Four Exercises. Two Sessions. No More Back Pain.
One of my favorite things about our weekly coaching calls is when a coach brings us something happening with an actual client.
That's exactly what happened during one of our calls.
A coach inside The Mobility Recipe told us about a client who was struggling with mid-back pain, centered around the T5-T6 area.
The client was stiff, uncomfortable and barely moving. His range of motion was
extremely limited, and the coach shared what he was seeing with the group.
So we talked through it.
What was moving?
What wasn't?
What could potentially be contributing to the limitation?
And most importantly, what could he appropriately address as a fitness professional?
Based on that conversation, I recommended four exercises from inside The Mobility Recipe that I thought were worth trying.
Not four random stretches.
Four specific exercises, each chosen for a reason.
The coach took those ideas back to his client and put them into practice.
Two sessions later, he came back with an update.
His client's back pain was gone.
The Four Exercises We Recommended
The exercises weren't chosen because they all had "mid-back pain" attached to their names.
We were looking at what the coach was describing and thinking about the movement we wanted to influence.
Breathing mechanics.
Rib cage movement.
Thoracic rotation.
Thoracic extension.
Core engagement and control.
Then we went into the TMR system and selected exercises we believed could help address those areas.
1. Crocodile Breathing
The first exercise came from our Back Pain Solution program.
Crocodile Breathing uses a prone position and focused breathing to encourage expansion through the abdomen, rib cage and back of the trunk while engaging the diaphragm.
This was where I wanted him to begin.
The diaphragm, rib cage and thoracic spine don't operate independently from one another. Breathing mechanics and movement of the rib cage interact with how we move through the trunk.
So this wasn't simply, "Take a few deep breaths."
The breath was part of the mobility strategy.
2. Upper Extremity Flexion Rolling
Next, I recommended Upper Extremity Flexion Rolling.
Now we were introducing more movement through the trunk with the upper extremity initiating the rolling pattern.
This gave us an opportunity to engage the core while introducing spinal flexion and rotation in a controlled way.
Rolling patterns can look almost ridiculously basic when you watch someone perform them well.
Try them with someone who isn't moving well and you'll quickly realize there's a lot going on.
The goal wasn't to make the exercise difficult.
The goal was to give his body another opportunity to move.
3. Upper Extremity Extension Rolling
Then we changed the movement demand with Upper Extremity Extension Rolling.
Instead of simply repeating more rotation, I wanted to introduce extension along with the rolling pattern.
This is something I think coaches sometimes miss with mobility.
If somebody needs better movement, don't automatically give them ten versions of the exact same thing.
Change the input.
Change the position.
Change the direction.
Give the body different opportunities to access and control movement.
For this client, I wanted rotation, but I also wanted better access to thoracic extension.
4. Breathwork with Distraction & Rotation
The final exercise came from Chair Mobility Sequence 1 inside The Mobility Recipe.
Breathwork with Distraction & Rotation.
This brought several of the pieces together.
Breathing.
Rotation.
Positioning.
And distraction to help him explore the movement differently.
At this point, we weren't just throwing exercises at his back and hoping something stuck.
There was a reason behind the progression.
Breathe. Move. Rotate. Extend. Control.
Four exercises.
Four different inputs.
One purpose.
Get him moving better.
Two Sessions Later...
The coach followed our recommendations.
After two sessions, he reported back that the client's back pain was gone.
That's a pretty incredible outcome.
Does that mean these four exercises are a guaranteed protocol for anyone experiencing mid-back pain?
Of course not.
But I'm also not going to be so afraid of talking about pain that I ignore what actually happened.
A coach brought a client experiencing mid-back pain to one of our weekly coaching calls. We discussed what he was seeing, recommended four exercises from The Mobility Recipe, and he put them into practice. Two sessions later, he told us the client's back pain was gone.
That's the story.
And I think there are some important lessons inside it.
Great Exercises Matter
I don't subscribe to the idea that exercises are interchangeable and the only thing that matters is the coach applying them.
Exercise selection matters.
A lot.
When we build a program inside The Mobility Recipe, we can spend months researching the joint, the surrounding movement system, common limitations, exercise strategies, progressions and the individual movements we ultimately include.
We research exercises.
We test them.
We modify them.
We create exercises when we believe something is missing.
And we think about how they fit together instead of simply assembling a list of movements that happen to target the same body part.
That's why I don't look at the hundreds of exercises inside The Mobility Recipe as just an "exercise library."
They're tools we've deliberately selected, developed and organized to address movement problems.
In this situation, four of those tools were exactly what we recommended.
But having great tools is only part of it.
The Best Toolbox Still Needs a Great Coach
Imagine giving someone the world's best set of tools but never teaching them how to build anything.
That's not much of a system.
The same is true with mobility.
You can have an incredible exercise for thoracic rotation, but when should you use it?
What if breathing mechanics appear to be influencing the movement you're seeing?
What if the client has rotation but struggles with extension?
What if one exercise works beautifully for one person and doesn't make sense for the next?
What do you pair together?
What do you progress?
What do you leave alone?
And when does what you're seeing require a referral to an appropriate healthcare professional?
The exercise matters. The education behind the exercise matters. And the ability to apply it matters.
That's the combination we're after.
This Is Exactly Why We Have Weekly Coaching Calls
This entire story started on one.
A coach brought a real client situation to the group. We talked through what he was seeing. I recommended several exercises I thought were worth trying. He applied them.
Then we got to learn from what happened next.
That's what ongoing education should look like.
Education shouldn't end when somebody finishes a certification.
That's when the interesting part starts.
Now you have clients in front of you.
Now you have questions.
Now you're seeing movement that doesn't look exactly like the example in a textbook.
Now somebody tells you their back bothers them when they rotate one direction but not the other.
What do you do with that?
That's what I want coaches bringing to us.
Our weekly coaching calls give TMR coaches and gym teams a place to talk through situations like these, ask questions about exercises and programs, discuss what they're seeing with clients, and continue developing their understanding of mobility.
Sometimes we'll recommend an exercise from one of our programs.
Sometimes we'll explain why we'd look somewhere else.
Sometimes we'll discuss how we'd regress or progress something.
Sometimes we'll connect the dots between exercises from completely different programs.
And sometimes the answer is that what they're describing is outside the fitness professional's scope and needs to be referred out.
That's how expertise develops.
Not from taking one course and deciding you're finished learning.
From education, application, feedback and repetition.
A Program Should Teach You More Than What to Do
There's something else I love about this story.
The exercises didn't all come from one sequence.
Crocodile Breathing came from our Back Pain Solution.
Breathwork with Distraction & Rotation came from Chair Mobility Sequence 1.
We also pulled from rolling patterns that gave us different ways to address the movement qualities we wanted.
That's intentional.
The programs inside TMR give coaches a structure they can follow. That's incredibly valuable.
But as coaches learn the system, I want them to start understanding the exercises beyond the sequence they're packaged inside.
Why is this exercise here?
What is it doing?
Where else could I appropriately use it?
That's when a coach starts moving from following programming to really understanding programming.
Because eventually you don't just know what The Mobility Recipe tells you to do.
You begin to understand why.
And that's where a coach becomes much more valuable to the people they serve.
That's the System
When I look back at this client's outcome, I'm obviously thrilled that the coach reported his back pain was gone after only two sessions.
But I'm equally excited about what the story demonstrates.
It wasn't just four exercises.
It was the research that helped us choose and develop those exercises.
It was the programming that gave those exercises context.
It was the education that helped us understand what each one could contribute.
It was a coach paying attention to what was happening with his client.
And it was having ongoing access to The Mobility Recipe so he could bring that situation to us and talk it through.
That's the system.
Great exercises matter.
Great programming matters.
Education matters.
Application matters.
And ongoing coaching matters.
Put those pieces together and you don't just give fitness professionals more things to do with their clients.
You help them become better coaches.
And in an industry where clients have more choices than ever, being exceptionally good at what you do is still one of the greatest competitive advantages you can have.
Give Your Coaches More Than Programming
The Mobility Recipe gives your coaching team the education, programming, assessments, exercise resources, sales tools, marketing resources, implementation support, and ongoing weekly coaching to build mobility into your training business.
Whether you're bringing dedicated mobility training into your club for the first time or want to take what your team is already doing to the next level, let's talk about what The Mobility Recipe could look like inside your club.
