Mobility WOD challenge...

[GaWd]

Canuck and I have been working on our mobility, and I introduced him to www.mobilitywod.com . It's a site dedicated to mobility work for strength and fitness. It is run by Kelly Starrett, who is a Crossfit guy (boo), but he happens to be an incredible mind when it comes to biomechanics. Kelly (K-Star) has made inroads in the powerlifting world in the Bay Area of California (my home). He has helped the SuperTraining crew quite a bit, and has gotten published recently in Power magazine.

I have been using only 3 of these MWODs, and I have been able to loosen my hips up, and open my hips up and get my knees going forward. I even got my upper body up and my ass back. I'm sold

The Challenge
So the "mwod" website has basically one mwod per day. Some of these exercises are odd and more geared towards Crossfit, but just ignore them. The other content is just so powerful, that you need to ignore it and do your best to improve yourself.

Canuck and I are doing our best to perform all of the 365 mwods (all of the ones possible, anyways), and see who sticks with it the longest.

[GaWd]

Here are the MWODs that I've tried that have done the most so far:

MWOD1: The introduction to mwod.

http://www.mobilitywod.com/2010/08/f...eat-downs.html

MWOD2:This one has perhaps helped me the most, thus far. Especially combined with MWOD 363 (we'll get to it).

http://www.mobilitywod.com/2010/08/d...pain-cave.html

MWOD 3:A good lower leg stretch. Not too special, but if you have issues with ankle mobility, or achilles tightness, this will be an eye-opener.

http://www.mobilitywod.com/2010/08/n...-homework.html

MWOD 363:Killer hip rotation mobility. It will basically give you a stretch from your abs to your knees.

http://www.mobilitywod.com/2012/01/e...er-mob-rx.html

Doing this in my warmup today allowed me to rotate my feet forward without pain, or loss of ROM. I have always had an issue with ROM when turning my toes straight forward. Once I for my flexors warmed up, and loose, I was able to maintain ROM, point my toes straight ahead, and keep my upper body more upright. I'm likely to stay with these mwods for the next week, as I want some of this work to "stick".

How many mwods can you do? Eh, Canuck?

[Canuck]

Alright, we'll let me first state that this is a GREAT resource for mobility work and it's obvious a lot work has been put into it by Kelly Starrett. I highly recommend everyone checks it out and tries out some of the MWODs.

I've been in desperate need of regular mobility work for years and although I have incorporated some in the past I have never been consistent nor did I put much effort into it. I hope the competition (and improvements) help keep me motivated. So far I have done MWOD 1-4. Gawd has already done a good job at summarizing them but I will reiterate that MWOD #2 is the shit as far as improving hip flexor mobility. MWOD #3 is also great for improving calf/ankle mobility.

I will continue to post my favorite MWOD's and my progress until I beat Gawd to 365.

[GaWd]

The youtube plugin seems to be hosed...

[McLovin]

I am in on this..

[Niflheim]

I might join in as well, I really procrastinate on mobility work.. I'll have to throw in dynamic and static stretches too though.

[cubbieblue]

I did this religiously for a few months. While initially helpful I found that the every day stretching seemed to be a little too much for my body. You will also find that the WODs get very redundant after the first 50 or so. There is only so much stretching you can do before you've done them all. The most important bit is him teaching you to hold your stretches for 2 minutes. I now stretch lightly every day and do a thorough full body stretching routine 1-2 times per week.

[GaWd]

I hear ya, Cubbie. This is sort of meant as a motivator for our Canuckian friend who is very undisciplined. When you got through the first dozen, it has a huge impact-IMO.

So tomorrow is squat day. I will be working the IT band, quads, hips, and then doing MWOD 2,3,4 and now, this little gem (MWOD 7):

[Canuck]

Alright so I've been slacking on these the last few days as I've been very busy. Today I had my squat day and I decided to do MWOD 2 and 3 before as well as my basic foam roller movements (it, quads, calves, piriformis, thoracic spine) and I definitely noticed some improvements.

I also did MWOD 5 which is a shoulder flexibility stretch I've used before but not for the amount of time prescribed in the vid. I do like this stretch as well and will probably give it a whirl on my bench day. I plan to resume doing 1 or 2 MWODs a day now that I'm not so busy.

[GaWd]

I am still doing all of the mwods I listed in this thread for squats and deadlifts. I work in an upper body mwod for bench and pressing.

I did 10 today, before DL day:

[Canuck]

Little update:

Did MWOD 7 and 8 today. Had a little trouble feeling a good stretch during MWOD 7 but I think I was just not getting the angle right. MWOD 8 was tough for me as I have some VERY tight hammies. I'll add 8 to the pile of pre-WO leg day MWODs I will be doing (2,3,8).

I skipped MWOD 6 btw as I don't have anywhere in the house I can really do this stretch properly. I'll give it a go tomorrow at the gym.

[Canuck]

Finished MWOD 9 today. I'm liking this one as well as I have tight lats. Will use this one before upper body workouts along with MWOD 5.

[GaWd]

I have been doing 5 and 9 before upper body work, too. My lats are tight all the way down to my hip...

[Kimbo]

I'm looking for some more mobility drills to use.. think I'll try some of these out. Which ones do you find most effective for squatting?

[GaWd]

My current recipe for squatting mobility is the first 4 videos I posted near the beginning of the thread.

MWOD 1: (for a quick squat test)
MWOD 2: Mostest awesome psoas/HF mob ever
MWOD 3: Ankle/gastroc
MWOD 7: Hip distraction
MWOD 363: Rotators

I don't have the time to do 2 minutes per movement, per side, per mob. It's just not realistic. I probably get about half of that in.

[GaWd]

I'm thinking of trading in MWOD7 for MWOD12. It seems like MWOD 12 does everything that 7 does, plus works on the flexion position of the hip more.

[Kimbo]

Are you sure these are mobility drills? The video above looks more like he's performing a static stretch.

[GaWd]

That seems like a question of semantics, to me.

Most of these drills/mobs/mwods are more PNF than static stretches.

[Canuck]

Update:

Finished MWOD 10 today. I liked it as it addressed the hamstrings. I also did MWOD 9 again which is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

My current Pre-WO MWOD routine is/will look like this until I find a vid a like better to replace em.

Lower Body: MWOD 2, 3, 10
Upper Body: MWOD 5 and 9

I do still do the full 2 minutes Kelly recommends even though it is time consuming as I feel my muscles really start to loosen up after the 1 min mark. MWOD 2 really is a dramatic difference. Try doing a basic lunge stretch before and after this MWOD and you'll see the difference.

[Canuck]

Are you sure these are mobility drills? The video above looks more like he's performing a static stretch.

Ya it is more PNF style work. That being said a week of doing these has made way more improvement then a month of "classic" mobility drills have (ie: bent knee twists, leg swings, bird dog, scorpions etc.) although I do still do a couple of these in my warm-up.