Lately I have been reading famed physiotherapist Kelly Starrett’s book “Becoming a Supple Leopard”. Within the first chapter, Kelly already states some pretty head turning things. One of those gems just happens to be along the lines of, and I’m paraphrasing here, “everything is fine, until one day it isn’t”. Basically, what he is getting at is that your knee is fine until one day it explodes when you are taking your groceries from the car into the house. For some of us, we back squat or deadlift every week, and as long as we are making progress, at any cost necessary, we are happy. That is, until one day we break. Kelly’s principle can apply to movement as well. We all move the way we do, right or wrong, and as long as we get from A to B, then we really don’t care too much about it. That is, until we are 50 years old and can’t walk up our own stairs. At this point, you are in for a long road of recovery to normal living.
It’s really an easy trap to fall into. I mean, I just literally realize how lazy and broken I’ve become over the last 6 months because I decided to read Kelly’s book and start trying movement and mobility workouts. I’ve always credited myself with being a fairly athletic guy. I’ve always thought I’ve been in decent shape. I could always get stronger, but flexibility, core strength and movement…. I got that stuff in the bag. I’ve realized the hard way that I had it all mixed up. I’ve spent the last two years loading barbells with heavy weights and setting new personal records every couple of months. Now thinking back critically, all I got from that was strength that was unnecessary for my life goals, sore joints, and my focus taken away from mobility/flexibility. Truthfully, at the time, I really didn’t care about anything but being big and strong. I’ve always been a tiny guy and I wanted to be big.
This change once I got into soccer and I started to realize it wasn’t necessarily about big and bulky muscles. I mean, in a sport like soccer, those could end up being counterintuitive. Besides, I was so far behind the 8-ball in terms of knowledge and soccer skill that I basically ditched all supplementary training to catch up. Again, this was all fine and dandy because I was improving. That was, I improved up until a point. Lately I felt like I plateaued. My fiancé (who has been training with me to get me ready) has pointed out where my form was bad, and that has been improving, but I found myself not being able to get into position as easily as I should’ve been able to as an athlete. Furthermore, something just felt damn awkward every time I went for a ball. And then she said the most important thing she could’ve said since we started training, “you need to be light on your feet; you keep stomping around for the ball.” At first, I got a little defensive, but really I couldn’t argue and then it started to make sense. I agreed and let it stew in my brain for the next couple of days. Well, today I decided to test the merit of her statement.
I had already planned to read Becoming a Supple Leopard, and that night I had all the reasons to start. I read the first chapter, analyzed my thoughts, and decided that between my fiancé, Laura, and the book author, that I need to finally assess my mobility. I mean, after all, how hard can moving be? I move all the time, I should do this like nothing. Wasn’t I in for a surprise? Tonight, after work, I jumped online and searched out an Ido Portal Beginner workout. I just want to point out the word “Beginner” in that because for me, it was anything but. I couldn’t even finish one full set of any of the movements. I struggled with everything and soon realized how poorly I move. What I thought should’ve been second nature definitely was not.
And then it hit me. We don’t move like we should. We spend all this time lifting heavy weights and looking good that we restrict our movement and don’t spend time on moving correctly. I’m lucky enough to have found this due to my goals and the necessity to be agile as a Keeper. I strongly suggest that others take the time and try out mobility. Access your flexibility and body mechanics. Like Kelly says, “everything is okay until it’s not”, so don’t wait for the car to break before you decide to do a little maintenance on it. Treat your body right, work at maintaining the vehicle you’ve been given and be able to walk, run, jump, and play far into old age!