I know what can happen if you have a mobility issue. Going back to my ankle injury I spoke about in my previous blog. It started with the "macho thing". I have always wanted to run the Melbourne Marathon. Six years ago I decided that this year was going to be it. Then I suffered my ankle injury that required surgery. Stupid me decided to run the Melbourne Half Marathon instead because of my injury.

Finished the race in the MCG (something I have always wanted to do) but couldn't move. I was literally rooted to the spot and couldn't turn. To compensate for the inflamed and swollen left ankle my right hip flexor decided to spasm. If I turned I would just fall over.

It took around five ( felt like fifteen ) minutes for everything to settle down!

What does this have to do with mobility? I had created an imbalance in my body caused by the ankle injury that my right hip flexor (glute, psoas and hamstring) had compensated for.

As we get older we become extremely inflexible in ankles, knees, hips and shoulders. Unless you can identify these weaknesses you will constantly create compensatory movement patterns throughout the body.

This is where the FMS ( Functional Movement Screen ) comes into play. Once I can isolate these issues with seven key movement screens I can work on those weaknesses.

As I say "First move well, then move often".

Cheers

Martin