Icecold's mobility thread

Man of Honour
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Hey guys,

This may not be a mobility thing, but my left ankle rolls to the right slightly when walking. You can tell just by looking at the soles of my shoes sinking to one side! Any thing mobility wise I can do to resolve this?

Google "over pronation."

There are various means of addressing this that start in your brain, work their way down to core stability, then hip and ankle mobility.

To answer your question further, if you look at the hip mobility tips in this thread, you should find the answers you seek. :)
 
Caporegime
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As above, if it hurts don't do it, or work around it, or find out what part of the movement hurts.

I had to avoid barbell bench for several months, only dB bench worked. Then to get back on to barbell bench I had to do pin press and work up from there.
 
Soldato
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It doesn't hurt as such, but I can feel it. Maybe a small amount of dull feeling towards the end of the set when I have to push that little bit more with my right (when usually my right is stronger).
 
Soldato
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Hi guys.

So i have started to try out front squats for a couple of weeks now which im kind of struggling with. So firstly i can put the bar on my shoulders with my arms crossed and holding fine although about 5 reps in the bar will become unbalanced say and slide forward. Can i put this down to my back being bananarama and im not staying straight? I then try and hold the bar without crossing my arms which i can do but the bar isn't resting on my chest i'm kind of holding with my palms like i'm about to OHP it. Guessing i have this problem with my OHP's too.

Lastly i am gassing out crazy bad. I notice my breathing is terrible. I am holding my breath a lot when repping. Is this my core being pathetic?

Any tips. Will try sort a video out.
 
Man of Honour
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A friend of mine has recently been doing a ton of mobility work to try and sort out a problem with his knee. What he has been doing has helped a lot and he's decided to incorporate bodyweigh pistol squats to help improve things further. In this process he has noticed that his ankle mobility is awful. Are there any suggested exercises specifically for ankle mobility?

edit: I should probably re-read the OP of course...
 
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Man of Honour
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Cambridge
A friend of mine has recently been doing a ton of mobility work to try and sort out a problem with his knee. What he has been doing has helped a lot and he's decided to incorporate bodyweigh pistol squats to help improve things further. In this process he has noticed that his ankle mobility is awful. Are there any suggested exercises specifically for ankle mobility?

edit: I should probably re-read the OP of course...

Try this...

http://www.allthingsgym.com/heavy-barbell-ankle-stretch/

Will think about front squats whilst in the gym doing back squats...
 
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Soldato
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...you should do some anyway tbh.

Just bolt some on the end of workouts, planks,side planks, pallof press, walkout/roll outs etc.

Oh i do but its after CV on a weekend and its circuit based. I spider man plank,cable crunch, weighed leg raise and i roll my elbow on an exercise ball. This is like a circuit though. Could do with a proper routine and sets.
 
Man of Honour
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Oh i do but its after CV on a weekend and its circuit based. I spider man plank,cable crunch, weighed leg raise and i roll my elbow on an exercise ball. This is like a circuit though. Could do with a proper routine and sets.

That's all very well and good, but better for people that don't actually lift. ;) They're designed to get civilians moving and used to bracing and using their core as required... not really for lifters who have to be particularly strong in certain positions.

A number of things could be causing the bar to roll forward: if this is due to fatigue, then Delvis is right.

There are some other things to bear in mind...

- Trunk position: if you're hips aren't suitably greased, you will have a hard time keeping a nice (elatively) upright torso, meaning the bar will roll forward more easily...
- Shoulder/trap/rhomboid strength: if these are weak, you won't be able to keep your shoulders up, supporting the bar...
- Shoulder mobility: you're using the California (fatman) grip which suggests your shoudlers don't move properly, meaning more lat stretching and external (and probably internal - let's face it) mobility is required.

If you want a bullet-proof core for front squats (specifically) there isn't much better than doing paused front squats. Take your weights back to around 70% RM and then do paused triples feach for a 5 count. They are all the more miserable because they do an excellent job of (pretty much) compeltely removing the back from the lift which is why they are so much harder on the core... and why actually doing core work for them is quite a toughy: what other exercises simulate a compressive vertical load? A fully-braced plank is probably as close as you're going to get, but it's not the most interesting exercise in the world. :D
 
Soldato
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Will get some fronts in tonight and vid them for you just to check out my posture.

The grip i really don't want to do the 'fat man' grip :D My shoulders are really stretchy to be fair i'm just holding the bar on my hands and not resting on my chest. Will get vids of this too and post on the FB page.
 
Soldato
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With my shoulder pain I got recommended to do shoulder dislocations with a broom stick, anyone got experience of this? Tried it and christ it's wierd, more flexible than I thought though.
 
Soldato
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London
That's all very well and good, but better for people that don't actually lift. ;) They're designed to get civilians moving and used to bracing and using their core as required... not really for lifters who have to be particularly strong in certain positions.

A number of things could be causing the bar to roll forward: if this is due to fatigue, then Delvis is right.

There are some other things to bear in mind...

- Trunk position: if you're hips aren't suitably greased, you will have a hard time keeping a nice (elatively) upright torso, meaning the bar will roll forward more easily...
- Shoulder/trap/rhomboid strength: if these are weak, you won't be able to keep your shoulders up, supporting the bar...
- Shoulder mobility: you're using the California (fatman) grip which suggests your shoudlers don't move properly, meaning more lat stretching and external (and probably internal - let's face it) mobility is required.

If you want a bullet-proof core for front squats (specifically) there isn't much better than doing paused front squats. Take your weights back to around 70% RM and then do paused triples feach for a 5 count. They are all the more miserable because they do an excellent job of (pretty much) compeltely removing the back from the lift which is why they are so much harder on the core... and why actually doing core work for them is quite a toughy: what other exercises simulate a compressive vertical load? A fully-braced plank is probably as close as you're going to get, but it's not the most interesting exercise in the world. :D

These are fun too (320kg @ <69kg bw in the vid, lol), although you'd probably go a bit lighter and hold the pause longer - till you start shaking like a leaf at least.


These too. If you're morbid you can get someone to put a plate on you.
http://instagram.com/p/xYMiBAHIWi/?modal=true
 
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