mobility

Recently, I had the opportunity to sub for one of the larger evening classes at CrossFit Humanity where I co-coached with my friend and senior coach, Alan. Reflecting on the experience, what seemed like a routine sub gig played out as coaches rite of passage for me. Currently, we have two coaches running the evening classes because they are so big. Keeping a pretty busy schedule during the week I hoped I could bring the energy level needed to be on my game. Not only did I feel my senses heightened but I felt a strong sense of confidence in myself. Coaching or leading any fitness class can be like a stage performance. You are required to be 100 percent present 100 percent of the time. You enter with a plan and a heightened sense of how long each activity takes but then tweak that plan when you start to recognize what your group actually needs. Having done a ton of running and squats the day before our members needed some loving (i.e.mobility) to their posterior chain.

Not regularly coaching large classes it can be nerve-wracking entering a class twenty plus people deep as a sub. I always picture and fear our members rolling their eyes or sighing. Hey, I don’t like subs. I get it! How could I measure up to your favorite coach and gym owner? Well, I can’t so I won’t try to. I’ll be Coach Hannah and pray that’s enough.

Co-coaching was a lot of fun because I could feed off of Alan’s energy and vice versa. I’ve always loved his sense of humor and looked up to him as he taught me from when I was just a baby coach shadowing him all those hours for all those months in the back driveway. Last night was my first time co-coaching where our load was evenly split. I wasn’t sure how much Alan would reign me in but I’m happy he trusted me. Sure I’ve been coaching every Friday for a year now but Alan hadn’t seen my growth. If my memory serves me correctly, this is the first time we have co-coached a general class together and it was a blast! We had a mutual respect, rhythm and had fun with it.

Coach Alan and me goofing off

I discovered co-coaching is different from my usual Fridays solo because it is the definition of team work. You have to communicate before class. You have to communicate with body language only during class. You have to COMMUNICATE. It also showed me how important it is to have chemistry with the other coach. If you’re on the same wavelength and can easily read the other coaches body language it’s easy. Last week was a rite of passage for me. I no longer feel like I am Alan’s shadow and was given the freedom to bring my own style, game plan, and coaches eye as contribution to the class. Coaching requires a lot of preparation, tools and improvisation during the 11th hour. There’s nothing more nerve wracking than a gaggle of athletes staring at you and deciding in the first 20 seconds of you opening your mouth if they respect you or not. Coaching is challenging, requires a ton of mental & physical energy and I’ve loved every step along the way learning, failing, refining, re-trying. I told myself in the beginning I’d just keep swimming and that’s what I’m continuing to do.

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.

Photo Credit: Sal Ocampo/CrossFit Humanity

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?

Coach Kiss

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