Mobility

I was pretty frustrated when pistols came up in a workout earlier this week.  I can handle pretty much any workout that comes up without scaling.  Even now I can get a muscle up or two.  I still can’t do pistols though, and it kills me.  I know that it is an ankle mobility issue, and I decided this week to make mobility a priority daily.  Multiple times a day even.  I had a great conversation with Faction coach Doug Larson this morning, and he showed me a few great mobility drills that I can do every day to work on my ankle issues.  I really wanted to make a video, but the gym was too loud this morning and I didn’t really have the time.  So I’ve found a couple of good mobility WOD videos  that deal with ankle mobility and show the same movements that Doug recommended this morning.  Here we go, first is a video talking specifically about pistols and problems that ankle mobility can cause:

Second, check out the drill he gives the guy in this video.  Sort of the same as one of the movements Doug gave me, but you can do it without the band if you want:

Third, this video shows a little bit of the wall drill as well as a nice drill with a band that you can do.  If you don’t have a “Super Friend” you can just wrap the band around a post or squat rack or something like that.

All of these drills are great, and I plan on adding them to my daily routine.  Like Doug told me this morning though, it isn’t going to help to just do mobility work once a week.  You can’t just do it one day, wait a week and then do it again.  You have to make it a regular thing in order to really see improvement.  I also picked up a copy of this mobility seminar, Maximum Mobility, at Fitr.tv.  It’s a video of Doug talking all about mobility.  There is a ton of great information in there, and I highly recommend it.

This isn’t just important to me so that I can do a beautiful pistol one day.  It’s important because I know that it has to be affecting my running in some way.  Working through my ankle mobility issues can help my running as well as my squat so there is no doubt I need to focus on it.  Anyway, I hope that helps answer some of the mobility questions I’ve gotten from several of you over the last week.

Training/Recovery

Training this week was great.  I’m pretty excited that I can recover from a Marathon so quickly.  I don’t really have a particular recover method or routine, but there are a couple of things I made sure to do this week that I don’t normally do.  First, eat lots of good food.  Of course, after the race I ate a big cheeseburger but once I got home, I immediately made sure I was eating lots of good food like meats, vegetables, nuts, etc.  I’ve also been trying to juice one glass of veggies per day.  Second, since I had a mobility kit at home I really focused on rolling my quads and feet and any other parts that were sore or stiff.  Lastly, I was in the gym bright and early Monday morning following the race.  I honestly think that this is one of the most important things for me.  The quicker I can get back into moving around and training the faster I recover.  I don’t go 100%.  I take it easy and keep the weights light.  I don’t worry about times or setting PR’s, I just focus on getting things moving normally again.  I think that is a big part of why I can recover so quickly.

Other Stuff

I’m planning on doing a lot of fun stuff this year.  I am going to do an Olympic distance triathlon (Memphis in May), Los Locos Duathlon, and I am seriously considering registration for the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler next February.  At any rate, I expect to be swimming a little bit as well as finding myself a bike to purchase.  I’ll also need to start putting together a little team of pacers/support to go along with me to Texas for Rocky Raccoon.  There’s a lot of really cool stuff going on, and I’m pretty excited about 2013.  We have a “Goals Board” at the gym this year where everyone has written down things that they would like to achieve in 2013.  Here’s mine:

vongoals

 

That’s right, a 350lb. Squat, 5 Hour 30 Minute 50K, and a 10:30 50 Miler.  I plan on hitting 5:30 at Sylamore next month, and 10:30 at the Ouachita 50 Miler in April.  Who knows what else I might get into. Anyway, let me know what you’ve got going on this year.  Any big goals?  Any awesome races?  Let’s hear it…

-V