It’s been a while since I posted but to get back into the swing things in 2019, I am going to kick it off big with a series of instructional articles and videos starting with an often overlooked topic – ankle mobility. The videos below were created with Wade Maselich, our PT at Precision CrossFit, my gym in Agoura Hills, California.
It’s been a while since I posted but to get back into the swing things in 2019, I am going to kick it off big with a series of instructional articles and videos starting with an often overlooked topic – ankle mobility. The videos below were created with Wade Maselich, our PT at Precision CrossFit, my gym in Agoura Hills, California.
The first thing I want to touch on is the notion of training from the inside out rather than from the outside in. As a coach, in my personal programming, I focus a ton on stability muscles. I focus a ton on thoracic strength, and I focus a ton on the posterior chain.
If those muscles are strong, the athlete’s going to be a better, stronger athlete. Most athletes focus too much on the primary muscles meaning legs, quads, hamstrings, big muscle groups and not on the smaller muscle groupings. That tends to be an issue.
The Protocols of Being Better
For example, in my training programs, I spend a lot of time during the time allocated for workouts going through skill-building and mobility work. Basically, I work on things like rotator cuff muscles and what is now trendily known as crossover symmetry. I work with athletes on stability, something that Wade and I have talked about a lot.
I pride myself on having emphasized stability work for many years but you can’t blame the gym or other coaches if this is a relatively new thing for most people. People come into a gym, particularly a CrossFit gym, and they want to get stronger and lift heavier as soon as possible. There’s a sense of urgency.
In the video below, Wade and I are going to talk about these issues and provide some background on how athletes need to approach inside out training, starting with ankle mobility and why it is so important. Take a few minutes to listen or watch the discussion before jumping into the instructional video that follows.
We are going to talk about how athletes in competitive situations face ankle mobility issues. We will relate that to the average gym goer and then really try on zero in on ways to reduce the risk of injury.
Testing for Mobility and Fixing Your Weaknesses
There’s no easy way to talk about mobility, the things you should look for, and how you go about addressing your own personal issues. It’s much easier to demonstrate. So, just dive into the instructional video below.
I think Wade and I have managed to cover your ankle mobility from every angle and we’ve kept it simple, and safe. It’s really important to realize that a lot of this kind of inside out training is not only designed to help you move better but to avoid taking on injuries as you invariably push yourself to try and get stronger and better.
Taking the weightlifting snatch as a guidepost, ankle mobility plays a crucial role in determining how far you progress in your practice of this unique strength movement. Your ankles play a key part in determining whether the rest of your bother will align right in order to be able to get you into the deep catch positions that a snatch demands.
Keep an eye out for more upcoming instructionals in the coming weeks or just click on the word tag Tromello Instructionals to pull them all up.
