The video above is a (quick and thorough) look at the tremendous power of well-designed mobility work fueled by a detailed assessment.
This week, I want to share the process that we use (taught in school and by mobility CE courses from SFMA, The Ready State, and the National Academy of Sports Medicine) so that anyone who reads this can have the information to fix themselves.
Yeah, I know that is bad business, but I don’t give a s%$^; at ASR, we put our clients’ well-being in front of the money.
In the video, Anneke came in with low back irritation during hinging. I did a quick top-tier mobility assessment (from something called the SFMA) and figured out that her hamstrings were tight, causing her pelvis and SI to compensate for the lack of range of motion, which puts some excessive force into the SI joint, causing her low back pain.
Then we did the following things to fix the hamstring tightness problem and low back irritation:
- Smash the tight tissue with an LAX ball to inhibit or modulate the nervous system’s activity that controls the soft tissues.
- Stretch the tight tissues/mobilize the joint using a band-assisted active stretch to elongate the mechanically shortened muscle and connective tissue to reduce their resistance to stretch and increase the range of motion (ROM) at the tissue and joint.
- Strengthen the overlengthened tissue and overall pattern. In this case, I had Anneke do some hip flexor strength work & RDLs (not in the video, for brevity’s sake) to stimulate (or reeducate) the underactive/lengthened tissue and then get her entire body moving functionally together without the issue that initially caused the pain.
The cool part is that this little framework works for any joint ROM restriction you have in your body. All you have to do is figure out what is tight (you should feel that when you move), smash the tight tissue, stretch the tight tissue, and then strengthen the opposite motion. Next time you think tightness is giving you some pain, TRY IT OUT, and if you can’t figure it out or this all seems too much, then call us, and we will fix it for you.
Coach Johnny B
