In an earlier blog, we laid the foundation for understanding the difference between a warm-up and primer. Hands down a well thought out primer can replace your typical warm-up and improve your performance. At Mobility-Doc we have taken this idea and over the last 5 years, honing in on what makes primers effective. To really grasp why primers are so important you also need to know our definition of mobility. Let’s explore what mobility is, how we started using primers, and the Mobility-Doc Method.
What is Mobility
Many people think mobility is how you can move, mostly geared towards range of motion. For us, the idea of mobility means so much more. It consists of 3 key aspects of flexibility, stability, and strength. Combined, these 3 parts are what makes good mobility. The reason is, your body parts will open up to injury if you’re missing 1 of these key aspects.
For example, you go to the gym 5 days a week and you love working out your shoulders. Stretching is not part of your daily routine. 3 months later you realize you can’t put your arms over your head. The reality is you lost your flexibility because you were too focused on strength. This leaves you with limited mobility. It’s the same for someone focusing solely on flexibility. Too much flexibility leaves your joints unstable. What that means is you’re not strong when you’re trying to hold a position. You can feel shaky and have a hard time with balance. In this example, your mobility isn’t complete because you’re not strong in the position. There are about a million different examples we can go through but you’re getting the idea.
How It Started
Preliminary conversations started happening between our Dr. ‘s about 10 years ago based on studies and concepts used in the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Our team first put priming into action when Dr. Chloe began working with a dear friend and yoga instructor Carrie Morgan. They designed a class where they taught people how to move correctly in and out of yoga poses. To do that, they taught the 3 fundamental parts of mobility that are needed for the specific poses. After that, both Chloe and John began really using primers in their programming for rehabilitation with their patients and warmups for their elite athletes. All of that leads us to where we are today. Through years of patient interactions and high level athlete programming, Chloe and John have a specifically curated way to create primers. They are effective and fast so you can do more in less time.
The Mobility-Doc Method Primer
Now that you have a more holistic understanding of what mobility means to us, I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear they are the key components that make up our Mobility-Doc Method Triplets. The triplet of exercises is the same as a primer. It takes 3 different exercises that are done in a circuit style way. We do this to “wake up” the problem area and rewire your nervous system, teaching it to move properly. By doing this and targeting a known problem area or imbalance you will see better results in your performance and transfers to reinforcing better movement patterns overall. That means your better functional movement will stay with you longer because you’re rewiring how your body should move. Let’s break it down.
The Exercises
1st: We always begin with a stretch. To increase your flexibility, we need to stretch the area and loosen up the muscles surrounding the area of the body we are targeting
2nd: This exercise is for stabilization. We also like to call it activation. You are telling the muscle it needs to work. After suffering from some dysfunction, like walking improperly or from an injury, our muscles get lazy and don’t want to fire correctly. A lot of times this exercise is single sided to highlight any kind of imbalance you may have between one side or the other. By choosing a single side exercise it also means you can’t cheat by compensating! A lot of times our bodies use other muscles to get us where we need to go even if they’re the wrong ones.
3rd: A strengthening exercise brings us full circle. Now that we have increased our range of motion, we told the muscle HEY! It’s time to work! Now we are solidifying the good movement pattern by strengthening the muscle where it needs to be. We typically use more single sided exercises for the same reasons as above. No cheating!
The key to this working so well is making sure you do them in the correct order because they all compliment each other for a specific movement pattern. Completing it in a circuit style (meaning you do all 3 different exercises 1 time, and then all 3 again 2 more times) is crucial. If you don’t complete them in this manner you won’t see nearly the same results. These triplets, or primers, can be created for any kind of movement or body part.
Best Uses
You don’t need to be injured to benefit from a primer. In our daily lives our bodies are constantly being pulled in different directions than where they should be. From sitting at work, to your favorite sport everything can cause muscle imbalances and tightness. Our favorite way to use primers are:
Maintenance: If you sustained an injury and will always need to work on that part of your body, a primer is great for you.
Cooldown/Recovery: After a long day on your feet or if you’ve been working out more than normal, use a primer as a reset to make sure your body isn’t too tight in some places and reinforcing the proper movement patterns
Warm Up: Probably our favorite way to use a primer is to get ourselves ready to go! Taking specific movements and waking up your problem area so it’s ready to work for you is so important to competing at your optimal level!
For a more in-depth conversation about primers and an example primer watch this video:
Make Your Own Primer
We want you to perform at your best and we are so excited to tell you that we are going to be creating lots of content all about how YOU can create your own primer. We are going to explain how to choose the right exercises for you to help you feel better, move better, and get more out of your workouts. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube and other social media platforms so you can get all the information as soon as it comes out! We look forward to creating primers together with you.
Are you looking to take the guesswork out of your primers? Join MDFit! All of our online MDFit programs are built around an upper. body, lower body and core day primer. Whether it’s for warmup, cool down, or maintenance, our primers cover your full body to get you going in the right direction. Sign up for your free week trial today!
