Michael O'Doherty

Ranking Commonly Used Mobility Tools

If you have seen these tools at the gym, maybe this will help you pick which ones are worth your time.

Foam roller 8.8/10 - great for desensitizing larger muscle areas and it’s a great tool to use for stabilizing and activating areas by using it as feed back for movements

Lacrosse ball 9.2/10 - fantastic tool to hit smaller pinpoint areas and can be a great tool to keep from cheating during mobility exercises or squeezing to build more tension

Golf ball 4.3/10 - small and hard ball that can be useful for a few areas but isn’t great for very many of them. Really has no use case outside of that

Spiky ball 4.8/10 - kind of like the golf ball where it can be good use case for smaller areas but pretty uncomfortable to put pressure on and not much use case outside of that.

Resistance band 9.6/10 - top tier tool to help build mobility. Tons of exercises and stretches can be made more effective by adding a resistance band or using it in ways to force more stability

Cramping during mobility work?? This is one of my favorite things to talk about when it comes up during a mobility session.

Most people try to run away from it but it’s actually a good thing. Here’s why you should fight through it as much as you can.

The cramps we get during mobility are not the same as we get when we do something like high endurance work. These cramps have nothing to do with electrolytes but instead is our body telling us we have no fu**in clue how to get that muscle to fire.

It dumps signals to the muscle to fire all the parts of the muscle that we don’t normally which overloads the muscle and causes that cramp feeling.

The best part about it? It means the mobility is working and our brain is learning to find that muscle again. A lot of the time that improvement in your mobility is right on the other side of the cramp.

So basically if you aren’t cramping you aren’t trying!

Have you ever experienced this when doing mobility? If not, you’re probably not putting in enough effort or intensity to your mobility work 🤷🏻‍♂️

Have knee pain above the knee? Here’s a way to address it quickly and get back to training.

Knee pain during a session is relatively common for some people. My first question, where is the pain? This video is specifically addressing when the knee pain is above the knee during a squat or lunge movement.

Foam rolling has a lot of benefits for knee pain especially in the middle of a training session. It allows us to resolve this annoying pain quickly and get back to our session. This is huge because it didn’t take away a lot of time from the session and now there is going to be even more benefit. Less pain, better activation, and improved range of motion.

Don’t let someone tell you the foam roller is a waste of time. When used correctly, it can be a really valuable mobility training tool

The hardest part about being a trainer that helps people improve mobility and get stronger…

It’s the mental game of going through my own injuries. It definitely takes a toll getting hurt as someone who helps other people get over their injuries. But injuries happen and sometimes those injuries need surgical intervention.

The good thing is if you have a solid mobility base, recovery can be smoother and it’s possible to regain what you lost before.

Just wanted to share something a little more real since everything posted on social media is a highlight reel. It’s not always highlights. But set backs make for come backs 💪🏼