Day 3 of my mobility project and I worked on some areas that I have until now, totally neglected.  I have never worked on spine mobilization before and it shows.  The spine roller smash that I am doing in today’s photo, found some really tight and painful spots.  It was really hard to stay relaxed and fall into the smash mode.

Here is what I did today:

• T-Spine Roller Smash – As I mentioned above, this one was really challenging. While lying on the foam roller, you cross your arms and pull up all the soft tissue and your scapula, so as to expose the muscles around your spine. Then you move around, arching your back and lifting your legs. The goal is to slowly move around the foam roller and smash out any tight spots.  Like I said, this one hurt.
• Reverse Sleeper Stretch – More work for the back of the shoulder.  With your arm behind your back, you use your opposite arm to pull your elbow towards the center of your body.  By keeping your shoulder back, you get a really good stretch across the upper part of the rear shoulder.  Again, this one was quite painful, which is a reflection of my lack of mobility.
• Finger Splice – This exercise is about mobilizing toes and fore foot.  Having intertwined your fingers and toes, you twist your mid-foot joint back and forth.  Fore foot flexibility is very important in many sports, including running. This exercise also helps with proprioception.   

This is far from a daily habit yet, but I am really learning a lot about how a body can move and how my body is not close to achieving its full range of motion.  More updates tomorrow.

Note :  The mobilization techniques I am doing are are all detailed in Kelly Starrett’s “Becoming a Supple Leopard” book.  It’s an excellent book and highly recommended.