Crossfit is one of the most mobility-demanding training methodologies out there.

With Olympic Weightlifting and gymnastics movements that demand a lot from our range of motion, all to be done at high volume AND under high fatigue…

Yeah, it can be a lot on the joints.

It sounds like torture (and it is), and even though we complain throughout it all, we love it.

That is until it starts to hurt.

In the Primal Mobility Certification, we educate on the 4 main pain points, and these are all highly common in the world of Crossfit:

1. Knee pain
2. Hip pain
3. Low back pain
4. Shoulder pain

Whether you’re an athlete who is struggling with one (or more) of these, or you’re a coach who wants to solve these common problems, I got you…just keep reading.

Let’s dive in.

TIP 1: Proactively Incorporate Mobility into Your Routine

Our job at Primal Mobility is to get people out of pain so they can get back to the barbell with unshakable confidence.

And while I love everything we do at Primal, I do wish I would see more athletes being proactive with their mobility training.

To invest 15-30 minutes 3-5 times per week in joint performance.

It’s funny, we all want to move and perform like we’re a world-class athlete, but we rarely treat our bodies like one.

And fair enough, because the majority of us are not world-class athletes, so why invest time and effort into something that doesn’t feel mandatory, especially if we’re not currently struggling with any symptoms?

Well, it’s kinda like that quote…

“If you do not make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness”.

The same goes for mobility training

 “If you do not make time for your joint health, you will be forced to make time for your pain”.

Now, take that with a grain of salt, this isn’t to scare you into training your mobility.

There’s no significant literature that suggests that you are guaranteed to experience pain if you don’t train your mobility.

But there’s also no significant data that suggests that you are guaranteed to be healthy if you exercise.

And yet we know that it’s important anyway. It just makes sure that the odds are on your side.

So if there’s one thing that I hope you get from this article, it’s that even if you’re struggling with a specific symptom right now (knee pain when squatting, shoulder issues when going overhead, etc.), don’t neglect the other areas, as they may eventually cause you problems as well.

Be proactive with your mobility training, it will pay dividends, I promise.

Alright, let’s move on.

Understand Your Body's Needs

An individual mobility assessment will always go a long way to help you understand where you need to place your efforts, and how to structure the approach.

But this doesn’t mean you NEED an assessment.

One of the greatest and most simple “tools” that we use at Primal Mobility (again, taught in high-level detail within the Primal Mobility Certification) is the Primal Big 3.

These are the three main joints in our body that have the largest influence over how the rest of the body moves.

These three joints are the ankles, hips, and thoracic spine.

No matter what exercise you’re doing, you’re likely using 1 to 2 of these joints in some capacity.

Considering their role in full body performance, if their ability to move effectively and efficiently is limited, then other areas will have to compensate.

Over time, these compensations can “wear us down” and cause unpleasant symptoms (such as pain..)

Now, considering the number of full-body movements that are present in Crossfit, I guarantee that every single one of you would benefit from improving your ankles, hips, and thoracic spine mobility.

As a matter of fact, I bet that I could get you incredible results within 4 weeks, just by following the Primal Big 3, regardless of what your symptom is.

This is what we do for our TeamPrimal programming - focus on the Primal Big 3 with strength-based principles…

It works very well because we follow a simple plan.

As a CrossFit athlete, you are challenging your body in a big way, and improving these three areas is going to reduce the unnecessary stress that often accumulates in those 4 main pain areas.

At the end of the day, while an assessment will go a long way to pinpoint where your effort will be best spent, you can still get great results by targeting the Primal Big 3 with your mobility training.

Mobility Exercises to do Daily

As a strength-based mobility coach, one of my favorite things to do with new clients early in the journey is to get them to follow a daily routine.

This could be a super quick, 5 minute routine that is meant to be repeated every day.

Something that gets you moving through important ranges of motion very frequently, to start building up the stimulus that your body needs to begin to adapt.

Now, while it will be tempting to go “balls to the wall” and attack your problem areas with high intensity every single day, this isn’t going to be an effective approach.

Remember, with the presence of intensity comes the need for recovery.

This is why a daily routine should be relatively gentle (below a 6/10 RPE - Rate of Perceived Exertion).

During your normal mobility training protocol however (one that should be done 3-5 days per week), this is where we really apply the intensity.

So for your daily routine, focus on just exploring your range of motion, getting into positions that you aren’t used to exposing, and just moving through them with intention.

These exercises should be relatively gentle and flowy.

Here are 2 exercises I love to add for daily mobility for CrossFit:

Primal Hip Flow 

 Spine Undulations

TIP 2: Warm Up Effectively Using Mobility Training

The Role of Dynamic Mobility Warm-Ups

The warm-ups performed at the beginning of a CrossFit class are generally pretty solid. 

They will often prime the movements that will be repeated during the workout, and help get the nervous system ready for work.

This is all great stuff, but we can make it even better…

With a dynamic mobility warm-up, we can focus on specific ranges of motion that are going to be exposed during the workout, and make sure they are prepared to take on loading.

The purpose here is to show the nervous system that we want to use these deep ranges of motion, and that we will be putting them to work shortly.

This is a great way to help reduce compensations during our workouts, and ultimately reduce the likelihood of experiencing unpleasant symptoms.

Now is when we’ll want to spice up the intensity a bit.

Here are 2 exercises that are great to get the joints primed and ready for some loading:

 Eccentric Sumo Squat

 Shoulder Levers

Go-To Mobility every CrossFit Athlete should be doing

It’s rare that you’ll hear me say that every CrossFit Athlete should be doing one specific thing.

But I believe that if there is one particular mobility technique that we could all benefit from in a big way, it’s CARs.

Controlled Articular Rotations.

The concept is to bring any joint through its full range of motion, without any compensation from other areas.

Another quote that feels fitting here is “if you don’t use it, you lose it”, and this is true anywhere, it’s in our mobility.

Using the CARs technique will have you exposing the deepest ranges of motion that you currently have access to, and making a statement to your body that you want to keep those ranges.

It’s like stapling a post-it note to your forehead that says “I’m using it so I don’t lose it”.

If I had to choose one thing that every crossfitter should be doing as pre-workout mobility drills, it would be CARs.

Here are 2 videos to show you how to perform CARs for the shoulders and ankles:

 Ankle CARs

 Shoulder Swimmers

TIP 3: Implement Progressive Overload in Your Mobility Training

Gradually Increase The Challenge

Alright, this is where 99% of people get their mobility training wrong.

Just like you aim to add some weight to the barbell to reach a new squat PR, we also want to increase the stimulus to reach new mobility gains.

Remember that mobility training IS strength training.

Mobility IS strength…

The protocols require the use of the same progressive principles.

Now, while mobility exercises can be very challenging to add load to, we can leverage other principles to help us increase the stimulus, and ultimately increase our capacity.

Things like:

• Reduced rest periods
• Increased sets/reps
• Longer tempo
• Pauses/holds

These are all things to add into your mobility protocol that bring you mobility gains that you never would have experienced otherwise.

You gotta increase the stimulus in order to force adaptation.

This is progressive mobility training at its finest.

Track Your Progress

Now that you’re going to begin adding progressive overload to your mobility training (good call btw), it’s going to be important to track your efforts.

This is where I love to incorporate a training journal.

Track what you do from week to week and seeing it right in front of you is so helpful.

Not to mention that you’ll be writing down your mobility workouts, which increases the likelihood that you’ll ACTUALLY do the work.

(I’ve worked with thousands of athletes at this point, I know how it goes)

The main things to track during your mobility workouts are:

• Exercises
• Rest periods
• Sets/reps
• RPE (effort behind each exercise is important..if you’re half assing your exercises, you’ll get half ass results..this isn’t crucial to track, but the more clear you get here the more bang for your buck you’ll pull from each mobility workout)

Now, keep this in mind - while it’s normal to chase the perfect positions and technique after working on your mobility, the real gains are in the way you FEEL.

If you’re noticing a reduction in your discomfort and/or pain, that’s a win.

If you’re finding that you’re recovering more rapidly, that’s a win.

If you’re seeing that your numbers on the barbell are going up since you started training your mobility on the side, that’s a win.

More important than the fancy new splits you’re chasing is the way you feel under the barbell.

Well, that’s my opinion anyway!

At the end of the day, I want you to feel your best, for the rest of your life.

I want you to be 80 years old and still kickin ass.

So, If you liked this little intro article, I have a guide that can take you one step further.

It’s called The Crossfitters Daily Minimum.

You can grab it here.

As always, thank you for taking the time to hang out, on this article.

If you want another one to chew on, you can check this one out too, "Overcoming Mobility Plateaus; A Guide to Pain-Free Performance".

Let's get it ✊