In the beginning I was hyper-focused on training. How can I be consistent with my training and how can I continue to push myself to the next level. I’m good at pushing myself and unfortunately I did some pretty crazy stuff and am lucky I haven’t sustained any serious injuries. In college, I would party all night and jump in a 10k run still drunk and dehydrated and run the entire race. In my mid-twenties in San Diego a fair number of my long distance training runs were hung over as I was insistent on living it up Friday and Saturday night EVERY weekend. At twenty-nine it was like the fifth gear in my engine gave out. If I wanted to improve I’d have to start changing my lifestyle. What I didn’t understand is that coming out of the invincible twenties decade I can no longer neglect my body and expect it to perform. Mobility is a big part of how I care for my body so it will continue to meet strength training demands.

I thought mobility was stretching. Stretching was what we did in gym class before the mile run. We sat on our bums with both legs straight out in front of us until we felt an uncomfortable pull in the backs of our legs hold for 10 seconds then move on. I learned that mobility was a newer school of thought from Kelly Starrett of San Francisco CrossFit and MobilityWOD. He describes it as, “a movement-based integrated full body approach that addresses all elements that limit movement performance including short and tight muscles, soft tissue restriction, joint capsule restriction, motor control problems, joint range of motion dysfunction, and neural dynamic issues. In short, mobilization is a tool to globally address movement and performance problems.”

The simple way I began thinking about this was adding movement to “stretching.” Like in these banded good mornings where you hinge at the hip with legs as straight as possible (without locking out the knees). It works you posterior chain and can be incorporated into a warm up or cool down.

Finding a mobility routine has shown me the benefit of 3 tools: the roller, the lacrosse ball and the resistance band. If you want to see some of my favorites download the free app MoveWell and it has a nice little timer feature to ensure you spend ample time on each side. Also, if you’re at all physically active, invest in a roller, lacrosse ball and band. They will soon become your best friends and are easily packable for travel.

Action Steps:

1. What are some ways you can be gentler on your body? You only get one, folks.

2. Think about health and fitness as a lifelong goal. I want to be active well into my eighties.

3.  If you love training hard how can you care for yourself to gain top performance?