Health Part 3: Non-Exercise Activity
It is important first to distinguish between Mobility and Flexibility, which are often erroneously used interchangeably. Flexibility refers to the length to which a muscle can passively stretch, the end range to which it can extend, while Mobility refers to the positions that can be achieved by groups of muscles working together and the degree to which those ranges of motion can be loaded.
Put another way, Flexibility refers to the physical structure of the muscle, while Mobility refers to the motor control through the fullest range of motion of a movement (For more on this read our previous piece on Skill).
A Mobility practice between sessions allows us to access new positions over time. It’s rare for a legitimate structural issue to prevent us from pressing overhead or squatting to full depth. More often “tightness” is an expression of the nervous system, which will inhibit our movement as a protective mechanism; we need only observe how squat depth is reduced when one overloads a barbell to see an extreme version of this in action, range of motion is the first thing to go.
Becoming a Supple Leopard is the ultimate reference for assessing and addressing missing pieces of our movement literacy. When we reach the edges of our exposure we are most at risk of incapacity, error, or injury, and increasing the number of joint angles and movement patterns that we are comfortable in make us more resilient to these issues.
One of the standout positions of the book is the near-ubiquitous couch stretch. Now practiced by every CrossFit gym, influencer, and mobility program, this drill was first popularised by Starrett on his YouTube channel. It serves as a diagnostic of your hip function and as a set of progressions to improve. Think of positions A-C as beginner, intermediate and advanced, with ten deep, comfortable breaths the measure of ownership of each position.
Pay particular attention to the shin, if it is angled away from the wall you’re taking it easy on yourself and leaving adaptation on the table. It's much better to stick to position A with the shin all the way to the wall than to jump straight to position C with the shin angled away. Using a foam roller for support is a great intermediate step from position B to C.
If you find even position B challenging YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Hit position A before and after every session, pressing the hip forwards and to the side for a minute or two on each side. Do this for a whole week; Adaptation takes time, don’t try to speed up the process or skip steps. Then in week two try hitting position B. If you’re diligent you’ll be surprised by how much of a change you can make in a month.
Another great resource is Kyle Habdo’s YouTube channel, which has upper body, lower body, and core routines of 10-15mins each.
We’re lucky enough to have partnered with the GoWod mobility app, which delivers personalised daily protocols to address your movement restrictions. You test your positions and the app prioritises the areas you need to work on most. Be sure to restest every 6-8 weeks as these priorities will change as your ability to move freely progresses.
We've been using the app for just over a year now and it's made a noticeable difference to movement quality and recovery.
Come to class 10-15mins before a session and/or the same afterwards for the best results. They offer a free trial and if you decide it's for you then reply to this email and we can add you to the gym roster to get you a 10% discount (Annoyingly we have to email you a link through the platform, we can't just send one out to you here.)
Walking
The other main restorative activity available to us is the humble walk. After training you’ll have accumulated the metabolic equivalent of exhaust fumes in your muscles and bloodstream. Going home or to the office and spending the remainder of the day working at a desk creates an internal environment akin to a pond, murky and stagnant. Incorporating walks into your day makes this environment more like a stream, clearing out the muddy waters of lactic acid and CO2, leaving you feeling less sore and run down.
Our muscles mould to the positions they’re in most frequently, hence why we find the couch stretch so tough, our hips prefer to be at 90 degrees simply because it's familiar. Walking is one of our best tools for undoing this inactivity as it's one of the only movements in daily life that puts our leg behind our hip, opening up the tightness at the front that is so brutal in the couch stretch.
In addition to this it helps to amplify the function of the lymphatic system, boosting immunity and filtering out metabolic waste from the body. If the heart is the pump that regulates the bloodstream then muscular contraction and low-level activity is the pump that drives the lymphatic system, so it’s activity that helps you to recover from the higher intensity work you do at ShiroKuma.
Starrett’s follow up to Becoming a Supple Leopard is Built to Move. The two books correspond to our prescriptions of Health & Fitness, the former is focused on performance (Fitness), the latter is a guide to longevity (Health).
Built to Move recommends a mandatory minimum of 8000 steps per day, with optimal outcomes occurring at around 12,000. Running does count, but we prefer the simple walk for the reason highlighted above: It’s restorative. How many of us have at some point in our lives taken up running and overdone it? Shin splints, sore calves, strains and sprains. These will take you out of training entirely.
The Japanese national track team spend the first phase of their annual training program hiking, walking, and rucking (Hiking with a weighted backpack) to create the structural integrity and aerobic base (lymphatic and capillary pathways) necessary to support the higher intensity training programmed for later in the season. We can all learn a lot from this.
A common question is whether other day to day activities count, most notably cycling. While similarly effective for bloodflow and lymphatic drainage if performed at a low enough intensity, cycling keeps our hips at a tighter angle than walking, having more positionally in common with sitting. For this reason it’s a better intervention than doing nothing at all, but it doesn’t have the additional benefit of opening up the hips that walking does, with the leg passing behind the body at the terminal stance pictured below.
Compare the above to the hip positions below, even at full extension of the leg the hip is closed due to the forward angle of the body.
Remember that Health is the foundation of Fitness. Your Health practices (Sleep, Nutrition, and Non-Exercise Activity) allow you to push harder and perform better in your Fitness pursuits (Namely Skill, Strength, and Stamina). If you have yet to read those posts do so.
Now you know the way, the only thing left is to walk it.
