This past week in Boston was one filled with continuing education opportunities and knowledge bombs galore. From Thursday to Sunday in the Boston area you had an opportunity to check out the following….
- 3 Seminars from San Fransisco PT/Crossfitter: Kelly Starrett
- 2 Days of FMS Training with Gray Cook and Lee Burton
- 1 Day of Nutrition Lectures with Robb Wolf
With that being said, if you train people, Boston was the place to be this past weekend as far as continuing education goes. Since I did the FMS seminar last year and I knew that it wasn’t likely that I’d have an opportunity to see someone from the west coast out here again soon I went all in and saw as much of Kelly Starett’s presentations as possible.
I can hear the functional party ranting already…”Pshh a Crossfitter what can you learn from him besides how to injure someone??”
It turns out you can learn a lot…
Kelly Starett is a brilliant physical therapist and owner of San Fransisco Crossfit. He currently maintains a blog entitled www.mobilitywod.com where he posts one mobility video EVERY SINGLE DAY!! (Check this out for serious and practical knowledge bombs daily!) Say what you want about Crossfit, but Kelly and his team do it right out there.
My roommate and fellow MBSC coach Brendon Rearick extended an invitation to Kelly to give an in-service presentation here at MBSC while he was in Boston for two other seminars and he politely obliged . Some great education followed. In addition to giving us nearly 3 hours of an in-service at our gym Kelly extended a free invitation to attend his full day seminars being held in Boston on Saturday and Sunday. 8 hours of free education?!?! You’d better believe I was all over that. So over the weekend a handful of MBSC coaches and I crossed over to Crossfit and attended a kick ass seminar. Here is some of what I picked up.
– Mobilize for specific position not anatomy
- When thinking about mobilizing a joint it is best to think about it in a position specific model rather than an anatomical one. Knowing your anatomy is necessary but it tends to get lost in translation in a practical sense.
Take this for example..
You’re mobilizing your hip externally rotated and flexed. You know that your lacking mobility in hip ER but what is limiting you your piriformis, glute min, med, gemelli, quadratus blah, blah, blah. The point is you don’t really know. So make it simple and mobilize in external rotation. Don’t over think it.
- Thinking of the hips and shoulders in this fashion really helped me. I once heard Gray Cook say that the Eastern Cultures referred to the shoulders and hips as “The 4 Knots.” When you think of these joints and how they function best in movement you start to see the patterns appear.
- The shoulder needs external rotation in flexion…think OH pressing/pulling/throwing

- The shoulder needs internal rotation in extension…think Throwing/Swimming.
- The hip needs external rotation in flexion….think squatting
- The hip needs internal rotation in extension…think running/swinging/throwing/the back leg during an SLDL
KStarr had a great metaphor for the proper set-up for exercise. I know this one really stuck with me and the other coaches from MBSC as it has been repeated multiple times since then. He made the analogy of setting up for an exercise as “Entering The Tunnel.” Simply put, if you intend to exit the tunnel (or execute and finish the exercise) in the proper position you must enter the tunnel (or exercise) in the proper position well. This sounds like common sense but how often do we waste our breath cueing an athlete who is in a bad position while under load??
Picture this…You have an athlete who is doing a heavy front squats with his knees caved and back rounded and you cue him to “get his chest up and get his knees out!!” Do you actually think the athlete is going to be like “Sorry bro” and fix himself half way up with 400lbs with the rack position?!? Of course not. There was something wrong to begin with and they couldn’t handle the load. If we are out of position and we are under load it’s not going to change. Lack of stability in the center won’t allow proper positioning in the periphery.
All of this goes back to something I heard from Charlie Weingroff and was reminded by Kelly this past weekend. “Proximal stability before distal mobility” which means we must have stability in our mid-line structures (proximal stability) before we can maximize our extremity function (distal mobility).
Without having the proper stabilization plan first we won’t be able to get into our necessary positions to enter or exit the tunnel properly.
Check out this video where Kelly probably does better job describing “The Tunnel” than me..
– Follow the system
- Kelly presented a great system that can be followed to improve mobility at any joint. The system mirrors much what has been presented by Boyle, Cook and Weingroff in the past but served as a great reminder.
The formula for improving your mobility goes like this.
1). Test Your Range
- We have to know where we are now if we’re going to figure out where we’re going. Find out where you need mobility. Test based on the positions you’re looking to improve. You can use things like table testing, FMS or simply have them squat or reach their arms overhead. Start with what is worst and go from there.
2). Improve Tissue Quality
- Perform some sort of release on the tissue to break down the nasty tacked down mess of myofascial net that is preventing you from burying that squat, causing you knee pain etc. Your tool: lacrosse ball, foam roller, softball whatever works really. Just start digging for that restriction in the position you want to improve. Bottom line is we have to improve the quality of the tissue and it probably isn’t going to feel great.
3). Mobilize
- After applying some pressure to the tissues via some sort of release tool you’ve got to get that joint moving in the range you desire to improve. It’s more than static stretching, the joints have to move hence the word MOBILITY. Mobilize in the position of restriction. (You see the pattern here)
4). Re-Test
- After we mobilize it’s important to re-test. How will we know if we improved ROM if we don’t re-test? Repeat step one and look for improvement. If it doesn’t look better than it’s not. You either need different mobilization or it’s not a simple mobility problem. This is a simple step that a lot of people miss and it only takes a second so DO IT! Don’t miss this step!
5). Use it before you lose it!
- If you have got new range of motion USE IT!! We’ve heard Gray Cook say this before. “Use it before you lose it ” is true when it comes to mobility. New range of motion at any joint is useless if you don’t strengthen it. Lack of stability in your new found joint freedom will cause you to lose it all over again. Work the new range to hold onto it.
I like systems, they make things simpler. Follow this system and the power will be in your hands to improve your mobility as well as your clients. Credit goes to guys like Boyle, Cook, Weingroff and Starett for dropping this knowledge on me, I’m just relaying the information. I’m truly standing on the shoulders of giants with this one. Now go to www.mobilitywod.com and start mobilizing.