In Part 2, I am going to tell you the 5 reasons WHY we do it.
5 Reasons Why We "Superset" with Mobility
1. Guaranteed Adherence
The guys I train are animals. They train with me to get jacked up so they can either intimidate or dominate their opponents on the field.
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| I googled "football player intimidating" and McCombs picture came up ... SICK!!! |
For the few that are no longer competitive on the field, their goal is to intimidate or dominate the next biggest guy at the club.
Same difference ...
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| Why Blanco and Morano do "Arms" on our rest days ... |
The bottom line is, if I didn't force these guys to do mobility or prehab drills while they were standing in front of me, 95% of them wouldn't do it all.
By putting it into the program, I guarantee it gets done.
2. Guaranteed Attention
Most of my guys have the attention span of a squirrel.
While I cannot 100% confirm how strong a squirrel's attention span is, I can guarantee it's not strong enough to focus on retracting the shoulder blades before moving your arms on Y's, T's, and W's.
It is this type of attention that is needed to optimally address mobility or stability issues in the gym.
If I strategically place it into the program at 30 second intervals, I have a fighting chance of getting the guys to focus on doing it right.
If I dedicated an entire session to mobility, most guys would zone me out within 5 minutes and we would get nothing done.
3. Stops the Talking
When someone is about to set up for a max effort front squat, the last thing they need to hear about is how great "Breaking Bad" was last night.
They need 100% of their focus on their foot placement, their elbow positioning, how they will engage their lats, and how they will control their breathing.
Hearing about how Heisenberg outsmarts a Mexican drug cartel is only going to serve as a distraction.
By incorporating mobility drills in-between our sets, it stops our guys from having these very conversations.
They don't have time to talk about "The Cousins", because they are too busy executing a single leg squat and touch before and after they squat.
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| How Blanco and Morano leave the gym after "Arm Day" |
Contrary to popular believe, most people do not struggle with their primary movements due to a lack of strength.
Rather, most of them fail due to a lack of mobility and / or stability.
Joe Sarno is an absolute beast, but he struggled with the basic body weight squat due to ankle mobility issues and a core that couldn't stabilize properly.
(For the full story of how he dominated this problem, see Evolution of the Squat.)
By placing the mobility drills immediately before and after the primary lift, the athlete is better able to execute that movement during that training session.
Not tomorrow...
Not next week....
Right Now!!!
The same could be said of anti-rotation / stabilization exercises.
By supersetting a set of plank holds in-between a set of squats, you are prepping your body to properly brace when you have massive weight on your back.
Movement (A) - Plank Holds with a Row
Movement B - Back Squat
5. Build Aerobic Capacity
Did you ever see a guy perform one set of bench, sit down for about 10 minutes, then begin to prep for his next set.
Those guys have a few things in common.
- Most of them are pretty big.
- Most of them can move lots of weight.
- Most of them are out of shape.
Note: If you are not pressing over 450lbs, you have no right to take 10 minutes between sets.
Most of the guys I train are football players.
They cannot afford to wait that long between sets, because they can't wait nearly that long in-between plays.
While I would never advocate turning your strength / power session into a conditioning session, I do believe that adding the mobility drills as a superset slightly bridges the gap between the gym and the field.
By having them constantly moving in the gym, they have a better chance of adapting to a no-huddle offense or a 13 play drive.
At the same time, they do it without the risk of losing power, as the mobility drills will not wear them out the same way true supersets, compound sets, or interval training will.
Wrap-Up
If you want to stay healthy, get lean, and keep making gains in the gym, I highly recommend you superset mobility drills into your program.
If anything, it will keep someone else from talking to you while you are trying to focus on getting better.
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing your reasons Why the "Superset" with Mobility. I watched the videos and most of the time I did the mobility training in my daily workouts with my small group. Keep us posted! Thanks again.
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