primed. Some people are great at working out early but many people are like me and find it very difficult, especially those with chronic pain. While we have been asleep our bodies have been working hard to repair all the damage created from activities completed during the day but this also means our muscles, tendons, and ligaments have not moved for 7-9 hours to allow this process to occur. Most people’s morning routine is to stumble out of bed, get some breakfast, and head off to work where they might sit down for another 8 hours. This means that their body has been completely sedentary for the last 15-17 hours over a 24 hour period! This is where the muscles and the connective tissue can begin to develop stiffness, and ultimately weakness due to a lack of movement which will become a bigger problem over time. This is one reason why those already dealing with chronic pain find the mornings so much harder than any other time of the day. To combat this problem and reverse this trend one of the best things you can do is implement a simple morning workout that helps to rejuvenate the specific areas prone to stiffness. The best part is it doesn’t take all that long to do and requires little effort. In this article, I will share with you my favorite exercises to do this and why they work so well.
How To Use The Joint By Joint Approach To Improve Your Functional Movement Skill
One of the best changes I ever added to my assessments, thought process, and training methods was incorporating the “joint by joint approach” invented by physical therapist Gray Cook and strength coach Mike Boyle. When working with new clients and especially those with injuries or chronic pain it can be very difficult to know where to start, what to look for, and more importantly what to do to restore pain free movement. I was never taught this concept at any point in my first 5-6 years of personal training and I completed many advanced courses in rehabilitation and worked with many experienced therapists and specialists. I used to rely on postural corrections based around muscle imbalances and would drill down to specific areas with isolated exercises and stretches. While I had some success doing this I regularly would get very frustrated with poor results with transferring isolated exercises to full body movement. Then one day I read the book Movement by Gray Cook and came across the joint by joint approach something clicked in my mind that helped me join the dots together with what I had been doing. Everything seemed to make a lot of sense looking at the body in this way and enabled me to make some big changes that worked much better than anything I had been using previously. In this article, I will explain how I use this method right now and why I believe everyone should be taught this concept.
When Is The Best Time To Stretch, Before Or After Exercise?
The importance of maintaining our flexibility or mobility of joints in order to move well is very important but just how is it best to do that. We have all been convinced that spending time holding static stretches is the best way and we should always do this before exercise to prevent any injuries. If there is one thing I have learned over the last 20 years of working in rehabilitation with people suffering severe injuries to elite athletes looking for sporting performance it is that there are no absolutes, there is no black and white, there is only a lot of grey area. And when it comes to stretching not only are many of the age old beliefs incorrect, but the exact opposite is what is required! But not always! This is definitely one of the most confusing topics to discuss, as many times I will contradict myself and say do not do this, and the very next minute I tell that is exactly what you should do! The reason for this contradiction is we are all very unique with what out body needs, we just have to be smart and listen to the signals our body is giving us. One thing is for certain we all need to devote some time to restoring optimal flexibility. How we might do this can vary a lot, which is what I will show you in this article.
10 Hip Mobility Drills & Stretches to Improve Functional Movement
One of the most important and also very challenging areas of the body to work with is the hip and pelvic region. This part of the body is involved in almost every movement we make, and a constant switching between mobility and stability is required in order for us to move efficiently free of pain and limitation. The hips are designed to be very mobile and withstand both direct loading stresses and large rotational forces with weight-bearing activities, whereas the pelvis is more concerned with stability in order to preserve neutral alignment of the spine and lower limbs. This constant interaction between these two joints can very easily be disrupted by poor movement strategies or inactivity. When this happens we often see a loss of hip mobility first, as the body uses stiffness as its alternative to stability to protect the spine and pelvis from damage. Restoring it back to normal takes more than just a hip stretch and in this article we show you 10 ways to get this back.