Mobility Resource Guide
CrossFit is one of the things in your life where you get as much out of it as you put into it. Do you try to get better at the movements? Do you get enough sleep? Eat well? Here’s one everybody says they need to work on and are going to start “from here on out”. MOBILITY!
A couple of arm circles and a few seconds in a squat does not constitute mobility work. We beat our bodies down on a daily basis in these workouts. We need to help the muscles recover and stay supple. Nobody likes stretching while sore, but that’s something we need to do! In addition, stretching and improving the range of motion of our joints will help mitigate soreness.
One of the biggest reasons you should work on seriously improving your mobility is INJURY PREVENTION. Tight muscles are resistant to all of the various ranges we ask of you, on top of dynamic movements and changes in directions.
Now I’m not saying you have to go to a yoga class 3x a week. If you want to, have at it! It’ll be great for you! I’m bringing this topic up to show you resources that you can utilize at home, at the gym, before and after workouts.
ROMWOD
ROMWOD is an online platform with the slogan “Optimize Your Range of Motion”. It provides daily mobility flows in the disciplines of yin yoga. It commonly consists of long holds with suggestions of assistant tools.
ROMWOD can be streamed on almost any smart device including Amazon Alexa! It promises constant new routines to ensure your progress and to never get bored.
With ROMWOD you can apply filters to find specific flows and routines that target your desired area. It’s similar to attending an online yoga class. A single block of time transition between different poses and holds. New routines are released everyday except Thursdays, in ranges of 15-45 minutes. If your life and daily routines are conducive to this approach then this is a valuable resource.
Highlights
- 7 day free trial
- Can’t pick problem areas/specific body parts
- Daily routines
- Cost: $13.95 /month
GOWOD
GOWOD is a mobility app on your smart device. It starts your initial subscription with a mobility test to assess your current state. This same test is done every 30 days. Mobility is a placebo effect if you don’t test and retest!
Each day you have an option to select PreWOD, PostWOD, Daily, or Specific protocols.
PreWOD, is preparing you for whatever is on your training agenda for the day. Specific warm ups to prime those ranges of motion.
PostWOD, the recovery exercises for the muscles you just taxed.
Daily protocols are recommended exercises based on your shortcomings in the mobility test that was recorded at the very beginning of your month. This can be done at any point in the day.
Specific protocols are when the user handpicks muscles or joints that to work on.
One of my favorite things about GOWOD is you can choose 8, 12, 15, or 20 minute blocks of time to use the program. If I’m running short on time I just select the 8 minutes. If I’m able to do more I’ll pick the bigger block of time. A nice metric with this program is it totals your accrued time of use.
Last feature that makes it the most conducive for me as a family with 3 kids is that it’s not a constant flow. More specifically it’s the first exercise, you hold it for the given 1-3 minutes and then it waits for you to press next and proceed to the next one. My typical day is, execute the first exercise, then get kid #1 whatever snack they are asking for. Then I resume with exercise #2 or 3 until another kid wants to interrupt, I mean… ask for some kind of assistance.
Day 1 Day 30
Highlights
- Tailored daily protocols
- Monthly assessment and progress check
- PreWOD and PostWOD offer based on your daily workout
- Cost: $9.99 a monthly, $49.99 for 6 months, or $89.99 for 12 months
- 14 day free trial
The Ready State
The Ready State which is formally Mobility WOD is an online platform that is owned and operated by former CrossFit Specialty course director of mobility, Kelly Starrett. He’s a multiple time published author, doctor of physical therapy and sought after consultant for many professional sports teams.
The Ready State helps everyday athletes enjoy better movement, agility, and strength — with less pain and more protection against injury.
TRS takes the approach of fixing what’s currently broken, helping it recover, and preventing it from happening again. Sounds great right?! Just like any program, if you follow it to the letter and believe in it, it will help you! TRS has the option to pick “Fix your tennis elbow” or “fix your pelvic floor” or “talk to a certified coach” or even Kelly himself! With offline and remote play back you can do this in your living room or at the gym from your smart device.
With TRS you are getting a virtual mobility coach. A coach you can message a question and get an actual response from! This is more than just an algorithm based app, a real person on the backend communicating with you.
As someone who has taken Kelly’s course in person, know that he is a wealth of knowledge! I’d go as far to say he’s forgotten more information than most coaches can remember.
Highlights
- Virtual Mobility Coach
- Library of movement specific exercises
- Cost: $14.99 a month or $155 for the year.
- 14 Day Free Trial
Conclusion:
As a gym owner and coach I don’t get paid from any of these companies. I simply want to present resources to all our CrossFit 8 Mile members. These are resources that can help your longevity in training, help recovery from workouts, prevent future injuries and simply make workouts feel better by not fighting your body to be in the proper positions and range of motions!
Take 15 minutes and check these out and see which fits your daily routine and lifestyle the best!