Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 258: Functional Flexibility

Episode Date: March 21, 2016

What are the most "functional" exercises you can do and what is the value of "functional" flexibility? Sal, Adam & Justin discuss how you can improve performance and build more muscle by focusing on specific movements in the gym. Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Learn more about Mind Pump at www.mindpumpmedia.com

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Welcome to Mind Pumperio. This is Adam Schaefer. I'm here with Salda Stefano. One two three four five. I'm here with Justin Andrews. Yeah! The super fresh, super, super duper fresh. Dougie. Oh, la.

Oh, la. Doug, I want you to edit that entire thing. No, bullshit, I'm doing an intro now. You like that one. Yeah, I'm taking it over every now and then. All right, because you never introduce us. We're gonna, you know, I'd be like, hey, that one episode,

the one that only got three downloads. I was like, I don't care. No, I just be like, hey, that one episode that one that only got three downloads No, I just feel the need to introduce because sometimes you say stuff and then people are like they think I said it I'm like no, I don't say nerdy shit lights out. That's definitely south. I would never even use that word actually Yeah, no, no, yeah, I'm the dumb jock guy. That's who I am get it right come on man Don't push that stereotype. That's false. We know it's false. Actually, I do have something. Adam's one of the smarter people I've ever known.

And you're gonna talk about something? No, it's, we'll go ahead. No, I'll just keep going. Yeah, you were on to something. Yeah, I'll just finish your poll. No, you know if I started this show, it'd be like, that guy that announces like monster trucks. So that's if I started the show it'd be like that guy that it announces like monster trucks So that's why I don't do it. Why?

Finish your compliment. No, that was it. That's all you got. He's super smart. I don't say you're smart dude. That's all you got Well, I'm you want to tell you why I think that okay tell me I want my I want my ego stroke. Go stroke today on mine pump go ahead tell the hell hands gives out of a hand job verbally please tell me tell me that that's not work that's not no no there's a lot of reasons why I think you're smart guy but I also look at the way you approach your training and you are probably more than on your own not for any reason you're more than on your own, not for any reason, you're just doing on your own,

more than even me or Justin, you'll go out of your comfort zone and do some way off weird shit that, you don't find me doing like handstand pushups and shit, and you don't see Justin going and doing concentration curls and stuff, but you tend to, you know what I'm saying? And that's a sign of type that's a sign of a type of...

Comfort, it's a comfort. A type of intelligence. Yeah, exactly. It's being able to step outside and really experience it firsthand. And then that way you can articulate it, you know, as far as like what you went through and your process.

And then that's how you're good as far as like... You're an experimental person. Exactly, you know. Esexuality sexually fit everything. Well, I don't know if that's much of a compliment or that makes me smart, but I do like that you brought that up because that goes right into what I wanted to talk about. It's as if I knew. It says if I share with you, I mean,

you're in the urinal five minutes ago. So that's what we do all our business. That's right. That's how these topics come up. Hey, we're pissing five minutes ago. Uh, so that's what we do all our business. That's right. That's how these topics come up. Hey, we're pissing in the year. You know what I was talking about? You know what I was talking about this. Hey, man, you want to lead this one?

Yeah. I got to write some now. Oh, you mean on the mic? I got to write some now. Hold it for me. Got it. Yeah. So during this whole, I've been going through performance, map screen.

Obviously, those that follow me on social media know this already and have been listening for a while probably know it because we've announced it several times. Now I brought up a little bit like when I when I put myself outside my comfort zone like you were just saying I do I really like to do that. I like to I enjoy adversity. I like to to be not good at something I want to learn. Because that way, as I progress through it, whatever it may be that we're talking about, I feel like now I can speak educated about it a little bit because I've actually gone in and gone through it myself. I've done lots of research in myself.

I'm now, I'm actually looking into possibly getting certified in this direction because I want to learn more and I'm now, I'm actually looking into possibly getting certified in this direction because I want to learn more. And I'm really digging it. Now that being said, and I'm also like internet troll conflict. I do, I do. I do like to fuck with people. I don't think I know what I'm talking about. It goes hand in hand. So I'm saying, yes, it does. It does, right? So here's the thing that I've been noticing. I'm really interested to hear both you guys, your opinions on this and whether you, you notice it or no, it reminds me of how we talked a little bit about when functional training first came out. When functional training first come out, we talked a little bit about this a long time ago on this podcast, which is, you know,

a lot of stabilization stuff, right? People doing ball stability. That's when the balls came out, right? Before that, before my balls came out. That's when the big blue balls came out in the gyms. Before 10 years ago, you didn't see, and if you did, you saw one. Now every gym has a section that's tons of stability balls. You got the phones flopping out.

Phone paths, they got ladders, they've got all these, the dynadisk, they've got all these cool tools to throw people's stability off while they train. And trainers have got more and more creative about how crazy they make these things where they're balancing on balls, why they're doing multiple exercises at once, and it just got way out of control.

And why that's so stupid is because the whole name of it is functional training. There's nothing functional about that. Never once in your life where you find yourself balancing on a medicine ball doing a single leg squat to a shoulder press. You'll never have to use that in your life ever. So there's nothing functional about that. When you say functional, when functional training first came out, we got to clarify. First of all, all exercise that elicits some kind of change of the body is functional. All right, so I fucking hate that, that term, this is functional and that's not. It's like, Parabell squats very functional.

Yeah, functional for what? Number one, what are you trying to get functional for? If your goal is to balance on a medicine ball and do one leg, it's squat to shoulder press. Oh, no, no, it's fun. You should be- You should practice that, right? If you're trying out for the circus, it's very functional. Right.

So, functional is just, you know, how does it translate? It doesn't give you a lot of bang for your buck. If that's all we're looking at, then the reality is the most functional exercises are your barbell squat, deadlift, and your overhead press. Those would be your three probably most functional bang for your buck exercises. Now there's, there's some carry over to a lot of different categories, which is what makes them so functional, but they're not the best for a specific type of function like Balance like agility in those cases you apply different things are all different types of skills Right, right. So when you're thinking functional, it's just you know How well does it make you move in the real world and perform at whatever your goal is to perform better at. So functional training for swimming is going to be different than functional training is

for shot put. My point being, which I think you guys both agree and get is this, when it became mainstream and this was a new way of training, it was a very smart concept. And there was a lot of science behind it and there is a lot of importance to why you train the core and you should be able to, and proprioception and understand these are important. I think the emphasis was the differentiating factors that it emphasized a lot of these things

that like people weren't doing, like, you know, reactive training and balance and core stability and things like that because, you know, some people weren't addressing these things, and so in turn, their imbalances were so obvious to all of us when they would go do these compound lists. Well, what happens is when you become really, really strong, but you don't pay attention to the supporting cast,

the supporting muscles or supporting function that helps support that strength. You can actually cause instability in the sense that you can injure yourself. And I'll give you an example. If I always work out my chest, my lats, my shoulders, my biceps, my triceps, and I get them really well developed and really,

really strong, and then I go get a baseball, and I throw that baseball as hard as I can. I've got these very powerful muscles accelerating my humorous over my shoulders coming right out. I've got internal rotation going on and I've got stabilizer muscles that are trying to keep that shit

from tearing my muscles in half from trying to keep my humorous from twisting and internally too much. It's trying to decelerate my arm in a way that keeps me safe. Well, now those muscles that's are supposed to do that are way the fuck overpowered. So I'm gonna hurt myself.

Or it's so funny that you brought that up as an example because that was literally a crossfit event that they had at the very end. Throw the softball. Throw the softball was like this random thing they threw in there after like some of these like I just could, we were all dying laughing because watching these guys throw it

and like half of them threw their arm out. Yeah, that's the thing. And that's the thing. And again, CrossFit, these guys are so functional, right? Yeah. Depends on what you're trying to be functional for. But I think functionality means, you know, here's the thing about strength

that's important. You can be super strong, but if you can't apply that strength safely, then it's not really, doesn't mean shit. It's not much. It's like having a car with a thousand horsepower, but you have bicycle tires. I mean, you can't get traction on the pavement.

It's not gonna do shit for you. It's exactly the same thing. So, I'll give you an example. The reason why a boxer will throw a punch far harder than a bodybuilder, even if they have similar technique is because a boxer's arm can maximize its power output because it knows it's going to be stable. Whereas a bodybuilder's body.

Well, that's the correlate to speed. So yeah, well, the bodybuilder's body is going to prevent him from maximizing the amount of speed that he can generate because of injury. Well, that and splitting and isolating that mentality versus the connective of using it from the hip. Right. So, this is what leads me to the topic that I wanted to talk about, which because I've been in this whole mobility world and this is what kind of reminds me, it reminds me of this era.

And because I've been diving into it more and I'm seeing all these. Now there's what are called mobility specialists. Like that didn't even exist before. Now you have these mobility movement coaches. Yes, or movement coaches and these guys that are special and there's all these certifications. Now you can get in, I'm very interested by all of them. I've been watching a lot of their YouTube and stuff. And like I said, diving in myself. And here's the thing that I have found when I start researching all these individuals,

once again, now you have these guys that and I look and a lot of them have Instagram pages or their websites or their YouTube channels. And that's all they fucking do. You know, and they're these, I mean, they move just just awesome. I mean they can do the all these animal movements And they can balance a certain way and they have this crazy flexibility and range of motion They do these super exotic yoga poses and I'm like, man, this is fucking cool I want to move this way But the problem is just like with that other stuff they take something like that and then that they and they live and breathe just that and that is the part that I It fucking sucks man. Why can't everybody figure this out that it you don't anything to it is extreme is not ideal

And that's pretty cool that you can move that way and you know what if if that's all you care about then that's fine But you know one thing you I can promise you with me if you're somebody who follows me through all my journeys is you will not catch me being stuck and you know, one thing I can promise you with me, if you're somebody who follows me through all my journeys, is you will not catch me being stuck and, you know, just like the whole bodybuilding thing, like that was a phase for me to show everybody that I could do that. And I really give two shits about it, you know, really for me, there's other things I care about my aesthetics. Absolutely, that's my focus. Always number one. But then I still care about functional movement. I care about my strength. I care about all these things.

Well, it's for me, the problem. And here's where this hits a little bit more home to me and my people. Like the last time we talked about bodybuilding, I feel like we got to, you know, I don't even feel like I have to defend them on that level. I feel like there's a point where when you start moving in a certain way, like, I start to challenge that, like, what is this promoting? Like, what's skill in my acquiring, I start to challenge that. What is this promoting? What skill am I acquiring by being able to do that? And if there's no translation there,

like as far as from opening the hips or from supporting my knee better, or getting better ankle mobility, or if it's excessive and it's outside of that, it's silly to me. So what happens, here's what happens, I think. I think you look at a category of fitness and you look at its master practitioners, right?

So if I look at the act of bodybuilding or the techniques and concepts of bodybuilding in terms of exercise, and then I look at a bodybuilder, and then I look at CrossFit and how they apply exercise. I look at the CrossFit competitor or I look at a yogi, they apply exercise. I look at the CrossFit competitor or I look at a yogi, you know, top yogi guy. I may, I very well may reject some amazing concepts and principles simply because I'm looking

at the extreme form of each one of them and I don't want to look like them. Like, you might get turned off by a body builder because they don't, they don't, they don't look like they get fucking rude. That's exactly my point. And, but here's the thing, that this is the key now. This is a big one, okay? Write this down. This is huge.

Write that down, though. All physical pursuits in some way, in some form, a little bit, and sometimes a lot, will improve upon other physical pursuits. So, they don't happen in a vacuum. If you go, if you're a bodybuilder and your goal is to compete on stage, and you go do some yoga, a bodybuilder and your goal is to compete on stage and you go

do some yoga, that yoga, that improved functional flexibility, that improved flexibility, will benefit your bodybuilding because all physical pursuits benefit each other to an extent. Now, of course, you can push one too far to where it takes away from the others, but if you're, if my main goal of strength, incorporating a little bit of endurance is not going to take away my strength. If I do it right, it's going to make me stronger of strength, incorporating a little bit of endurance is not gonna take away my strength. If I do it right, it's gonna make me stronger. If I incorporate a little bit of functional fitness. Well, look, you can have, yeah,

you can have one area of specialty that you wanna sort of hone in on. Right. You wanna be great at it. You can still be great at something while experiencing other realms, but you only take what's gonna benefit the realm that you're going with,

right? So if I was to be, I would still need strength if I want to move like an animal, right? You know, I'm going to still need to lift heavy weights if I'm going to be even better than the person next to me. That's what I mean. Like people get in their camp and then they, like animal saying they like reject everything. I was like, no, all of a sudden, no, uh, barbell. I'm sorry. I just had a bell. That's what I'm saying. That's silly, I just do things on my head. And that's the, so I've been a,

so since you guys know that all month long, all of March, I've been doing a March mobility thing. I've been teaching all my classes every day, a new mobility exercise. I've been teaching on Instagram. I've been dropping a mobility exercise every single day or two I drop a new one. So this has been my thing for March.

So I've been attracting all these people or adding and following me and tagging me, like, oh, this guy's in a mobility. And I'm like, and I look and see who's following me. It's all these mobility nuts. And I say mobility nuts because I go through their page and every fucking post they do are all these crazy thing. Guys, I think this guy's jumping from, you know, balancing from one ball to the next and doing like all

this weird swinging stuff. And it's just like, dude, you're not gonna, I mean, I'm glad you're following me in shit, but this shit's gonna be, you're not gonna see me posting much more of this and after this month is over. I'm trying to show people that it is an important aspect to my training. It is something that I incorporate. It's something that has helped me out tremendously with my squats and my deadlifts overall.

I feel much better. I believe that I like aches and pains. But ultimately, I'm in the business and I'm in the, I wanna build an aesthetic physique. I've always cared about what I looked at. I've always made that clear. It's such an important point too, because this is this really demonstrates

what it is to me as a trainer. This is how I've become who I am, is because I've been able to tip my toes into each realm of these modalities and these different ways of training the body. What I do is I evaluate how much is this either benefiting me in my training or is this unnecessary? And I'm going to either incorporate it or I'm going to dismiss it. So that's how I look at every little thing, the new thing that I learn. You might have this entire program that you just developed and then you created a whole modality and dogma behind it, right?

I'm going to go into your course and I'm sorry, but I'm going to take just the things I think are relevant and the things that aren't. I'm going to say that I'm not using it. Well, here's a deal about mobility, I'm particular. First and foremost, if your goal is just to build muscle and look a particular way, okay, because that's Adam's ultimate goal, right? He just wants to look a certain way. He doesn't make any, he doesn't hide that.

Here's the thing about mobility, think about it this way. Do you build more muscle with a better, longer, full-arrange emotion? Yes, you do. Can you build more muscle if you can train heavier without joint pain? Yes, you can, yes, you will. Can you, will you be able to perform exercises differently

and hit new muscle fibers or different parts of the muscle, especially large muscles, if your joints have more stable range of motion and longer range of motion? Yes. So mobility contributes greatly to the way you look. It's huge. Let me tell you, if you squat and your squat is shit mobility, your legs are going to only develop so much. You get better mobility in your squat. You're going to build bigger, more muscular, or more toned, or whatever word you want to use legs. They're going to look more impressive as a result.

So mobility is extremely important for almost all physical pursuits, but because I'd say most people listening want to build muscle and burn body fat, that's a very important factor in your training. If you neglect that, you're also going to get detriment in terms of your aesthetics and other types of performance that you may be more interested in, like how much you can bench or how much you can deadlift. So it's all very, very important stuff. I mean, I've been incorporating more of it myself.

Luckily, the three of us, we have big egos, but we don't. We all admit when, or not just admit, but we'll look at something and say that looks like a good idea. I think I'm going to try that. We're not too proud to do that. I've incorporated a lot myself. I've learned this directly from Justin was the guy, really, he's with the mobility guy when we came into this. And Adam started incorporating it. I've started incorporating some of the stuff. And my goal is always just, I like to be really strong for my size.

That's always my thing, right? I'm stronger now because I've incorporated some of the stuff that in the past that I'm like, well, how's that gonna be? Well, I mean, I really started to incorporate deadlifts because hanging out with you guys, you know what I mean? I never did deadlifts. And I'm like upset that I didn't.

Now that I know how much of a staple lift it is, but that's just it, like exposure, right? Well, let's describe mobility because, as we're talking about, I'm thinking to myself and I know people are listening and saying, well, what does that specifically mean? It's a good point. Right, what does that mean mobility?

I think it's kind of an umbrella term specifically mean? It's a good point. Right. What does that mean mobility? I think it's kind of an umbrella term, right? It covers a few different things. It is. There's a functional flexibility, which is in mobility. So increasing your flexibility is not by itself giving you more mobility, but you need to have strength within that need.

Yeah. You need to have strength within that range of motion for it to contribute to mobility. So not only can you stretch more, but you can move within that stretch more comfortably. If you're thinking about that, you might know somebody that's super flexible, but they're once they get to that range, what are they going to do in that range? Well, you can't, too much flexibility without strength is instability too. Look at a baby. Look at a baby. A baby we can't, you know, too much flexibility without strength is instability too. Yeah, look at the baby.

Look at a baby. Look at a baby. A baby is super flexible. Exactly. But they're very unstable. I think of it this way. You have, you know, we have all these joints in our body and they're, and they're, at most of our joints have, you know, two primary functions, except for a few, a few special ones.

And the hips and shoulders happen to be the ones that are very special that have, these multi-planar capabilities that, and the idea is that you can take this joint through its full range of motion, what it was supposed to be able to do, which, you know, like with the hips, you know, we always move in the sagittal plane. So, you know, maybe if you're a great squatter and deadlifter and linger and you've got good range of motion just in that plane, all of a sudden, you tell them to them to move, you know, in the frontal or to move transverse

and like, whoa, shit gets really, really weird. It gets really wall sweat and too. Yeah. Because your body's like fighting this thing that's happening. It's new stimulus. It's like, whoa, shock. Well, like the example I gave before, if you're always that head on strong guy, you've got these well developed muscles in that direction.

You go to the side, you still got big powerful muscles. You just have poor stability going laterally. And now you tear something. You see what I'm saying? You haven't stabilized the vehicle with all this power. And I've seen this with myself. Working on those other planes of movement makes me stronger in my favorite planes

and movement, which is like my front, my head on, squats and deadlifts. So what they all, you mentioned your overhead press too, like your shoulder feels more supported in that lift. Well, that's another part of mobility I want to talk about was allowing a joint, like Adam was kind of saying, and allowing a joint to move within its fullest range of motion, optimal way. And there's an optimal way that a joint can move, and there's a sub-optimal way that a joint to move within its fullest range of motion, optimal way.

There's an optimal way that a joint can move, and there's a sub-optimal way that a joint can move. In an optimal way, your joint moves without muscle imbalance, or in order to create a muscle imbalance without any impinged nerves or muscles and without injury, and able to move within that full range with that strength and stability, that's mobility right there. That's being able to move wherever you want with strength in that range of motion, feeling totally balanced and totally stable.

Now imagine that feeling, that's a fucking awesome feeling. So I think mobility doesn't get all the, I know it didn't with me, I'm gonna be honest. With me, it wasn't, not that I thought it was a bad thing, but I didn't place it way up there like I do now. Now I see. Well, let's be honest too. And I feel like it wasn't until I got into competing

for Men's physique and I became this so aesthetic-driven guy where I neglected a lot of things like that. I mean, I totally threw out the old trainer atom and all the different types of movements that I would normally do in my training to be so focused on sculpting this physique to look a certain way. And I did that for three years.

And never in my career, if I noticed that, and for the first time in my life, I could, I remember looking at myself in the mirror and going like, wow, I am definitely, I have achieved it. I'm in the best aesthetic shape I've ever been in my life. I'm walking around under sub 5% body fat, I'm balanced symmetrical, I look cool as fuck, but I'm in the worst shape ever functionally.

And that was a huge thing for me to recognize and see that go like, wow, I've never thought that would happen to me. I never thought that just because I was so focused on this, even knowing, it was like we're sitting here preaching and we're talking about, but that's why I feel so passionate about sharing it is because I went through it myself. Well, let me ask you this now.

Now knowing what you know now. Now forget about context. I'm talking about how you used to walk around, not context, because that's a whole other world, right? You gotta get diet and get stupid with all kinds of crazy things. But let's, I'm just talking about walking around. Do you think now you could look like you did before, but with way better functionality and mobility? Well, I'm about talking about walking around. Do you think now you could look like you did before,

but with way better functionality and mobility? Well, I'm about to show everybody that. Well, there you go. Could you fucking show it, teasing everybody? Yes. Well, there you go. That's the plan right now. The plan is to show everybody, watch me go through green maps,

then watch me go through black maps. And see what you get to see. And I'll let everybody watch it happen. That for me me by the way We should say black maps is not yet. This is this is this is something we're kind of putting the finishing touches on it If you will. Oh, yeah Well, I mean by the time this episode releases we're gonna be getting ready to gear up and launch and everything like that So it'll be pretty pretty close to coming so those that are listening to this right now

It's right around the corner for everybody And I'm not gonna be there yet. I'm still finishing green maps I want to get all the way through green maps. And then I will transition into our new maps program. And I absolutely love that. And I'm very excited to do that because I have never felt so mobile. Right. This is the most mobile I've ever and my squat feels fucking awesome right now. My and you brought up and I mentioned this to the boys in the I mean, I think that's what I think. I think that's what I think that's what I think. I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think. I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's what I think that's ever I felt that way and I agree with you when you said that. But now like when I get down in a squat now, I feel like it's home for me and it feels really comfortable and I feel like I could, if I want to sit my ass on the ground, I could sit my ass on the ground with, it totally feel comfortable doing that.

It's, it's definitely been a, been huge for me. Huge. Well, you know, it's interesting too. It's like I've ran into so many, when you talk about now, how you feel, I've ran into a lot of guys who I knew, known in the fitness industry for a long time, real muscular, strong guys. They've got major joint issues now. You know, these guys were just fit, muscular, lift, and heavy weight. And one guy knows got a hip replacement. You know, he's in his late 40s. He's had to replace one of his hips. And other people with knee problems, stuff like that. And it's not necessary.

It wasn't necessarily the training. It was the lack of proper training. Yeah. It wasn't that they squatted into all these things. It's that they weren't paying attention to these these important components that make things move. That reminds me. So again, I want to touch on. So recently we had one of our foreign members, real intelligent guy, make a comment about, you know, he, you know, he So recently we had one of our foreign members, real intelligent guy, make a comment about, you know, he's not the biggest fan of what he's going through with performance, because he feels like he's, you know, lost some of his, you know, strength gains from his PRs on his deadlift and his squats.

And I too can relate to that. I've noticed that I'm not, but the main, I know why. I know the science behind why, because guess what? I have a new range of motion. This is new territory, man. This is new territory, man. This is new territory for my sweat. It's an extra three, four inches now. I'm in depth on certain things.

My body is having to learn something new. And to be honest, I just did, I literally did it just to feel it out. A heavy deadless and squat. And I'm not far from my PR right now at all. And being somebody who's completely been focused on mobility, I'm fucking pumped to know what it's gonna be like when I actually start trying to get after that.

Because I've taken myself through green maps and I've gone through all the mobility and I've helped myself. So, but you gotta think of that. You gotta understand that if you open up a whole new range of motion, your body, that muscle is not used to PR in 405 plus pounds squatting. It's new to it, so I gotta work its way up again to know what that feels like with that depth.

So people do gotta take that into consideration that the focus is different now. My focus now is you've opened up a whole new capacity. Yes. And which I know because where I'm at already and I'm like, wow, if I'm that close to my PR with a whole new range of motion and feel so much more comfortable doing it, well, wait till I got it. Well, I'm comfortable hitting that heavyweight. Well, one of the basic, most basic ways you can work on mobility,

and there's a lot, look, this is super, super basic rudimentary. What's the word rudimentary? Mentary. You can't say it properly. Exactly. One of the easiest ways you can do it is simply doing the exercises you currently do

with a much full-arranger motion. So this is about squats before. I've said that and it's simple. I like to say that to people because they don't have to think about too much stuff. They don't have to think about new movements. Just do what you normally do, but exaggerate the range of motion and please go much lighter when you do that because if you try to exaggerate the range of motion with the way you've been using, you're likely to hurt yourself.

So go real light and just get super deep and super extended and shoulder presses like exaggerate them and your lap pull downs, your pull ups, exaggerate them and your squats and your dead lifts, exaggerate the movements, but go much lighter, build strength within that new range of motions. A very easy way to work a mobility. The second way you can work a mobility

that's also easy but not quite as easy, is just simply exercise in different directions. That's all. So, if I'm always stepping forward with a movement, try stepping to the side or stepping back. Those two things alone, for those of you listening, will make very big impacts on what we're talking about in terms of functional movement and mobility.

Just those two very simple things. And like you've mentioned before, this is a much more complex way to train the body in comparison because you're addressing a lot of these multi-planar aspects of movement. The joint is a complex thing. Just blanketing a term like mobility out there. It's not that easily understood. It, you just have to understand, you know, what the capacity is, what we're trying to get as far as

like it's optimal functionality. And so, you know, green maps is addressing that. You know, green maps is really trying to explore that territory and show you. That's the importance, like the importance is to be able to, you know, obtain new ranges of motion that's supported and you to understand really your body, you know, more in depth. That's great that you say, understand your body more in depth. What mobility type training gives you is it gives you a sense of self that is deeper and more connected than the sense of self you had before.

And I mean it on the physical sense. I'm talking about healthcare obviously, but you're going to feel your body differently in the way it moves and how strong it is and where you can place those ranges of motion because movement is as skill as much as as much as your muscles adapt. So does your brain. So does your central nervous system. So when you're doing a new movement or a new you know, working a deplane a movement that you're not used to, the muscles have to get stronger, but your brain has to learn it too. And if you don't practice them on a regular basis, you're not going to learn, you know, how to move laterally. Look, you know, I'm the first person to admit,

like my lateral lunge is absolutely horrible because I don't train in that plane like I should, whereas my forward lunge, I'm very, very strong. That's always the plane that I focus on. But I know if I incorporate some of that lateral stuff, I'm also gonna get stronger going to the front. And that's how mobility works. And I think I'm starting to see more and more people,

luckily we're starting to see more and more people start to do some of this stuff. You don't see so much of the physioball stuff anymore, but you are starting to see more of the, you're starting to see full range of motion, that's for sure. I'm seeing full squats now, whereas before, I swear to God, man, a full squat was like a frickin' forley clover.

That was the rarest thing. Well, first of all, I was a CrossFit squat where they just would go drop their butt like all the way to the ground and their knees would buckle. Yeah. You see, you saw no squatting forever. No squatting.

No squatting, then squatting halfway, right? Or quarter squats. And you're starting to say, I mean, it's great. I mean, I love watching, I really feel like, and that's why I feel like there was a need for what we do. I feel like there's people out there that are eager to learn that want,

they don't want the bullshit, they understand there's a lot of bullshit in it. They're trying to filter through that and I really feel like we're kind of that compass for people and that's why, that's why I think the show's been so successful is, you got three dudes with some experience, know a little bit about fitness and are just trying to help people connect that way. And I think that's always going to remain the

mission for us. You know, something I want to say about also understanding mobility too is you said, I think you were just and just said something a little bit about connection. And you got to understand that when you, when you, we were, we move in the same, same motions, the same planes all the time over and over and over and over, you actually start to lose connection to other, other muscles that are on our body that are not having to fire and use anymore. And so you're, you're also training in a reestablishing or neurological connection. Right.

That's very, very important. You, that, that part of mobility is, so just by you having to move in different planes, or moving away that you normally would not move, that's- Well, it's a protective system, right? So if you think of your shoulder, for instance, and oh, I can't move it back that far, that's just my ability. Well, that's because you haven't done that movement

in forever, and so your body just told you that, okay, we don't need that, it's not a priority, we're gonna just focus on this primarily. Oh, now all of a sudden you want it? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We gotta stop you from doing that. And if you don't train your body to go through these ranges of motion, you do lose it.

Well, it's funny. Great example of that. We were filming this weekend, and Adam was doing a cable row. He was demonstrating a cable row. Now, the way we were taught cable row back in the day was to remain rigid, sit up, shoulder girl, shoulders retracted, And from the retracted shoulder, then you just move the arms and you pull back. And that's the way we were tops. The way that you should be able to do a row

is you should be able to protract a shoulder girdle as you move forward with the weight. Re-track as you pull back. You're getting a full range of motion, the scapula. Endaming stability with your Lombar and everything else in place. That's it.

Here's another example, deadlifts. Some thoracic flexion is okay with the deadlift. And a little bit of lumbar is too. You shouldn't have a completely, I mean, if you're gonna max out, your back isn't gonna stay completely flat. Here's the thing though, here's what the injury happens is when you,

you're testing the end of range of motion, you're relying on the ligaments to support you. That's when you hurt yourself. But if your muscles are supporting you in that position, then that more of that range of motion will help. And this is why, for example, talking about the deadlift, I'll give you another example of an exercise that's similar but different. It's like the atlas stones. You ever seen the guys lift up? Yeah, most big. It's spread. Right. Now, now you can deadlift all you want. But if you don't practice lifting something with your arms forward and your shoulders forward with that rounded What they call rounded back lifting you're gonna be weak in that position? So you don't have very good mobility with that what's with what they call rounded back?

Lifting and so that's why we you know incorporate zertra squats and some of our programming kind of takes advantage of that Where you're doing the zertra it's encouraging your your scapate to, to come forward a little bit and not be so retracted. And now you're doing more of that rounded back kind of lifting. There is a lot of things in, in training, in biomechanics in general, right? That has been very contradicting over the years. And we should, oh my God, so much. I tell you what, we should, because it's kind of hard to explain. People are probably trying to wonder what your time with the CDR.

Well, I'll, I'll do a video and video and I'll have one of you guys video me and we'll show an example of how we were taught as trainer. How we taught, I probably taught. I should definitely do a video of that, because it seems silly to me too. Like, if you just think of rowing a boat, right? How many guys row in the boat do you ever see standing straight upright, and then just retracting their shoulder blades as they go to row.

Yeah. That's silly. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, it's not functional. But mostly the exercise we learned, we learned them wrong. No, no, no, of course. I mean, that's why I think it's important. I think a lot of trainer, we have a lot of trainers that listen to us.

I will do a video. You guys can hold me to do that. Hopefully, I can get on the video before this even releases and I'll drop it, or maybe I'll have Doug send it to our mailing list. So if you're on our mailing list, I'll shoot a video and then I'll have Doug send it out to our mailing list so you guys can get an example of what it looks like when I do a seated row the way we were taught as trainers and then the way you guys do it, I do a seat row now, which both the boys right away, I can't, like the foreign police coming out.

Yeah, they're like, oh boy, you're going to get the foreign police on you now. And I said, bring that shit. I can't wait till somebody says something to me so I could fucking roast them for that. Because to me, I think it was so idiotic that we used to teach that. And I, man, and I apologize to the probably thousands of people that I taught that way for the first time. Because that's how we were, I mean, every book that, every certification that I have. Well, there's only one point to, like, understanding how to retract the shoulder blades.

Like, so there is validity there, but there's a, you know, there's techniques with learning how to manipulate your body to produce something, right? But as far as, like, doing a row that's functional, you know, that is absolutely nothing wrong with the way that you did that row. No, the way actually, he'll,

not only, it's actually better. Not only is it better, he'll build more muscle. Oh, yeah. He'll be more balanced. He'll have range of motion. And you're taking it through the whole. When I learned to do that, I saw,

I went from somebody who would do a seated row. And I probably seated row, probably 130 to 175 high, would be the most I'd ever row. Shit, I could row 300 plus pounds now like that. I mean, it's, my back is so much torn. Now mind you, of course, a big portion of that's deadlifting and things like that incorporated, but, you know, taking that, that row

through a full range of motion is was a big, big thing for me. And there's a lot of movements that are like that. They overhead press is another one. Oh, oh, come on. You bring the bar down to like eye level. Yeah. Elbows out 90 degrees.

For years. For years I trained that way. That's how I did an overhead press. And it's crazy because once again, I just, why didn't that not click as a trainer till later on? And this is why experience is so important because it just took me, you know,

slamming my dick in a door for 10 years before I realized that what was I thinking? Wow, that hurts. Like, that does not make sense for me to what would I ever do in my life where I would stop something and stop it at 90 degrees and hold it over my head and then press back over. And you know what? Yeah, the paradigm shift for me on that was when I just started

to use kettlebells. It was like just having that different type of loading and then the grip and everything else and then they're starting to teach, you know, to press with rotation and all the stuff and I'm like, okay, and then it started exciting. Then you apply that to the barbell. Yeah, now the barbell, I'm like, whoa, I can bring it a lot further down. Why do I gotta stop right here? And I'm just like, wait a minute, all the way down, all the way. I was like, ooh, that feels much better. The very first time I did a full shoulder press, I felt like I was hurting my shoulder.

That's how bad my mobility was at that deep of a press. I do, like behind the neck shoulder press is another one. About three years ago, I decided that I was gonna, gonna practice and get good at a full range of motion with behind the neck shoulder press. And I just started with the bar and I'd come down to my traps and I'd press it up and got used to doing that.

I could feel my rotator cuff and I could feel things like, ooh, that's not good. I can't go heavier than that. And now I can do pretty sufficient weight doing that way. But bench press is another one. How did we get taught to do bench press? 90 degree, bend your elbows, 90 degrees, press it right back up.

And it's funny, it's just like you lower back off the bench. Yes, ever. Yes. So, you know, truth be told, focus on mobility. You're gonna increase strength, you're gonna incorporate, you're gonna increase the way your body looks in terms of aesthetics.

You're gonna get better performance, better endurance. Mobility is a very important factor. No, it learned to incorporate it though. Don't drink the juice and I mean, do not get crazy. Oh, go balls deep in it. No, not at all. This is why this is my favorite part about green maps. Is that is that it's there's mobility days and then there's foundational days. There's days for you to incorporate that to focus on your mobility. And then there's still an important piece

to training for strength and functionality to. It's not just about the mobility days. There is other stuff to it. But that's the idea of why we took people through green maps was so we can educate you on this. We can introduce you to this and show you the importance of it, not to convert you, not to tell you this is the best way to do things forever. This is the ultimate program. No, this is an important piece of staying healthy and longevity and how you should take care of your body It's not the end all answer. It's a part of it. It's an important English and then math, right? I mean, it's like you gotta keep going to the next subject now to the next subject

You got to learn. Yep, and if you're afraid of learning a new subject then I'm sorry for you Continue to grow and with that please leave us a five star rating review on iTunes. You can also find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Radio. You can find me at Mind Pump Sal. You can find Adam at Mind Pump Adam. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin. You can find Doug at Mind Pump Doug. And check out our testimonials on Mind Pump Media dot com.

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