The one thing the average guy can learn from weightlifters is the importance of mobility work. The main takeaway from the whole paleo movement is the emphasis on how sitting is horrifically bad for your mobility. Some people also make claims that sitting for long periods of time is actually deleterious to your health. This infographic is a nice looking image which sums up all of these claims. To me it looks like many of those claims are correlations where other factors such as lifestyle choices are to blame for the negative health consequences of sitting such as downing gourmet donuts and 700 calorie “coffee” drinks.
Anyways, much has been written by people more knowledgeable than I on the topic of mobility work. If you lift I highly suggest you incorporate some basic drills to fix the tightness caused by sitting all day. Here are my top four mobility links:
4. Mobility Basics
70s big has helped me a lot in my lifting and one of the most important articles was this one. It gives the basics of when and why you should do mobility work and provides links to some of the most important mobility drills for lifters. One of which is the ‘infamous’ couch stretch. If you’re as inflexible as I was you’ll probably last 5 seconds then fall over the first time you do it. Here is a bonus post on mobility from the site. Lift Big Eat Big: Mobility For Sitting On Your Ass All Day is another article which breaks down and shows some good drills you can do to loosen up your posterior chain.
3. Foam Rolling aka Self-Myofascial Release
I usually roll everything out as a warmup before my workout. It loosens everything up , gets the blood flowing, and relaxes tight muscles.
This is the wrong way to roll.
2. Agile Eight
About halfway down the page is the list of the “agile eight.” It’s a warmup routine which incorporates the movements from the previous links. Do this before every training session and I guarantee they’ll go much smoother.
1. Mobility WOD
Mobility WOD is a website with a new mobility drill every post so if you’re looking to add new drills to your routine this is the place to go. Posts are tagged by what muscle they target and even by sport specific drills.
Read Also: Does Your Posture Suck?
Dat posterior chain
hi. since you post about random things here, you could make a post about the 1-10 scale, defining what’s a 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10, in your opinion. I would like to know opinions of different people regarding it so that we could compare and see if our tastes are not adjusted. It would be entertaining if you made some polls too for the comparisons.
I tend to take it as it comes on Return of Kings. The general theme of the posts is predominately one of positive masculinity. And from my research, the most important aspect is testosterone, far more important than even most men believe. To me, it is key, truly key in more than just sexual success with women. As women are more and more prevalent in the business world, possessing testosterone is key also to professional and occupational success. Women subconsciously detect signals that you possess it and react to you accordingly. I read a post yesterday that actions by men are judged by women as a factor of their interpretation of your “social status”, meaning actually, alpha or beta. An alpha that she overhears telling a dirty joke is naughty, a beta is offensive. An alpha that approaches is confident, a beta is creepy. And her determination of your status is from you possessing the signals of testosterone that she assesses subconsciously. And the best way to gain it is through heavy weights.
Some articles may have less value upfront to me, but the value could be something that has a more subliminal or later payoff. An example was the article a couple weeks about Beta Qualities are Dead, where a woman had screwed over some wall street guy for an MMA boxer. She had played the dude for money, conned him, and he was trying to recover the money in a civil suit. On my initial reading it merely seemed almost like a gossip piece. But then later it factored in as a key question I would ask. Even academia still considers that women are rational actors in the choice of men. And we know they are not. So I began to ask “Why?” What is it that would cause a women to fore go an obvious high quality provider male for one that is violent, with a sketchy future, with dark triad aspects that are nothing about “gaining resources”. The article said they do it because they can and are longer bond by economics in choices. But “why?”. And my answer is testosterone, the crave it in men, in a subconscious manner, that they don’t even understand. It is a signal to them of immunocompetency and is a key signal of fitness as a mating partner, that is far superior than mere wealth or status. The importance of it has been lost in our modern sanitary society. But millions of years of evolution haven’t forgotten it, exactly because it is so important, so important that it is beyond conscious choice.
These articles from the better weightlifters are quality offerings in the area that will most improve the social aspects of your life. I had spent hours in gyms to no avail until I finally hired a trainer and did what he said. And then I finally got results. I look at these articles in a similar light.
So my opinion is for this site to cater to popularity will do the average reader injustice and color the offerings of the authors. It might be interesting to see how others compare in your appreciation of articles. I am sure the masthead of the site is aware of what postings generate the most reads, most comments, most external linking from other sites. But I still like the variety, and I take it as it comes nature of the postings, and I think it is an attempt to give our segment something other than ranting, raving, articles. I think it better just to let the writers write and let the chips fall where they may.
Agree re testosterone. Also, I believe that the smell of another woman’s sexual ‘essence’ on a man registers on a woman’s subconcious and can drive her wild. It’s like social proof on steroids. The rich get richer.
One other consideration: sexy son hypothesis… women are attracted to men who is likely to give her a son other women would find attractive.
How can one benefit from discussing what other men find attractive?
because roosh writes ”how to bang a 9” without explaining what a 9 is. I don’t know any 9, or at least I don’t know anyone who I would rate as a 9, maybe my ratings are skewed.
where’s my comment?
great timing with this article, being chained to a desk during finals absolutely wrecks your mobility
Definitely, I could barely do a full squat after 2 weeks of 8-10hr a day sitting in the worst positions possible.
There was an insurance company in New York that provided coverage for a commuter railroad. They began to notice that the train drivers and conductors, men who stood all day, had longer life expectancy and less health issues then those men who sat in their jobs, even truck drivers. It was assumed that the men mostly came from the same genetic stock, most had similar lifestyles and diets away from work, and the only difference was that one group sat a good part of the day.
Good comment, as usual, Mr. Minter. There is a simple solution to sitting on one’s ass too muich: Get a standing desk!! They improve movement a thousand percent, you can do lunges & knee bends, calf stretches, and lots of other movements while you work.
Or sit on an exercise ball all day.
Good point. Apart from the exercise and core strength benefits, the human digestive tract is not designed to function properly while the person sits for six or more hours a day.
As Revo Luzione pointed out here, a standing desk (or sit-stand adjustable) is beneficial, you can make one for less than $100 from Ikea parts, etc. Here’s a guide:
http://lifehacker.com/5934906/standing-desks-on-the-cheap-the-ikea-guide
Also, get the “You Are Your Own Gym” app and do the exercises throughout the day.
Build strength, get rock solid, let girls cop a feel (it’s sexual harrassment but ok).
This post is well-timed for me. I’ve resistance-trained pretty seriously for 13 years, since I was 14 years old, but flexibility work is boring, and it never gave the fast rewards of other work, so I always avoided it, and relied on exercise itself to keep me flexible-ish. I worked for the intensity and particular goals. Mobility work isn’t as engaging in the moment, so it’s easier to put aside. But I’m getting more conscientious with age, and am ready to commit to a mobility program. I hope it will help with my sport.
Re: myofascial release. My hip flexors are pathologically tight. Sitting much of the day can’t help. Going from school to the ‘real world’, where frequent walk breaks from desk work won’t be allowed, might make it even worse… I frequently press my hip flexors with my hands before/during weight workouts to help them ‘release’ (I never knew what was happening- embarassing incuriosity to find out, too) and it usually helps other muscles engage more. So, I will look into experimenting with foam-rolling… Thanks for that point.
Lastly, I recently took out the book “Full-Body Flexibility”, published by Human Kinetics, a great sports and fitness publisher (don’t know if you’ve heard of them), from the library. It has example flexibility routines, for more everyday folk, and athletes in endurance- or power/speed-leaning sports. They’ve sold me on the possibility that I can increase my functional flexibility with exercises I haven’t tried yet. In the past, static stretching alone didn’t seem to be achieving my goals (their routines include static stretching, too). That combined with stretching being boring, I quit trying. But, the hips are getting worse. Squatting with excellent form, and sprinting with full extension, are impossible because of my hips, and doing squats and sprinting, themselves, haven’t been enough to fix the problem. A dedicated line of attack is called for. So, a regular, functional stretching routine from this book and regular use of the foam-roller will be my action plan to deal with my hips- and so improve my other activities, as a result (or, that’s the intention).
Perhaps I wasn’t clear, above. The functional routines include, but are not primarily based on, static stretching, which is why they (are claimed to) better increase functional flexibility.
Fuck it, brah. I just hit the gym, and start pounding. I avoid all the specific movements like DB flys, DB tricep extensions, Calf extensions, etc, and focus mainly on:
Squats
Reverse Leg Curl (using machine)
Incline Bench Press
Flat Bench Press
DB Military Press
Sit ups using decline bench
Day 2:
Wide Grip Pulldowns (using pulley machine)
DB Shrugs
Bent DB Rows
Bicep Curls
Barbbell Deadlift
I’m pretty satisfied with that workout. Hits all the major groups and no need for all those extra things like DB forearm curl, reverse grip DB forearm curl. Leg Curl (using machine, a completely useless exercise), etc, all the exercises hitting the small muscle groups.
Remember, the heavier you lift, the bigger your muscles will be.
And if you really want to look buff and tough, use steroids (just do it for one or two cycles, a cycle is 4 weeks, don’t use them continuously or else you might face health problems).
Hi all,
I agree with the sitting. Why? I’ve experienced it 🙁 .
However, I do have one issue. I’m a software developer and actually love to write code (I like the intellectual challenge). I would still like to develop code, but how can I get around this problem and not have to sit? I’m looking at the idea of a standing desk. I’ll try standing out first.
DAT ASS… DAT BODY