As a CrossFit coach, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’re going to be faced with mobility-related issues from your athletes on a daily basis.

Now, most exercises in CrossFit are compound, full-body movements; they often require a large range of motion from multiple joints at the same time.

And considering that the majority of our society has sedentary-based jobs that promote muscle tightness and joint restriction, movements that require a great degree of ROM can easily pose a problem.

Especially if those movements are loaded…

So, it’s important that we hop in here and chat about some of the common myths around mobility training that I’m constantly hearing in Crossfit affiliates so that you can start making some serious mobility progress with your clients, immediately. 

Here are the top 3 mobility myths:

1. If a client has pain, they are in immediate danger of getting injured
2. 2:00 of stretching will improve muscle tightness
3. Foam rolling & muscle smashing is mobility work

While none of these “myths” are inherently wrong, they are far from the truth and are reducing your effectiveness as a coach.

Let’s dive into these and see what you can do to approach these differently to master your craft.

Myth 1: If A Client Has Pain, They Are In Immediate Danger Of Getting Injured

Okay, this one stems from something I see CrossFit coaches thinking all the time.

While pain is often a signal that something is wrong, it does not equate to danger.

Pain ≠ Danger

Sure, there are times when pain does mean an impending injury, but in most cases, pain is an early sign that something simply needs to be changed.

This is why it’s so important to deeply understand the mechanics behind the common movement patterns you’re seeing in the gym.

The better you understand the mechanics or the patterns, the more you understand how that client’s body is being stressed under load.

For example, if a client has wrist pain in the front rack position, does this mean that the wrists need to be stretched or strengthened?

Not necessarily…

In most cases, it’s simply that the wrists are being stressed to a greater degree than what they are currently prepared for.

This is often a result of restrictions in shoulder external rotation and thoracic extension, or a weakness in the scapula’s ability to maintain the protracted position when creating that “shelf” for the barbell to rest on in the front rack.

Because there are problems in those areas, the barbell trajectory moves forward, onto the wrists.

This doesn’t mean that the pain felt in the wrists guarantees an injury on the way.

It’s just the body’s way of telling you that the joint is taking on more stress than it’s prepared for.

Solution: Understanding the mechanics of the patterns (the combination of biomechanics that create a particular movement pattern) is one of the most effective ways for you to stand out from the average Crossfit coach and help your clients improve their pain, rapidly.

Want to learn more about the mechanics of the front rack position? Check out this article I wrote for you.

Myth 2: 2:00 Of Stretching Will Improve Muscle Tightness. 

This one has to die.

Okay, before I dive into this one, I want to say that I’m not anti-stretching.

I believe there are tons of benefits to static stretching…the literature speaks for itself.

But if this was the solution to the problem, don’t you think it would have worked for you or your clients by now?

If that athlete is doing the same stretching routine for weeks and still feels the need to continue it, there’s a pretty clear indication that it isn’t working.

Here’s what’s going on.

A muscle that feels tight, isn’t inherently “short”. Rather, what is often happening is that the stretch reflex in that muscle tissue is particularly excitable.

This means that the nervous system is simply activating an autonomic contraction of the muscle to prevent it from perceived injury risk.

The muscle feels tight because the body is subconsciously contracting it because the particular ranges being approached don’t feel safe to the nervous system yet.

The key here is to build trust in the nervous system by showing that we can manage those ranges without losing control and “slipping” into an injury.

This is most effectively done through muscular contraction.

Once we show that we can engage our muscles in the deeper ranges of motion, we are proving that we can manage stress there, and our nervous system starts to reduce the excitability of the stretch reflex. 

Solution: Finding ways to engage the muscles within the deepest ranges of motion is the most effective approach to improving how an athlete feels within a particular muscle, and it will immediately carry over into how they feel while performing.

Here is a great example of an exercise that uses muscular contractions within a deep stretched position to generate a long-lasting response from the nervous system.

Myth 3: Foam Rolling And Muscle Smashing Is Mobility Work

The amount of times I’ve heard Crossfit coaches tell their class to do their mobility work, and then toss them a foam roller…

My face is buried in my palm, btw.

In myth #2 we discussed how muscular engagement is a crucial part of the process when looking to create long term range of motion results.

This is what mobility training is all about.

A fresh perspective may be that mobility training IS strength training.

And if that isn’t new to you, then maybe a more helpful shift is to see it through the lens of this equation.

Mobility = Flexibility + Strength.

When it comes to range of motion, foam rolling and muscle smashing are at the bottom of the list of effective approaches.

While they can temporarily reduce the perception of tightness and muscle pain, they do absolutely nothing to generate a lasting effect that fuels performance and pain reduction.

Solution: The key is to train the nervous system to become familiar and trusting of deeper ranges of motion.

To give the body more movement options to access during loaded movement.

This ultimately reduces the amount of undue stress that is being placed in areas that aren’t prepared for it, and will greatly improve performance due to the reduction of physical exertion to achieve the most ideal positions that generate power.

Here are 3 Primal Mobility versions of common stretching exercises that target the ankles, the hips, and the thoracic spine.

Try testing a bodyweight squat before and after performing each of these exercises and see how different the movement feels.

Exercise 1: Ankle Reapers 

Exercise 2: Eccentric Pigeon 

Exercise 3: Primal Thoracic Rotations

How Primal Mobility is Helping Coaches Just Like You

Whether these myths felt obvious or not, it’s far too often that CrossFit coaches get stuck in their ways of whatever is “easy”.

Throwing a foam roller at someone, or prescribing a couch stretch is so much easier than looking at the problem from a different angle and trying to analyze movement from a higher level.

To the coaches who truly are passionate about their work…

Who love learning and want to understand how the structure of the human body functions..

Those are the coaches that are drastically making a difference in the industry.

They are constantly in the pursuit of mastering their craft and separating from the pack.

Our mission at Primal Mobility is to give you the tools to understand movement and mobility training better than 99% of coaches in the industry.

So that you naturally stand out as an obvious expert.

If you’re ready to level up your coaching career and become the Movement and Mobility Specialist that will have all CrossFit gyms head-hunting you…

Check out the Primal Mobility Certification here.

And remember,

Lean into obsession, master the craft, and separate from the pack.