WHAT IS VIRTUAL MOBILITY COACH?
The Ready State Virtual Mobility Coach is like having a virtual Kelly Starrett in your pocket.
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Sophie KerParticipantPretty sure I’ve had it for like 2 weeks now. They were a bit slow on the announcement.
Anyway, it’s awesome. Even more sheer-er.Sophie KerParticipantAs a baseline prescription, which are really lame and not a good way to go about mobility, I’d say the two biggest movers for the squat would be the couch stretch and the “pigeon pose”-style hip opener. A solid five minutes per leg in each other those, test-retest, should improve your squat. Doing those every single day will take you place.
Then come ankles. They take a long while to improve. I have pretty weak ankles, but with oly shoes on I can squat feet together just fine, so clearly you’re missing a lot of range here. Spend time with a band on the ankles. Like, a lot of time, ie. 5-10 minutes a foot.Also, form: try the same width, but feet with straight. At the top, squeeze your butt, “screw your feet into the ground” or “spread the floor,” and hold that tension throughout the movement. At the bottom of the squat you should still feel like your butt is working the hardest. The lumbar reversal is most likely a lack of hip flexion; I find that the banded hip/hamstring floss (where you bend over and straighten the leg repeatedly) works well for this.Sophie KerParticipantI emailed the team about it a while back and was told that they were preparing to make a video (probably MWod Pro) about it. So we’ll keep our eyes out there. I’m interested in this as well.
05/21/2014 at 10:23 pm in reply to: Video of Strained Multifidus and Spinal Erectors during a 315lbs squat #74676Sophie KerParticipantFor what looks like a low bar squat, you seem to be prioritizing “chest up” over hip drive out of the bottom. Seems to be working for you, but just a thought. Kelly would say to straighten your feet more, screw them into the ground hard at the top while squeezing your butt, and drive into that tension the whole way through. This is the reason he drills this “hip torque” concept; a staple hip means a stable low back, which means a stable spine.
Those are thoughts though, no solutions. Squats looked pretty solid to me!Sophie KerParticipantIt’s never okay to locally extend/flex your spine. I’m not familiar with Cobra either, and can’t tell if there’s a bit of a local extension at the lumbar. That being said, you’re not loaded, so this stuff isn’t going to be too sketchy in reality. I think it’s safe to keep your abs and butt on 20% here, as always. Kelly’s organization principles should be applied to every movement we undertake. This is why I’m not always a fan of yoga (and from I understand, neither is Kelly)—because it can indeed put us in compromised positions for the sake of yoga.
By movement practice, that’s basically what I mean. A lot of people “do yoga” “for flexibility” which to me isn’t necessary. Practicing good movement patterns throughout the day, doing some discreet daily maintenance via MWOD, and performing all of these movements at the gym regularly and in good form should optimize our ROM and capabilities over time.Sophie KerParticipantCognitive dissonance would be understandable. I agree with Kelly on yoga—if you have a movement practice and move well, you shouldn’t “need” yoga. I’m fond of his story where he “shows up” all the yoga girls at a class. I think it’s fair to apply MWod principles to your yoga movements. Not all yoga movements are technically sound, but you can do your best to make them. Remember, global flexion/extension of the spine isn’t a bad thing; it’s local flexions that are sketchy.
Sophie KerParticipantDorian: feet straight isn’t as important as maintaining your foot arch. Feet straight helps that, but do the best you can. I’m in the same boat.
Sophie KerParticipantInteresting, never would’ve thought of that being the popular answer! I’ll go for it then 🙂
Sophie KerParticipantHydration is actually pretty solid on me, I’m pretty ridiculous when it comes to water, salts, nutrition, etc. I’ll step it up a bit just in case. It’s alleviated a bit over the course of the day, but again, it still feels like a post-marathon type of calf soreness. I’m tempted to go smash more out, but perhaps that’s not the best idea after all.
I think Kelly says in the book somewhere that the calves would need many hours of cooking to be eaten 😉 This is so true. I think I spent so much time on them cause I’ve been neglecting them, they’ve felt stiff, and I ended up tearing them up a bit much. It’s so hard to get effective smashing in by yourself cause it can really hurt. Need a superfriend!Sophie KerParticipantYep, saw those too, and I’ve bookmarked them to program in for occasional work. I guess my real question is, how do I best practice these in the meantime? It better to stick to solid form and not go to depth, or slightly elevate heels (oly shoes) and go full range? It’s kind of awesome being able to hang out in the bottom position when I throw oly shoes on, but also kind of not awesome 😉
Sophie KerParticipantProbably not the best way to describe it. I’m thinking 10 minute squats, splits practice, olympic wall squats, (maybe) couch stretching. Contract-relax mobilizations. Putting your muscles into “new ranges” I would save for afterwards.
Sophie KerParticipantGenerally speaking, banded distraction stuff that is working on joint capsules and whatnot is probably good to do before workouts. If you’re restricted in a necessary position, clear up that stuff ahead of time. Then, for warming up, just practice the movement.
Laying on a lacrosse ball and other soft tissue stuff is best for afterwards. It’s a sort of downregulation, is related to parasympathetic responses, etc. Similarly, muscle lengthening stuff is probably best for afterwards as well; “new range is sketchy range.” You don’t want to “lengthen your hamstrings” and then go PR your deadlift, because you don’t necessarily want to expose these new ranges to such forces right away. Just some thoughts there. In fact, I often like to do soft tissue work and then follow it up with muscle lengthening work, thinking, “Well, I’m softened up the tissues, they’re free, now let’s show them where to go.”03/22/2014 at 6:57 pm in reply to: Using the elbows to lever out knees during 10 minute squat test #74366Sophie KerParticipantAt the same time though, we have to approach active squatting vs. “hanging out” squatting a bit differently, I would think. Organization is still always key, but we’re not trying to be active in the bottom position. We want the back to round, the butt to turn off, etc. Correct?
03/21/2014 at 11:26 pm in reply to: Using the elbows to lever out knees during 10 minute squat test #74362Sophie KerParticipantI hope not. I do that all the time myself!
Sophie KerParticipantKaitlin: I can’t speak much about my hip function. It’s not ideal, but I think I’m lacking more ext. rot. than I am flexion. I know for sure that I’m severely lacking good-arch ankle mobility.
David: this is curious, and I feel like it may be applicable to me, though I would hope it could be addressed! My best squats are definitely slightly outside of shoulder width. In my head, this is so I can get around my lack of external ankle rotation capacity (“knees out”) and still avoid impinging on my hips. Again, though, I would assume this could be fixed. -
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