Sunday, March 9th - Supple Sunday!

Kelly Starrett, Founder of MobilityWOD

Centurions, we're starting a new weekly post (every Sunday) that will hopefully educate and motivate you to learn about moving your body, understanding the mechanics behind that movement, and offer some techniques to help fix any limitations or issues you may have.

The majority of the information posted on Supple Sundays will come from MobilityWOD. It has hundreds of videos that you can watch that cover movement, mobility, flexibility, and stability of every joint, every muscle, and the body's fascial system. Go there today and search the videos for the joint, body part, or movement that is either causing you pain or you struggle with performing at the box.

We're in the second week of the CrossFit Games Open, with WOD 14.2 having the overhead squat at a moderately heavy weight. The overhead squat is the ultimate core exercise, the heart of the snatch, and peerless in developing effective athletic movement. The overhead squat also demands and develops functional flexibility, and similarly develops the squat by amplifying and cruelly punishing faults in squat posture, movement, and stability.

Bottom position of the overhead squat.

Some athletes have a problem getting into the bottom position of the overhead squat, some don't. For those that do, don't be disheartened. You CAN improve your overhead squat, you just need to put in the deliberate practice to get there. The foundation to a good overhead squat is a really good air squat. That's why the air squat is the very first movement we teach at the Foundations class. Master this movement, and you've got the keys to the kingdom. If you struggle with your air squat, you will struggle even more in the front/back/overhead squat.

Many moons ago, your air squat looked this good without even trying!

So let's go back to beginning. The picture above shows the major points of performance for the air squat performed by someone who can't even spell the word "WOD." No matter how bad (or how good) you think your squat may be, chances are, you can make it better. Some athletes may have pre-existing medical conditions (surgery) that may constrain them in one way or another, but for about 98% of us, the inability to achieve and maintain a rock solid bottom position in the squat is something that we can address with mobility work and practice.

So if you want to have a rock-solid bottom position of the squat that would make junior up there jealous, you actually need to spend some quality time IN the bottom of the squat. Yes, it's probably going to be uncomfortable, but if it were easy, then you wouldn't walk into the box day after day. So here's your homework for today: Watch the very first MobilityWOD video ever made:

Then practice spending some time in the bottoms of the squat (we encourage you to start today!). You WILL start to notice increased range of motion in your hips, your knees, and your ankles!!

Here are some things to remember:

• You can include some mobility elements in your warm up, but not in place of warming up.
• Get sweaty before you start doing mobility work. A good 500m row works great.
• You'll want to leave anything that hits deep for after your workout. Don't do a 10-minute squat test before a WOD!!
• Yes, you can do mobility following your workout or at a completely different time.
• You can hit different things at different time throughout the day.
• As you are working with an area you will see the benefits last longer. In the beginning the change may not last as long as you think it should. As you work with it and your body learns the new position/movement pattern it will stay longer. After things get worked out and the area isn't as tight any longer it will be more maintenance and staying on top of it.

If you have any questions, please comment on the blog, on FaceBook, or ask any of your Centurion coaches. Additionally, take a look at the mobility posters that are hung over the bumper plates. There's a plethora of information there!!

Stay Supple!!