You get out what you put in. I think everyone knows that. If you don't feel like you're putting in hard work, you can probably surmise you're not going to get great results. With all this marketing people try so hard to believe the claims they hear, about this being the next big thing, or this being the one little secret they were missing.
We talked about it yesterday, theres something special about working hard. I also went onto say working hard isn't enough. Yeah, it will give you a great mental advantage, but you have to train smart. Now, theres a million ways to cycle workouts, to build intensity, and to get your heart going. I'm not going to talk about those today.
I'm talking about the number one thing most strength and conditioning programs miss.
Now this isn't some mysterious secret. It just so happens to fit in what strength and conditioning should be. You see, a lot of strength and conditioning( S&C) programs draw influence from bodybuilding.
Thats okay. (In the long run no...but i'm not here to tell anyone they're wrong.)
But if you're a fighter its not. Its not enough to simply be stronger.
Its not enough to have more gas in the tank then the other guy.
And you can bet your ass its not enough to look better than the other dude.
The missing ingredient is mobility. You may also know it by the name movement.
If you aren't on a daily program of joint mobility, and fairly consistent movement drills, you're holding yourself back.
I had heard, and read about movement and mobility during my first Circular Strength Training (CST) seminar. When i first started doing joint mobility, i thought it was alright.
"Cool, i can move my neck side to side. I couldn't do that before."
So I continued for a bit after the seminar, and sporadically after that. After all, immediately after the seminar I went to the small country of Brazil. The last thing i needed my apartment ( grossly undersized for the amount of people we had at times) was people giving me shit for "Throasic extension, flexion, and yaw." Which ends up looking more like a weird dance move. So i did it in secret.
When i had returned home, i was unsure how to continue my fitness career. I thought Yoga teacher training would be a great start for me. Part of my yoga teacher training required a daily practice. At least an hour, every day. Most of the time the class i went to started at 6AM, which mean i was up at 4:30AM to drive to yoga. While i was never happy waking up, i started to notice changes, not quick, but noticeable .
I felt better for the rest of the day. My BJJ practice was immensely improving. I had developed flow. Everything i did seemed to take less effort. My power to weight ratio was increasing everyday, despite insignificant strength training. My balance was better than it had ever been.
So what was happening? Yoga was the missing ingredient i had been looking for. It had done all these wonderful things for me.
A problem arose.
That practice was an hour everyday, and you can bet i wasn't going to keep waking up at 4:30AM if i didn't have to. Not to mention the price was almost double what i pay for my martial arts training.
What was the compromise?
Enter Prasara Yoga. Sanskrit for "flow without thought." It was exactly what i was looking for.
Standard yoga is fantastic. Don't get me wrong. It happens however, that my chosen activity is very dynamic in nature. In traditional yoga, you stretch, and hold for a certain number of breaths, which is normal terms "static stretching." So my training demanding Dynamic movement, mobility, and flexibility, while tradition yoga gave me more static, holding, and ridged postures.
I obviously had to change it up a little, to meet the demands. Thats where Prasara comes in. Not only was it yoga, but it incorporated all this dynamic movement i needed to keep improving.
As i did more reading, i found that Coach Scott Sonnon also believed mobility was the missing piece.
Now heres the discrepancy, you may think by mobility, i mean the same thing as flexibility. I don't.
The word mobile is defined as follows:
adjective
1.
2. flowing freely, as a liquid.
Mobility is flexibilities practical cousin. Just because someone is flexible, doesn't mean there capable to move to that range of motion when they need it. Nor is flexibility a prime characteristic of health, contrary to popular belief.
When you hear about a senior citizen, you don't hear "Well, you know, Mom was doing okay by herself but between her losing her flexibility, and her thinking the web cam was going to steal her credit card information, we just had to put her in a group home."
You instead hear how they lost their mobility. Their ability to be capable of movement. They've lost the flow.
Lets bring this back full circle with an example.
Fighter pilot John Boyd theorized that a moderately armed and armored jet that was highly mobile would be victorious over the bricks (heavy) and the fast (needles).
He theorized that a Jet that could outmaneuver both the power and the speed, and respond decisively to fast-changing conditions could defeat rivals consistently. This eventual lead to the development of one of the greatest planes ever developed, the F-16.
So ask yourself " Are you training to be a F16 or a B2 bomber?"
Are you training to be highly adaptable, and efficient? I'd say the majority of people are B2 bombers. They get the strength, and power, but they can't take the parking brakes off to truly be able to express this strength or power in real situations.
Thats the whole philosophy of current functional training systems. To be able to have expressible power in real life activities, rather than just the gym. They will however fall short if you don't have mobility.
The body is supposed to work as one unit. So what happens is when you free up this tension in your muscles, smooth out all the adhesions in your myo-fasial matrix, and mobilize each joint so you can utilize it to its full potential, is that you become the F16. Suddenly, your strength training means something. You feel like superman because you aren't feeling the normal aches, pains, and injuries. Parts of your body that were once shut off, are finally activated, giving your more strength.
So mobility is the key to be able to express power and strength you've worked hard to attain. Just add the last ingredient, or else you're baking bread without yeast. Your end product is going to be flat, and tough.
Be pliable, plastic, have the ability to move your body not only in the way you want, but the way you need.
Keep watch for upcoming videos on body-weight mobility drills, as well as joint mobility, and compensatory movement.
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