Bottom Line Up Front
My mobility ladder routine enables me to live free of chronic pain. The specifically selected exercises are comprehensive for what I (and probably most other people also) need. If I experience acute pain, I can still perform the mobility ladder albeit much more slowly and with fewer repetitions. Doing so speeds my return to my normal, pain-free quality of life.
This Year’s Challenge
This past year has brought major changes to my life which placed heavier than normal demands on my time. As a consequence, I have exercised less consistently than I’m used to. In addition, I injured something on the inside of my right elbow using my FitKit and even after 9 months it still remains a pain point. So, I’m very cautious about loading my arms, and currently avoid any pulling movement with my right arm.
All that to say, this year’s fitness challenge is a demonstration with minimal commentary of what has become my regular exercise regime. It is said that behind every FAA regulation is a plane crash. Similarly, there is a story behind every exercise in this regime, i.e. personal experiences that drove me to adopt each individual exercise first and foremost because without them I would live in chronic pain.
For some inexplicable reason <irony>, the older I get the more I hear from my social circle tales of aches, pains, injuries and loss of physical capabilities. I’ve been there, done that, and invested significant time and money in learning how to exercise effectively. I offer these brief demo videos as proof of what is possible and perhaps encouragement to others to use exercise to dramatically enhance their quality of life.
1) Healing Staff
I recently started using the Healing Staff routine to warm up my arms before doing any exercise at all, seeking to encourage my elbow to heal. (I previously wrote in more detail about the Healing Staff and and demonstrated the entire routine.)
2) Up/Down Dog with Dive Bombers
Not too long ago, I used to start my workout with Up/Down Dog. However, I noticed that even this light amount of load on my arms irritated my elbow. So, I now precede Up/Down Dog with Healing Staff. After 10 reps of Up/Down Dog, I do 10 reps of Dive Bombers which challenges the shoulders.
3) Mobility Ladder
This is my personal baseline minimum exercise because it prevents and resolves chronic pain. I perform this routine 2-3x per week. It is a collection of exercises I’ve learned from various sources over several years. Each exercise serves a specific purpose and as a whole the exercises are structured as a ladder flow. By flow, I mean that each exercise leads to the next.
By ladder I mean that each successive execution of the flow increases the repetition of each exercise by 1. The first round, each isometric hold is for a count of one and each movement is performed once. The second round, hold for a count of two and perform each movement twice, etc, for a total of 5 “rungs” in the ladder.
Two strength exercises are included in the flow: a regular push-up and a bridge push-up. The regular push-up builds/maintains strength needed in case I fall forward and need to catch my weight in order to avoid serious injury. (This has happened to me a couple years ago. It was after dark, I was carrying a large box and did not see that I was falling off a high porch instead of walking down a normal step. In a fraction of a second, I reflexively tossed the box aside, breaking the glass jar inside, and landed on my palms in a push-up. Because I had the requisite strength, I walked away with only a minor scratch.) The bridge push-up develops posterior upper body strength to avoid compensations for overdeveloped anterior strength.
If you did the math, you may have noticed that by the end of the dive bombers and five-rung ladder, the push-up count is 40.
4) Lunges
I have previously written about the importance of deep knee bends and deep squats. Recently, I took a fencing lesson and the next day my left hip was screaming at me. Lesson learned. My hips were weak. So, I now combine forward, reverse and lateral lunges with deep squats. In this routine, there are six lunges and four deep squats per round. After five rounds, I have made fifty strength movements with my legs which works wonders for my knees.