Mobility Drills and Training with Purpose

Posted Mar 11, 2010 by Nia Shanks. This entry is filed under strength training, weight loss, fat loss, and interview.

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Tony Gentilcore Interview Part 2: Mobility Drills, Training vs Working Out, and Having a Plan and Purpose

Yesterday was Part 1 of the interview with Tony. If you missed it, you can find that here => Tony Gentilcore Interview Part 1

Now it’s time to move on to Part 2 where Tony shares some great mobility drills and tells us what most people do wrong with their training programs.

Nia:  Very few people even know what mobility drills are, let alone their importance in a balanced training program. Can you tell the readers why you use mobility drills with your clients, and also share a few mobility drills that most people can benefit from?

TG:  I’m often dumbfounded just how many people are still unaware of how important a proper warm-up is.  More to the point, it amazes me how someone who sits in front of a computer for ten hours every day, and has the mobility of a 2x4, doesn’t comprehend just how valuable mobility drills can be not only from a “wow, I kinda feel better” standpoint, but from an overall movement quality and performance standpoint  as well. 

Mike Robertson wrote a fantastic piece for your Fat Loss Detour manual (how’s that for a plug, eh?), describing the many benefits of a dynamic warm-up (which includes discussion on mobility drills), so I won’t steal any of his thunder.

That being the case, both Gray Cook and Mike Boyle have done a fantastic job at bringing to light the fact that there are certain joints in the body that need to be trained with STABILITY in mind (knees, lumbar spine, scapulae, respectively), and certain joints need to be trained with MOBILITY in mind (ankles, hips, thoracic spine, respectively).

In keeping with the theme on mobility, lets use the t-spine (thoracic) as a prime example.  If you listen to smarter people than myself speak, they’ll tell you that the t-spine requires roughly 40 degrees of rotation. 

As you might conclude, this tends to be a troublesome area for many people, and some are lucky to get half that range of motion.  As a result, you’ll see a multitude of issues such as kyphotic posture, chronic lower back and/or cervical pain, anteriorly tilted scapulae (which leads to shoulders that are pissed off all the time), and so on and so forth.  All of which, collectively, could be avoided altogether if people would pay more attention to their warm-ups/mobility drills.

As it is, here are some of my favorite thoracic spine mobility drills:

1. Quadruped Extension Rotation - probably my favorite one.
2. Yoga Plex - superb exercise not only for t-spine mobility, but hip mobility as well.
3. Side Lying Rib Roll - this is great for those that have shoulder pain and are unable to get into shoulder flexion without any pain.
4. Side Lying Windmill -  stole this one from Andrew Heffernan
5. Squat-to-Stand w/ Reach - another great bang-for-your-buck mobility drill that hammers both t-spine mobility and hip mobility.
6. Bent Over T-Spine Rotation - another one that we quite frequently at CP.

Nia:  Thanks for those mobility drills, and I hope our readers start using them. I believe most people don’t understand or greatly underestimate the importance of a well designed warm-up, and those drills are sure to help. Moving on: what would you say most people are doing wrong when it comes to training?

TG:  Wow, how can I possibly narrow this down to any one thing?  Well, for starters, I think it’s important for people to be able to differentiate between TRAINING and “WORKING OUT.”  I might come across as bit OCD, but I think there’s a distinct difference between the two. 

Walk into any commercial gym and you’ll see people “working out.”  You’ll see guys doing their barbell shrugs and then going off to watch SportsCenter in between sets.  Too, you’ll probably see quite a few women going off to their Bikram yoga class, thinking that because some guy from India invented it and gave it a fancy name, and came up with the notion of doing it in a 95 degree room, they’re burning a lot of calories.  Where I come from it’s called stretching.  Just because you do it in a hot room doesn’t make it some magic pill.

It’s rare when you see someone actually training.  Meaning, they’re doing something with some semblance of intensity and effort; and, most importantly, with purpose.  Whether it’s attempting to break a deadlift PR, increase the number of chin-ups they can do, or increase their chances of girls wanting to hang out with them, they have a goal in mind, and they’re training for that goal.

Along similar lines, I think one major mistake that many trainees make is that they don’t have a plan.  They kind of just “show up,” thinking that by doing so, they’re going to miraculously lose that spare tire around their waist.  Doesn’t work that way.  Shocker, I know!  You need to have a plan.  Why are you doing “x” program or “y” exercise?  What purpose does it serve?  If you don’t know the answer, then why are you doing it?     

Nia: Awesome stuff. You bring up great questions that everyone should be asking themselves. Especially the “why am I doing X exercise?” For example, if someone’s primary goal is to lose fat quickly, than triceps kick-backs are not going to help them accomplish that goal. Thanks, Tony!

We’ll be back next time with Part 3. Tony will talk about cardio, and the use of planks in training programs along with several examples.

If you have any additional questions for Tony, drop them below in the comments section and I’ll see if he will answer them.