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Mobility and intelligence

Feb 10, 2022
It was January/2nd of 2021. Since I began coaching, I have been starting every January 1st with a morning jog. Just to set the tone for the coming year. Start the new year with passion and effort. This year I added a bit of weight lifting to my ritual , something I do here and there but not really consistently.
The next day I had for the first time in my life a lower back pain like I had never had before. I thought, like with most pains, it will go away if I rest, but it did not...it became worst until one morning I could barely walk. In a few weeks It developed into a sciatic nerve pain. People that had this kind of pain will understand what I am talking about. I tried a few different approaches; cold-hot therapy, acupuncture and finally an injection that is applied straight to the sciatic nerve. That was the only thing that eased my pain after around 5 months of daily struggle. Tough days.
I didn't want to depend on injections to feel my body ok again, so I started to look for exercises that I could do myself. I wanted to regain the sense of control.
I found mobility exercises, calisthenics and a fun course from Tony Riddle about rewilding human movement. So I started to re-strengthen my posterior muscles and enhance my hip mobility, squats, seating on the floor, etc.
I began, to feel and understand the concept of range of motion and realized the strength, focus and discipline you need in order to do those movements correctly. Also I could sense the small and incremental gains.
At this point I believe that developing strength in the full range of motion is of huge value. To be able to move your body strongly and controlled from the deepest positions gives you a sense of power and confidence that I believe to be very important for anyone aspiring to their best performance.
Having been a former professional tennis player and a Coach today, I realize, how we tend to skip processes in order to achieve results fast. We move more weight than we really are capable of and don't work conscientiously on the basics. 
We can argue here about the importance of the full range of motion when it comes to playing tennis, however my experience tells me, that even if you don't use it consistently, it's a real asset to have, it gives you a better posture, confidence and keeps you healthy.
 

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