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Mobility Exercises For You To Try Right Now

Go ahead and come on up here, you guys and let's start applying some of these basic concepts of torque so we can set the stage for carpale, so let's make our circle again. Now we've been talking about getting organized so what does that mean when I say "Get tight!"? What does that mean? First, squeeze your butt, big breath in belly, exhale, get tight. Now, here's what the next piece of this is, we have a template and schema for this, let's apply it to movement so get into a push up position for me, would ya? And I want your shoulders over your wrists. Top of the push up, now when we see feet together, let's do a quick experiment, cus a push up has a mid-range push and it ends up representing a very, very simple conditioning tool that everyone can relate to. Whether they're doing yoga and chaturanga, or you're being able to get up off the ground. Everyone move your feet apart for me real quick. Now, squeeze your bum as hard as you can, how's that goin' for ya? It's not at good, is it? F...

eet together, squeeze your bum as hard as you can, feet touching, is that better? Yes! So we wanna adopt positions that make it more simple for me to maintain better positions, we have blocked your movement, that will become cue. Now what I'm letting you do is sort of decay in this position because I can start to see what some of the tells are. If you stood up, oh wait, you did stand up and before you had this little hinge in your back when you put your arm over your head, right? And what am I seeing now reflected in the same position? So we need to fix that position, squeeze your bum, oh, squeeze your butt hard. You have no discipline! Squeeze your butt, good. In a non-creepy way, dude, that's not squeezed bro. That's squeezed! You need to have cobra butt tension or just enough to maintain position. So now do this for me, is it okay for your spine to change position when you do a push up? Great, so lower yourself to the ground. And now push back up, okay what was that cracking? Put your knee down, did you hear the cracks and whips? I heard a couple elbows go crack. Was that you CJ? That was disgusting. (laughs) Now here's the deal, someone wisely said earlier "If I'm not moving correctly, do things crack and pop sometimes? Yes! If I said it's not okay to load your knees first, do you think it's okay to load your elbows first? No! So push up position CJ, hang on a second, let's let CJ do it, feet together, bum tight, there it is. Now watch this, I'm just gonna block her movement, go ahead and do a push up now, and then push back up. That was harder, wasn't it? Did you hear a crack? No, and did you see her break? I did, do it again. Push back up, oh there it was! So what we have is a fundamental break down of spinal mechanics in her load, now what we haven't done is add the torque. So here's what I want you to do, put your hands straight and you're gonna screw your hands into the ground as hard as you can. Now watch this, we're gonna try and create as much torsion as we can and I want people to experience this, one of the reasons we put people under actual physical load is it forces them to create torsion and you guys all did a push up and only a few of you actually created any torque to be stable, didn't you? I got you sucked into the hip-spine paradigm. You're like, " I'm engaged!" and then you're like " oh yeah, I forgot about the torque concept." So shoulder over hand, spread your fingers out. Don't I need you weighted evenly through your hand just like your arch, just like we talked about? Shoulders over hands, now expression of creating torque, you guys is to have the elbow pit come forward so shine your elbow pit forward for me. If you need to look at me, you can. Elbow pit forward, good now, do I really care that your elbow pit's forward? What do I care about? That you're screwing your shoulder into the ground. Can you get your hand straight for me? Actually point it straight, now shoulders over wrists, elbow pits forward and if you weren't creating torque before now you can. Measure as much torque as you can, much tension as you can. Get your hands straight. Now, watch what happens you guys, turn your hands out thirty degrees for me, good. Let's do the same amount, we've electrocuted the floor, electrified the floor. If you do not create this amount of torque you will die. Ready? Why are you getting saggy again? No discipline! (participants laugh) Good and create that torque for me. Is it harder or less hard? Oh, its harder. Wait, isn't the wrist and the ankle the same thing? Oh, so what happens if I start to turn out my feet when I squat or walk? Does it make it harder for me to create stability through the hip? Go 45 degrees with those hands for me, please. Tell me what happens. And create torque, how's that going for ya? It's like a torque vacuum, look at your back, what happened to you? Why is your torque going away? Drop that butt, squeeze your butt, there it is. Get tight, get organized, there's that position. Now do this for me, turn your hands all the way around backwards, please. I know you're thinking to yourself, I don't go like that, you do, you can do it. Now what's happening is as soon as we've taken away your stability, are you starting to sag more? Do you feel it? Create as much torque as you can in that position for me, please. Don't laugh, come on torque up, let's go! Let's ride! Now what's happening universally is that I'm starting to see a lot more saginess. Remember I said you have to create torque in order to stabilize the trunk. As we take away your capacity to generate that stiffness, that rotation on the shoulders, what happens to your capacity to be stable? Shall we test it with something that actually looks like a movement? We all agree it's not okay to do a push up and have your back break, right? Good, this time let's do a push up. There we go, and if anyone's spines move kittens are gonna die, here we go. Yeah backwards, full push up. I know you're like " I don't understand, I've never done this before." Ready, and push up. What's happening? Is it hard? Put your knee up for a second, let me show you something. Two things are happening, one, it's theoretically not much harder than this. My triceps are still my triceps. One thing's that's happened is that we've blocked you into having perfect mechanics. It's like, if you put something right here and they were like " Oh, I have to squat for real now, I can't squat for real." And the second thing was we took away your capacity to generate stability in the shoulder and what happened to your capacity to generate force? It was weird, wasn't it? So now let's do that push up again, regular push up and let's create as much torque into the ground as we can and see what happens. Feet together, belly tight. Good, you don't have to create cobra torque, enough torque to maintain your position. I'd like you to err on the side of more tension and lower yourself to the ground. It's already looking better, look at those beautiful push ups, and worm back up. Great job, now for the people at home knees down, this is what we're gonna play for is a lot of people have difficulties with push ups and we need to give them a scaled version. The reason we don't do push ups on our knees. Can you do a push up on your knees for me? Is this, is it difficult for you to squeeze your butt in this position? Yes! So if I put an athlete on their knees or I'm practicing a scaled push up, what happens? It's harder to stabilize the trunk, isn't it? Now, I also wanna not have my knees come forward first when I squat or my elbows come forward first when I push up. So push up again, knee push up. And do a push up for me. It's hard isn't it to get all the way out forward? And so he still had to initiate. Watch what happens in his elbow, do a push up again. That's better, is your butt tight? No, and you broke right there but I just saw ya. Here's what we do, instead of putting people in a sacrificial position, we get into a plank. So let's all get into a plank. This is how you plan at home and still practice the concepts, good job! Hands in a position where I can create the most torque, butt is tight, belly is tight, screwing hands in the ground. If I see a bent elbow, I know that you're not in a good position. Getting tight, tighten up those lats. In the old language we call this the lat-tri tuck, excellent! And, lower yourself to the ground. Put your knees down, squeeze your bum. See how you can do it there? Now worm back up. Now back to a plank. That's how we protect you as we rebuild this cus what I don't want to do is, anyone who's ever had back pain isn't this plank position one of the archetypal shapes to build my trunk control? I'm saying, can you stabilize your spine and then can we challenge that spine under as many different conditions as we can? Does that make sense? That's all exercise really is. And so you're like, "oh, this is easy, I've got my kids, I've gotta squat down. Am I gonna bend, okay, maybe it's this position." And really all I'm doing now is seeing can you, in practice, practice keeping your spine stable and so I want to set the conditions for that. Pop back up! Yes? (mumbles) So the question is, can I do wide-handed push ups? Absolutely, you can. The reason I teach the position of shoulders over hands is exactly where you would be if I put you on gymnastics rings. Any shape is okay and the idea of trying to train movement principles is that means suddenly if I'm pushing a cart, I can create stability through the shoulders and push the cart. If I'm pushing a car, I can create stability as I push the car. You guys following me? Great, so the idea here is, if I understand the principle it doesn't matter what position I'm in. If I'm a paddler, do I know how to create this stable positions in the shoulders as I pull, yes or no? What we see is not. So the idea is, can we take this principle. The next five minutes before we go to break, let's apply this to the squat, okay? Feet straight forward under your lungs, we're not squatting yet, we're standing. So this is our, yes? Quick question about the push up, for the squat we want our knees out, we wouldn't want that for push up, is that right? So the question is, during a push up, when I squat I want my knees out and in my push up I don't necessarily want my elbows out. It's a little bit different, we actually say elbows in is the same idea as knees out. Because what am I doing, I'm creating the torque at the shoulder that spins the elbow in, knees out is how I create stability at the hips. So same concept applies and it's not really about what's happening with the elbow or the knee, it's about what's happening at the hip and the shoulder. So do this, as you're standing I need you to have your feet straight, so let's set some parameters. I need feet under lungs as you're standing, toes pointed forward and here's why. This is my normal resting position, is your weight through your arches? If you're standing and you're not in this position, you're not in a good resting position. This is important, you need to cultivate awareness in standing in this position. Now, squeeze your butt as hard as you can, belly tight, now I want you to screw your hips into the ground as hard as you can. You know you have to be centered through your feet. Create as much torsion to the ground. Tear the ground apart, torque on, torque! Got it? Now move your feet out 30 degrees. And create the same amount of stability for me there. Whoa, the loveless, torque-less house right there, that's what's up. That position sucks, doesn't it? Let me show you something, what's your squat Kyle? (mumbles) Oh good, squat's 400, come on now. Walks out with his feet straight, I'm always seein'. When we squat we want the feet somewhere between let me be clear, five and twelve degrees. We don't squat with our feet straight. As we go a bit wider, we adopt a wider position. But much past that twelve degrees, we dump the torque. Go to 45 degrees for me. And torque on! How's that goin' for ya? Oh! So if I cut my foot here can I create instability at the hip? If I step up and down off a ladder, or a stair, can I create instability in the hip? No, I need to be able to create tension. So go ahead and squat for me Kyle, give us your best squat, any width, any stance. Let's go much more knees out for me. Good, this is a fantastic squat. His back is pretty straight here, get your back up a little higher. There it is, now he is up straight. I'm going to try to pull his knees in. Don't let me win, hold, hold, don't let me win, don't let me win, he's very strong. Now watch what happens when he turns about just past that window, if I win you lose. Ready? And everybody loses, the kittens lose. Don't let me win, don't let me win 'cus I school you son, what's up? All day long, I own his hip function because he's in a mechanically poor position. When you're in a bad position, does anything work? No, if you're in a good position everything turns on like magic, okay? Here's what we're gonna do, stand back up. Go back up, let's apply this concept to the squat so if I ask you guys to squat, here's what we're gonna say: I'm gonna be somewhere between five and twelve degrees as I squat down, doesn't matter what your torso position is doing. I need you to create as much torsion into the ground as you can, you're gonna create some torque for me. The only rule is that you can't have your knees come forward first, does that make sense? And you can't collapse your arch. So let's go hands up. Screw your feet into the ground. Excellent and now you've entered the tunnel correctly maybe for the first time ever squatting and it's our simple principles. Prioritize the trunk first, organize the primary engine second and now, not letting knees go forward first, they can go out, that's totally okay to let your knees come out past your toes or on the outside. Ready? And squat, knees out, knees out. Now, hold that hip crease below the knee position. Shove those knees out, get out. We gotta get the hip crease below the knee. Now, shove your knees out harder. Can you? What were you saving something for swim later? Don't save anything for, oh that's what's up, now keep your toes on the ground, toes on the ground. I need you at the limits of your hip range. Take your stance a little bit wider. Let's go, everyone come down into this bottom position for me. I want you to take your elbows and physically shove your knees out as hard as you can. Beautiful Henry, good. Feet are straight, straight-ish, five to twelve degrees, shoving your knees out physically, mechanically as hard as you can, now on three we're gonna lift our knees up off our elbows. Ready? One, two, three, so lift up a little higher Jody, good, shove your knees out harder Jody. Oh! I need you at the limits of your range of motion, did you see how much more she had? Sandbagger. (participants laugh) Now here's the deal, watch my back, if I don't have my hip out in this bottom position, what happens to my back? Now what am I gonna do? I'm gonna crank on something else to hold on, so you feel how your back becomes more stable in that bottom position? Good, so take your knees, shove them out again, hard. Come on Alex, shove them out, shove them out harder. What I mean, shove out, I mean I want your knees out. Do you feel that? Do you feel like your hips are gonna explode? Perfect, hold that position. That's what I mean, so now we have a definitive bottom position, ready? Stand back up. That's squatting, yes, no? So if I'm sitting in my chair, same rules apply, you're at a fancy dinner, hey how's it going? Get! Screw your feet into the ground, reach back, knees out, it's a little awkward right? So what I think about doing is trying to optimize those positions to the best of my ability. If I squat to this chair, it's a little squat. Do I need cobra torque? No, I just need enough stiffness to maintain a good position where I don't get sloppy in my movement. So here's the test, can you sit back down in your chair perfectly? Let's see it. Cus you can't shove your knees out crazy, can ya? You have to do the best you can. Kyle your knee wobbled nineteen times. (participants laugh) Now what does that mean if I'm walking down the street. That's sketchy right? What if I juggle in? Okay. Remember it's not express your knees out, it's express as much torsion as you can. If you can't shove your knees out, where does the torso have to go? Forward, and are most people comfortable in this position? So what do we wanna do? Ah, so if you Kyle, have to stand up, pull that chair forward. Did you see how he stood up and got out? That was a test and he failed the test! Here we go, okay. Feet straight, now you can't shove your knees out cus you're on an airplane. Feet straight-ish, five to twelve degrees, screw your feet into the ground. Shove your knees out to create stability. Watch, prioritize the spine first, he leans as far forward as he can, do I want his knee to shoot forward? Nope, so go ahead and lean forward and stand up. That was good because he prioritized his spine, he had to lean a much further forward than he would when he squats 405, right? That's not a good position to squat heavy weights in, is it? But that was the compromise he had by prioritizing his spine, still creating torque, he stays in that stable range, that make sense? Have a seat. We'll take it, make sense? Great, so homework. You have got to learn how to squat, this is so important. If you step up out of a chair and your knees come forward fault, if you rock forward, your back breaks, fault. You need to just hinge forward as a single unit, knees out to the best of your ability. I'm still screwing my feet into the ground. And all the way up, you following me? You're gonna need this when we start applying these principles to the great carpale.