Conquering Traumas, Tweaks, and Tears
What’s limber like a leopard, but strong like an ox...lox?
As soon as we locked eyes and smiled at each other, I knew that he was thinking the same exact thing as me: “fuck, that hurts.” With one hand on our aching lower backs and the other swinging violently to urge our nearly unresponsive and very upset legs into action, we both knew that our bodies were at their limits. Myself and this other ROTC Cadet had just completed the Norweigan Foot March, an 18.6-mile ruck march, and the many small, limping, and uncoordinated steps it took each of us to move the 25 meters between our cars and the snack table told the whole story. During any athletic venture, it’s difficult to know whether you are truly being held back by your body’s limitations or your mind’s governors; however, the answer to that question was quite clear when I made my way up the final hill on that early and cold morning, as the electricity in my electrolyte-depleted calves, the tremor in my epinephrine-driven hands, and the rigor-mortis-like stiffness in my quads all sent me some convincing signals. I think that it is through times like these, where you find yourself breaking down previously perceived limits and exploring what lies beyond them, that you can learn the most. In this experience, I learned a few things:
It might be smart to consume some electrolytes on a 3+ hour ruck march.
There should always be toilets near the finish line.
The mind is the captain, the body is the crew.
My youthful days of running my body into the ground without repercussions are over.
That ruck march showed me the dichotomy of the saying, ”mind over matter,” in that every step of the way was a conscious choice to override the pain and fatigue telling my brain to stop or slow down; however, there came a time when the broken down crew could no longer hear nor respond to the captain’s barking orders. On one hand, it was gratifying to see how far my mind could push my body, but, on the other hand, it was a wake-up call to see and feel the inevitable consequences of doing so. As a kid, these consequences are less evident, in that our elastic and extremely adaptable bodies can seemingly bounce back from any physical load we throw at them; however, as I have learned in recent years, that childhood invincibility does not last forever. Luckily though, and contrary to common belief, this does not necessarily mean that we must throw away our physical ambitions and athletic endeavors because of the ticking of the clock. With the help of wise programming, mobility training, and optimal biomechanics, I believe that the human body can continue to smash long ruck marches, toss around heavy weights, journey through laps in the pool, and complete other strenuous physical activities for far longer than previously believed. For this reason, I give you, “The Supple Leopard,” Kelly Starrett.
Starrett, a renowned physical therapist in the Crossfit community and founder of the mobility work out of the day (MOB WOD), specializes in the art and science of leveraging stretching, soft-tissue work, mobility training, and proper biomechanics to maximize athletic performance, expunge limiting injuries, and alleviate nagging chronic pains. Whether you are a marathon runner with swollen knees, a meat-head powerlifter with sore shoulders, a dad looking to evade the infamous slipped disc, or a mom fighting the postural consequences of 20 years working at a desk, Starrett’s The Ready State has the tools you need to overcome your injuries, restrictions, and pains.
Dating back to The Ready State’s origins in 2009, Starrett has been pumping out MOB WOD’s, educational videos, and more, all of which — in my opinion — culminate into the greatest maintenance and recovery database for elite athletes, casual gym members, and, “desk warriors,” alike. Not only does he outline ways to prevent and treat injuries, but he also guides his viewers through his philosophies and practices regarding post-surgery protocols, icing, and other recovery-related topics. Below, I have listed some of my favorite MOB WOD’s from The Ready State’s YouTube channel, as well as breakdowns of some of Starrett’s mobility fundamentals and additional resources to help you manage current injuries and prevent future ones. If you don’t find anything that particularly pertains to you in the resources below, search, “(insert injury or body part of concern) Kelly Starrett,” into YouTube, and I predict you’ll find more than you were looking for.
The Best of Kelly Starrett and The Ready State
1. If you’re looking for a lower or upper body reset, check these out.
2. This one is for the frequent flyers with low back troubles after landing.
3. For those of you runners and squatters with patella problems, try feeding some slack from your quads.
4. Try these mobilizations to alleviate the pain from your hunchback and chin-to-chest posture.
5. This just might save the pitchers, punchers, and benchers that are reading this.
WARNING: this may trigger those of you that are familiar with the pain of 7-way hips.
6. Why do you need to fix your posture when you sleep anyways? You only spend 6-8 hours in that position every night.
7. I’ll give you a hint: the opposite of splinting is moving.
8. I’ll be honest: this MOB WOD is going to hurt. I’ll be honest again: you will feel like a floating gazelle afterward.
9. You know who you are.
Principles of a Supple Leopard
1. Contract-Relax:
When mobilizing stubborn muscle or soft tissue, you may find yourself wincing from the dagger-like sensation that can come with rolling out on a lacrosse ball or the shearing discomfort that can come from a tight stretch. If you encounter this type of situation, try inhaling, flexing the muscle of interest while holding your breath, then slowly breathing out and relaxing that muscle. You will likely find that this neurally soothing method will allow you to gradually sink deeper into that lacrosse ball or stretch; additionally, if you conduct your mobility work before going to bed, combining this breathing technique with a dark environment will set you up for a rapid sleep onset. Starrett describes the mechanism behind this method as, “owning the position/movement,” because your flexion in that position/movement tells your brain that you are safe to operate there.
2. Improve mechanics to optimize output
Although most of his videos address injury-related content, Starrett also discusses how mobilization and proper biomechanics are intertwined with optimal athletic performance. For example, he often addresses the concept that a neutral spine — not extended nor flexed — provides the greatest potential for power production because it requires all of you to stack your vertebrae in a mechanically efficient manner. He addresses similar biomechanical concepts in his books and videos, such as the level of arch and degree of angle in an athlete’s feet when they are squatting, running, etc.; interestingly, according to Starrett, putting oneself in biomechanically advantageous positions foots the bill for both preventing injury and producing maximal force. It’s almost like evolution groomed our bodies for action...
3. Blood Flow Is a Go
If you ask any 5th grader what they should do when they roll their ankle or sprain their knee, they will probably recite the age-old, “R-I-C-E,” recommendation that they learned in PE: rest, ice, compress, and elevate. Some of you may be familiar with this protocol as well, but have you ever questioned its objective and mechanism for achieving that objective? Starrett, inspired by Gary Reinl, believes that icing not only leads to suboptimal healing but may even cause additional damage. His reasoning is based on the idea that healing requires immune cells, and it is the inflammatory response following damage to an area that carries those immune cells there; consequently, when you ice and reduce the blood flow to an injured area, you are preventing that inflammatory response from facilitating your body’s healing process. Starrett and Reinl both argue that icing is effective if your objective is to reduce pain but not if your objective is to foster recovery; instead, they advocate for using movement — especially movement under compression — and soft-tissue work to increase blood flow to the injured area and squeeze swollen interstitial fluid out of the surrounding tissues. If you don’t trust Starrett and Reinl enough to reserve your ice packs to your lunch boxes, check out this post, where the founder of the R-I-C-E protocol discusses his new perspective on icing.
In addition to injury scenarios, I employ this, “blood flow for recovery,” idealogy after long runs and rucks by completing 100 reps of extending, flexing, and circling my knees and ankles to flush out any interstitial swelling in those joints. Also, Starrett recommends utilizing compression and massage gun therapy to increase blood flow and improve recovery for temperamental parts of your body. For a deeper dive on this topic, check out Starrett and Reinl’s conversation here.
4. Mobilize Upstream and Downstream:
If there is one principle for you to walk away with, make it Starrett’s method of mobilizing, “upstream and downstream.” This one is simple and intuitive, as tightness above or below a joint would logically create a torque on that joint and impede its function. One way to picture this is to think about a mother trying to shop at the grocery store while her 5-year-old son constantly tugged on or hung onto her leg. With all of that instability, it is only a matter of time until her patience snaps or her ankles trip — neither of which will be pretty. Now, apply that analogy to your knee, and think about how a tight quad or hamstring can throw off the biomechanics of the joint; furthermore, envision how you can, “feed slack,” into that joint’s system by mobilizing the surrounding muscles that attach above, below, and on the sides of the joint — this is the, “upstream-downstream,” model.
My MOB WOD Tips
As I bring this post to a close, here are some short tips from my experience implementing Starrett’s mobility principles:
Don’t overdo it when rolling out because you’ll feel it the next morning if you do.
Consistency is key, so choose to conduct 10 minute MOB WOD’s every day over conducting a single one-hour MOB WOD every couple of weeks.
Find out your mobility limitations, injury tendencies, and problematic areas, and double down on the MOB WOD’s associated with those issues.
Plain and simple, missing out on hobbies, suffering through chronic pain, and forfeiting events with your friends and family because of injuries sucks. That’s why I invest time in mobility, that’s why I follow Kelly Starrett, and that’s why I think you should too; otherwise, you might end up permanently limping around like I was at the end of that ruck.