How do I fix stiffness and poor mobility?

Hey there, wellness warriors, welcome back to another episode of the 2% Solution. I'm your host, diamond Wall, and today we're diving into a topic that's often overlooked but absolutely essential for achieving optimal health. It's the power of mobility and recovery. Chill for achieving optimal health. It's the power of mobility and recovery. So grab a comfy seat or get ready to stretch it out, because this episode is all about why taking time for mobility and recovery can literally transform your health and your well-being. All right, let's kick things off with a quick statistic. Did you know that, according to the American College of Sports Medicine, regular stretching and mobility exercises can improve your performance and physical activities, decrease your risk of injuries and help your joints move through the full range of motion? I almost feel like that's common sense.

A very familiar story, especially for a lot of guys out there. I know sometimes we're a little bit more ass than class and we ignore the things in favor of the ego. Anyways, okay, research and benefits. Let's just talk about this a little bit. The research backs up all this stuff I'm talking about A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning. Research found that athletes who incorporate regular stretching and mobility work into their routines had significantly lower risk of injuries compared to those who don't. Now let's talk about recovery. National Institutes of Health highlights the proper recovery techniques, like adequate sleep, hydration and active recovery, like mobility work. Right Stretching, like basically stretching through movement, is a great thing it's one of my favorite things to do rather than static stretching.

And you know, when I'm younger it's amazing. We have this just natural resiliency to deal with hard stuff and we sort of shrug off the hard workouts. We got those muscle soreness the day after, a couple of days after, and we just keep pushing, we keep going back, keep doing it. Remember that used to not be a problem. I'm now 47 and my body doesn't like that so much. And what happened was I was so biased to just lifting a lot of heavy weight, doing some high intensity interval training. You know, very typical CrossFit but I wasn't focusing on mobility and recovery because, honestly, I thought it was for people who, uh, I don't know what kind of slacking you know, like I knew that it was important, but I didn't think I needed it. Can you relate to that, can you? You know I was like, ah, it's good for everybody else, I don't either.

I have a little travel roller and on top of that I just I'd wear easy, loose, fitting clothing because it was more comfortable to travel in that. But we're waiting to board a plane. I'm there doing some mobility work sitting on my roller, like why not, rather than sitting on a device and sitting there in a chair with my neck all out of whack? I'm going to use that time, why not? So again, where can you fit that in your day? Is there little opportunities where you can stretch it out for two minutes or so? I think there is. Number four active recovery. Don't forget to give your body time to recover. Active recovery, like light walking, gentle cycling. This will help promote blood flow, reduce inflammation, aid in muscle repair and regrowth. So active recovery, I'm not saying do nothing. I'm saying do something that's light, that your body will thank you for it.

There's lots of products like Berrydash independent desks that have these workstations that adjust automatically and there's been a lot of actual studies and research coming to speak to the benefits of standing versus sitting or, more so, trying to find balance between the two modalities throughout our days. So here, to get right to the point, sitting is the new smoking. The more you sit, the more your health will suffer. We love to sit as humans, don't we? Whether we're in our car, we're at the desk, on the couch, even at the game. New research shows that sitting and inactivity are linked to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and depression. Stated simply, our bodies are designed to move. A recent study showed that if we spent less than three hours a day sitting, our life expectancy would increase by two years.

So on those days where I train extra hard, I'm able to push it and I feel fine for it. The next few days after I'm not paying for it. Also, I I knock on wood I've been very fortunate. I haven't really experienced any injuries for the last few years and the last one I did I tweaked my back, but what would normally affect me? For maybe a week or two? It was just a matter of about 48 hours. And again I did some mobility work, some very specialized movement patterns and bam, I was fine. But I also took it easy. I didn't lift anything for a couple of days and even was light the first few workouts back. Just to add that extra precaution Doesn't take a lot, just be a little bit mindful. But it'sopedic and Sports Physical Therapy and the National Institutes of Health those are all great places to start your own journey toward better mobility and recovery.

And so here I am doing this half marathon and I did zero training up until other than my CrossFit, and there was a lot of things I shouldn't have done. But the little caveat I got here is I did enough mobility that even though I was hurting, a couple of days after I didn't really have anything beyond just the sort of muscle soreness and also a few, let's just say, my Achilles didn't look very good. It looked a little bit like hamburger meat because I also wore a brand new pair of shoes that was given to me by a brand, and that's something that you just don't do. As my marathon runner friends will maintain, and they've all called me out on this, I don't need any mail writing me how stupid I was doing this 10 years ago, but I did it anyways. I did blog about it.

And hello, this one really gets to me, given my class. In the US, overweight or obese workers who have other chronic health problems miss about 450 million more days of work per year than healthy coworkers, costing more than $105 per year in lost productivity. Whoa, I can't emphasize this enough. Overwork and inactivity are just services to your career and your employer. Is it any wonder that many corporations are investing millions of dollars into corporate wellness programs? They have learned that employee wellness affects the bond line both in hard costs and productivity. Good health means a happier, more satisfied workforce, which translate into increased productivity. I've shared some more and, trust me, there's a lot of the ones too. However, letting go of your why nots Years ago, I sustained an injury to my back during the competition.

People are obsessed with living forever. Meanwhile we are getting more ailments from poor fitness and lost mobility as we age. Originally published on LinkedIn on 2 February 2017, itself republishing an article written for Fresh Magazine, and reproduced here with light editing only. FIG. 01 FIG. 01 / Use it or lose it, and the losing is quiet. Generally speaking, I seem to be reading more and more about longevity these days. It would seem that people are obsessed with the idea of living forever. And granted, medical science is doing a wonderful job of allowing us to live longer and longer. However, as a whole, we are also experiencing more and more ailments as a result of decrepitude, poor physical fitness and lack of mobility as we age. It is about time for an intervention and a call to help people get back to basics. Envision this.

When these muscles contract, they stabilize the spine, pelvis and shoulder girdle and create a solid base of support. If your core muscles are weak, you are more likely to develop conditions such as lower back pain, rotator cuff tendinitis or chronic headaches. People with weak core muscles often have poor lumbar curves and unnatural swayback of the spine, causing a great deal of stress on the lower back region. The inability to stabilize the trunk can also lead to impairments in the body's ability to transfer movements effectively between the legs and arms.

The inability to stabilize the trunk can also lead to impairments in the body's ability to transfer movements effectively between the legs and arms. Remember the simple act of picking up a bag of groceries? Next time you perform this action, take note of what your body does. You start to bend at the torso and legs, which automatically engages your core stabilizers. While engaged, you make micro-adjustments to your balance to ensure you do not topple over, then you start the squat motion to lift the groceries from the floor. Once you have started the movement, you further engage the muscles that line your back and front torso while placing those groceries on the counter. You have just done a full body workout. When considering functional movements, flexibility and balance cannot be separated.

In June 2019 I published a post looking for four dads over 40 to beta-test an idea. Seven years later that idea is the whole of my working life. This is the full version: where it came from, what it actually involves, and the promises it refuses to make. FIG. 01 The work is small and repeated. That is the whole trick. Every man in this work arrived the same way. Successful at his job, good at being a dad, present at the things that matter, and quietly falling apart in the one area nobody could see from the outside. He had usually tried to fix it a few times. A gym membership in January. A diet that lasted until the first work trip. A burst of running that ended when his knee or his calendar gave out. Each attempt confirmed the same story: I know what to do, I just cannot make it stick. That story is wrong, and the DadBody project exists to prove it. He does not lack knowledge.

I am Dai Manuel. I have coached in this city for close to thirty years, and for most of that time I was not a very good personal trainer. Good at the training, bad at the business of it, and the reason for that is the reason men over 40 come to me now. FIG. 01 Dai Manuel, Vancouver. If you searched for a fitness coach in Vancouver, you have probably already tried the usual route. A trainer, three sessions a week, a good first month, and then life happened and the whole thing quietly unravelled. That is not a character flaw. It is a design flaw. Three hours a week with a trainer means 165 hours a week without one. The gap is where every result is decided, and it is the gap the entire personal training model politely ignores, because its revenue depends on you needing it again next year. I coach men over 40, mostly dads, mostly men who are successful at everything except this.

Tell me honestly where you are starting from. Can I do DadBody 28 from outside Vancouver? Yes. It runs online, with coaching scheduled Vancouver time. Still not answered? Read every question or message me directly and you get me, not an assistant.