You likely have a standard warm-up that you do before each workout. (You do warm-up, right?) After you leave the locker room your pre-workout routine probably looks something like this: You do some sort of bouncy tip-toe walk on your way to the foam roller (because that seems like the more athletic and loose thing … Read More
Injury Prevention
Move Better with Hip Prying
Hip prying. You should be doing this! Yes, you. Hip prying might be one of the quickest and most effective hip mobility drills that I know exists. In just a few minutes, I’ve seen clients go from barely being able to squat at all to squatting below parallel! Steps to Perform Hip Prying Mobility Drill … Read More
Effective Hip Mobility Drills
For this week’s Mobility Monday, we are flashing back to the first part of a series we did on hip mobility! If you are familiar with our original tag line, it’s as follows: Move Better. Feel better. Perform Better. We meant it. 🙂 If you move well, you will most likely perform well. Here is … Read More
Deconstructing the G.O.A.T
For today’s Mobility Monday, we’re going to dive in and deconstruct a mobility drill that is used by thousands of strength coaches. This mobility drill can also be called the greatest stretch of all time or if you’re looking for something a bit more descriptive, hands-to-instep with a rib pull. I’m sure there are some slight variations of … Read More
How to Improve Overhead Shoulder Mobility
Today I’m going to show you a new drill to help clean up your overhead shoulder mobility. I train people with various backgrounds every day. Time and time again, I see people struggling to achieve a healthy overhead position. Why Do You Have Poor Shoulder Mobility? Whether it’s years of poor lifting, poor posture or simply neglecting … Read More
How Young is too Young to Train?
Often times parents of young athletes come to us asking if their young athlete is too young to begin resistance training or participate in a sports performance training program at Skill of Strength. Who can blame them? Everyone’s heard the old rumor that weight lifting stunts kid’s growth, right? Obviously, parents don’t want to mess with that! Now, … Read More
Active Straight Leg Raise Correction
Today we’ll go over my favorite active straight leg raise correction (ASLR). I’m a huge fan of the functional movement screen. My first FMS certification was at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston around 2008. Since then, I’ve been using it with all of my clients. We utilize the entire screen at Skill of Strength, but … Read More
Clean Up those Cranky Shoulders!
Shoulders that are stuck in internal rotation eventually wreak havoc in some way, shape or form! I see this all the time! Many people are stuck in a position where their shoulders are internally rotated, they lack thoracic extension, and they don’t have even halfway decent scapular retraction and depression. If you’ve worked with clients that move like this, you … Read More
Five Reasons to Stop Comparing Sports Performance Training to Working Out
It’s been my experience that a lot of people misunderstand sports performance training. You may be thinking, what’s to misunderstand? Isn’t sports performance training just a fancy way of saying you are an athlete working out so you’re not completely out-of-shape when the season rolls around? Kind of, but not really. Here’s the issue. Many people view sports performance … Read More
Shoulder Mobility for Overhead Lifting
Every so often I work with a client/ athlete who has incredibly restricted shoulders. Whether due to injury, poor training habits, or postural issues, the restrictions and decreased range of motion can make for some grumpy shoulders. A common theme I’ve seen with these clients is that they don’t respond well to traditional mobility work. They … Read More