Flexibility is one of those things people either don’t want to talk about or know nothing about. But it’s something you should be thinking about if you want to excel in strength sports like powerlifting, weightlifting, strongman, and CrossFit.
I’m gonna tell you how to Increase Flexibility (and keep it increased) so that you can lift heavier weights, get more reps and look better naked. The process is simple, but not necessarily easy. That’s why I call this approach the “Honey Do” workout plan—as in do these exercises once or twice a week for 20 minutes and get on with your life.
The reason why I haven’t written an article until now about improving your flexibility is because most articles on the topic are just basic advice, no new insights. They tell you to stretch your hamstrings, your hip flexors and so on, but they don’t give you an actual plan on how to do it.
1 Increase Your Flexibility Level
How flexible you are has a lot to do with genetics—as some people’s muscles are naturally more “tight” than others’ due to his heritage. But there are ways around that by performing exercises like the ones I recommend in this article. That way everyone can reach their maximum flexibility potential safely and within reason (please don’t try to be like Mr. Fantastic).
2 Increase Mobility for Weightlifting And Other Strength Sports
Most articles about stretching only talk about increasing flexibility, but they leave out the fact that flexibility involves two things: Having a certain degree of muscle length and How to control this length.
It’s very important to keep in mind that if you want to increase strength as well as mobility, you must work on both aspects separately. Otherwise, your technique will be off, which can lead to injuries and missed reps. There are some exercises we do we don’t use much weight because we’re more interested in improving mobility than showing off—and thus we perform them at a bodyweight level only (e.g., “Hip Flexor Mob”).
3 Increase Mobility For Posture and Squatting
I’ve trained high-level athletes who aren’t flexible enough for proper overhead squatting—which is ridiculous if you think about all the time they spend training this movement.
So don’t get fooled into thinking that just doing endless mobility exercises will solve your problem. Increase your flexibility smartly by working on one or two key areas at a time to get the necessary degrees of freedom for heavy strength training and performance success .
4 Increase Mobility For Sports Performance
Many athletes have great power but have trouble coordinating it because they lack the motor control to perform certain movements—which is usually due to a lack of flexibility, not something wrong with their nervous system. This can lead to missed tackles in football or no forehands in tennis if you’re not flexible enough to get into the right positions fast enough (and over time).
5 Increase Your Range Of Motion At The Shoulder Girdle
One of the biggest problems in weightlifting is that people have very little shoulder girdle mobility, which forces them to raise their shoulders up during a pull. This puts you in a terrible position because it makes the bar path non-vertical and thus reduces your ability to produce power. Increase your range of motion by stretching your anterior, medial and posterior deltoids along with the other muscles surrounding the shoulder joint complex . You’ll be glad you did once you clean or snatch 200 kilos without pain for the first time ever.
