As a I used to do only running, one can imagine that my flexibility and mobility is weak. I never really paid attention to stretching. During the first CrossFit lessons, it became very clear that I had some work to do. Not only related to CrossFit but in general I’m convinced that you should pay attention to your mobility to keep moving easily. But it’s not a one-time effort. You need to make it part of your daily routine to maintain and improve it. To get started, I joined a weekly Mobility class in the first two years of CrossFit.

For CrossFit there are some specific areas to pay attention to. For me there are two CrossFit movements that show my state of flexibility and mobility, the Overhead Squat and the Dumbell Overhead Squat. Those movements combine the mobility in the shoulders, the ankles, back and hips. One thing that is important to notice is that almost everybody has imbalances. For squatting there is are some tests like the Thomas and the Faber test to find out areas for improvement, causes of pain and imbalances in mobility. Getting a video recorded of you doing some exercises will help you find areas for improvement.

Shoulder

The shoulder one the most complex joints in your body and there are a lot of point of attention. I’m using the information from The Barbell Physio (the website, YouTube channel and Instagram stories) and Squat University (Instagram) to do exercises. When I’m in the box, I almost always start some exercises using Power Bands to warmup and work on strengthening the small muscles to improve stability . To get an idea about the various exercises, have a look at YouTube.

Ankle

For the various squats and especially the pistol squat, mobility of the ankle joint is crucial. My main source to work on improvements is Squat University (the website, YouTube channel and Instagram stories). Because it takes a long time to improve in ankle mobility, I try to make some of the exercises part of my daily routine. If there are squats in a WOD, for me it makes a big difference if I pay extra attention by stretching during the warming-up.

Back and hips

With a herniated disc (L5-S1), mobility and flexibility of my spine and muscles in my back. Especially my lower back is a big point of attention. In conjunction with the pelvis, hips and hamstrings (as a runner they are tight) there are some dependencies. Imbalance in this area can easily lead to complaints for me. Stretching hamstrings and hip flexors are crucial for me. Next to strengthening my core and back muscles, I learned to be careful with the combination of very heavy and high box step-ups. Important for me is to keep paying attention to a proper form of the movements instead of going for a maximum load. When you’re getting tired during WOD’s, you see often that people a neglecting the proper form of the movements, which can lead to injuries.

I discovered recently that a few treatments by a chiropractor can quickly realign the spine after which I was able to do CrossFit exercises again.

Yoga and mobility

During my visits in Lisbon and New York I attended yoga classes. I discovered that the yoga movements and flows are more or less the basic mobility exercises you need for CrossFit. So If you are a yogi, you probably will have a big advantage here.