Six Keys to Flexibility that Aren't Stretching

If you're stiff as hell, even though you're stretching, or you just want to cure tension at the root, this video is for you.I guarantee you probably haven't heard 90% of this stuff before. It's the missing link most people aren't getting and the reason they're struggling with chronic tension.Watch the whole thing, and leave a comment on the video to let me know which tip gave you the biggest "aha" moment. I'll give one person a free membership to Primal Body Reboot ($95 value).Here are the six keys to getting more flexible that don't involve stretching:

1. Open your focus. That is, expand your visual field to be open and diffused on the space around you. A chronic narrow focus keeps you in a heightened, stressful state of being, which doesn't help you relax or improve your range of motion.
2. Build better motor maps. Before you try to change your body, make sure you're inhabiting it (write that shit down, yo). That is to say, don't expect your body to change if you're not first relating to it.
3. Make your training goal oriented. Don't just stretch haphazardly without intent. Actually reach for a target. We evolved to stretch with purpose - to pick fruit, or tubers, or pick someone up, not to get the splits.
4. Set the state you want to be in. Before any training session, set your intention. How do you want to show up? Don't just settle for going through the motions.
5. Stop the source of the tension. Maybe it's your shitty job stressing you out constantly. Maybe it's sitting all day and not getting up except to refill your coffee mug. Whatever it is, you need to address it. Otherwise you're just putting a bandaid on the situation.
6. Change your beliefs. You weren't born "inflexible" or "weak" or "uncoordinated." That happened probably because you started believing it, then reinforced it with your behavior. Your body will change as soon as you start changing your mind.

Which did you most resonate with?

Leave a comment on the video and let me know. I'll randomly select one person to win a free membership to my six week mobility course, Primal Body Reboot.

Three Natural Movements to Restore Tight, Stiff Shoulders and Neck

If you've ever gone to reach overhead and felt like "it shouldn't be this hard," or have dealt with nagging neck pain, you know how frustrating it can be.If you have rounded shoulders, chronic neck tension or a tight upper back, these three shoulder exercises are going to be a game-changer for you.

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These are based on Controlled Articular Rotations from FRC. Which is a fancy way of saying, make smooth, controlled circles with your joints every day if you want them to work nice.

Here are my recommended doses and instruction:

• Spend at least five minutes a day hanging
  • This should be accumulated! Not all at once. 30s here, 15s there throughout the day.
• Practice the movements independently before trying to make circles.
  • Squeezing the shoulder blades together (retraction)
  • Pressing the shoulder blades apart (protraction)
  • Lifting the shoulders up to the ears (elevation)
  • Dropping the shoulders into your back pockets (depression)
• Once you've mastered that, make big circles with your shoulder blades in these three positions
  • Hands and knees position - 3 smooth, slow repetitions in each direction
  • Hanging assisted with feet on the ground - 3 smooth, slow reps each direction
  • Paralettes or chairs - again, 3 smooth, controlled reps each direction

Do this for at least 30 days and see how your shoulders feel.Too easy? Here's how to make them even harder:

• Scapular circles from a push-up position
• Scap circles from a dead hang (feet off the ground)
• Scap circles on paralettes with feet off the ground, knees tucked to chest

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Step By Step: How to Go From Stiff and Stuck to Unstoppable in Your Body (No Matter Where You Are Now)

[Reading time: 13 minutes]Waking up for me used to suck.Every morning was like a symphony of pops and cracks accompanied by a chorus of aches and pains. Why did I feel so old? I was only in my mid-twenties.Instead of sharing my story of how I've fixed my body from sitting, misuse and imbalances (you can read about that here), I want to dive deep and go hard into strategies you can use right now to start feeling better today.What follows is a step-by-step, concrete path you can follow to get your body back to feeling unstoppable, no matter where you are.We'll address rebuilding your body from a holistic point of view, uncovering what's holding you back, and how to fix it permanently.Sound good? First, we need to start with your story.

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Step 1: Become the hero of your story (and ditch being a victim)

Your story about your body probably sucks. I know mine did.For years I thought it was just a slow, inevitable downhill. I thought it was "too late" for me to do parkour, climbing, BJJ or be athletic at a high level. This was at 23 years old. I know, insane.But that was the shitty story I unknowingly, subliminally picked up. Somehow along the way, I had been indoctrinated into this belief system that I never even agreed to.Ask yourself, what do you believe about your body? Truthfully, what do you believe?Now, what do you really want to believe?Maybe right now your story is one of a victim, a sad tale where someone that once had a lot of potential now is too old, too weak, too whatever, to do something great.That story sucks, so let's fix it.What would it be like if you wrote a new story today, one where you were a hero, rather than a victim?

• What's the epic quest you're on right now?
• What dragons do you need to slay?
• What special resources and aids do you have that will help you on your journey?
• How would your best self approach the transformation you most want to make?

Remember, the quality of your results are the direct result of the quality of your beliefs.

Step 2: Uncover the motivation that never disappears

Part of the reason we don't make a transformation is that we haven't tapped into a motivation deep enough that will continually propel us forward, even when things are hard.Without a deep motivation, feeling better, moving better, all that stuff is a nice-to-have thing. We place it in a bucket in the garage that we'll get to later. And we all know what happens to those buckets, they get shoved into the same dusty corner again when we move.Instead, what if becoming unstoppable in your body was a necessity just as important as oxygen to you?You sure as hell would be making different choices then you are now.Here's a bold question for you: why is it your moral obligation for you to be in your best shape possible?

• Who is counting on you to be at your best?
• If you needed to perform in an emergency, like carrying your partner out of a burning building, could you?
• If you had to jump over a fence to evade a zombie, would you succeed, or get eaten? :)

In all seriousness, the more necessity you associate with being at your best, the more likely you are to follow through.The problem now is life doesn't require us to be fit. We have to be the ones to motivate ourselves to make different choices.We have to motivate ourselves to train, to recover, to do the work to restore our bodies and be at our best. If you rely on your own fleeting desires, you're automatically setting yourself up for failure. If you tap into a source of motivation that embodies necessity I promise you will never struggle with motivation again.

Step 3: Stop lying to yourself

Here's an obvious tip that most people don't follow: stop making your training beyond your reach.Stop kidding yourself that handstands are fine when you have shitty shoulder mobility.Stop lying to yourself that you can run when your knee/ankle/hip is constantly yelling at you.Stop trying to do that move you saw on Instagram, without doing the 5+ years of work it took to get there.You know if I'm talking to you.You have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run.I see too many of you out there fucking yourselves up because you want to be somewhere you're not.Now, I'm not telling to not dream big, to have big goals, to reach for your full potential. You should do all that. But you need to build a foundation first.If you're not sure where to start, a daily mobility practice is the beginning for 90% of you. Create a simple morning routine of squatting, hanging, quadruped reaches, downward dog, moving your hips, spine, and all your joints.If you don't know what to do, watch this video:

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Step 4: Build a simple routine of foundational movements

There are certain movements that are more impactful and that generate greater results than other. These are typically exercises that involve:

• Controlling your body through space
• Mastering tension and coordination
• Both the need to lengthen and compress

While you could easily argue that there are dozens of foundational movements, when I work with a new client there are always a few movements I prioritize, because they give the most "bang for your buck."Here are a handful of them:Do these every day for a month and see what happens in your body.I guarantee you will feel more strength, flexibility and coordination than you ever have before.

Step 5: Become the type of person that always shows up

I used to make the mistake of making my workouts ridiculously complicated. I would watch one Youtube video after another, getting excited about this movement, this training approach, and that program recommended by that fitness expert I had a man-crush on.You know what that left me with? Being incredibly inconsistent.It wasn't until I made it my mission to master the basics that I started seeing real progress in my ability to show up on a regular basis.Here's how to make it easier to show up:

• Write down exactly when and where you're going to train right now
• Decide what you'll do in advance. Whether this is written by a coach or a program you got online somewhere, make sure you don't show up to a training session without a plan.
• Set an alarm that reminds you of why it's a necessity for you to show up at least 20 min before your time to train.
• Set out your clothes and shoes the night before, and rehearse in your brain the steps you'll take getting yourself to the gym and performing your training session.
• When you're having a bad day, just do the first set. Decide to do more if you're feeling good, or call it a day.
• Believe that you're the type of person that shows up. Ingrain this belief into your brain with action and affirmation.
• Get leverage on yourself. If no one knows about your commitment, you can easily back out. Make your commitment to showing up public and ask that you be called out if you don't check in.
• Most importantly, create a weekly or monthly reminder to track your wins and progress. If you don't feel like you're going anywhere, you won't be encouraged to keep moving forward.

If you do these things, you will become the type of person that shows up no matter what.

Step 5: Awareness > Progress

It's a funny, counterintuitive thing  —the more you focus on the goal, the longer it takes for you to get there.The more you focus on the process, the easier (and more enjoyable) the journey is. And you reach your destination faster without as much struggle.However, it's not super useful for you to try to focus on the process because it doesn't really give your mind something to do.This is why I recommend that instead you focus on deepening your level of awareness.Before every practice session, have a routine for checking in with your body that ensures that your practice will be deeper than just going through the motions.Here's what my five-minute warmup looks like:

• First two minutes: Standing, scanning down my body with my awareness, from head to toe. My goal is to objectively, without judgment feel my body with as much detail as possible.
• Second minute: Softening my breath, getting taller and feeling the weight of my body. My intention is to drop into the space and remember that I am where I am.
• Last two minutes: I take the next minute to remember why it's a necessity for me to show up at my best and focus on my intention for how I want to show up. What do I want to embody today?

I'll then spend a few minutes warming up the major joints I'll be focusing on for my training session that day and get to work. I'm dropped in, fully in my body and in a place where I can really be with my movement. In this way, I'm ensuring that I'm getting the most out of my practice, and not just going through the motions.

Step 6: Introduce novelty and chaos to fight boredom

[clickToTweet tweet="The gym and modern workout routines are a kind of fitness utopia. Everything is predictable, manicured, restrained." quote="The gym and modern workout routines are a kind of fitness utopia. Everything is predictable, manicured, restrained."]The floors have the right amount of padding and grip. The weights and machines have handles perfectly manufactured for your grip. The routines may be challenging, but they're often mind-numbingly safe.After a while in this environment, your brain can go on autopilot. No reason to stay engaged. The brain sees no use for staying alert, checks out and starts going through the motions.This, of course, is a massive vulnerability that most people don't talk about. Boredom is one of the biggest reasons my clients tell me that they fall off with their training. It's not challenging them because there is no novelty and no unpredictability.What's the antidote?

• Every six weeks, change up your training routine. Focus on new progressions, new exercises, new ways to keep things novel and engaging.
• Bring more play and exploration into your sessions. A good way to do this is 15 minutes of play in your warmup or at the end of your session. If you struggle to give yourself permission to play because it's not "useful" remember that play is evolution's best solution to the most difficult educational problems. It's serious business.
• Change your environment. Practice in a park you've never been to. Put obstacles in your way that make your training harder or more interesting.

Remember, your body evolved as a response to a constantly changing environment. Adaptation was a necessity for survival.[clickToTweet tweet="The more you introduce novelty and chaos into your training, the more you align with your evolutionary DNA." quote="The more you introduce novelty and chaos into your training, the more you align with your evolutionary DNA."]The more you stay stuck in your comfortable patterns, the more go against your nature.

Step 7: Amp up the meaning and practicality

Not too long ago, fitness was just another word for living. There were no workouts unless you were a gladiator or soldier because life itself was a workout.Modern fitness is a compensation for what we're not doing as a result of our comfortable lifestyle.I'm convinced that the reason most people struggle with fitness is not that they don't want to move, but because they find traditional workouts meaningless.Your brain evolved to solve movement challenges, not to go through the motions over and over in the name of some vague notion of "fitness."One answer to this is to be incredibly clear on why your training (whether it be for your health, your family, or to simply look good naked).This is one step to making training more meaningful, but we can do better.The next level is to make your training meaningful because it is inherently goal-oriented.As ridiculous as it sounds, you're attempting to recreate in your brain that you are doing something that involves an actual purpose. :) You're not climbing to simply climb, but to reach and get that thing at the top (like food).Here are a few ways you can implement this strategy in your training:

• When stretching, reach for a target, instead of just stretching to stretch. Use an object as a visual cue to reach further.
• When lifting weights, don't just pick things up and put them down. Pick them up and move them somewhere. Try to turn your training into a game.
• When doing pushups, pull-ups, or crawling, focus on actually traveling somewhere, or at the very least, imagine in your mind a scenario where you would need to do this in real life (crawling out of a burning building, pulling yourself over a ledge, etc.).

The more you make movement training like real life, the easier it is for your brain to understand why you are doing it.So, make your training goal-oriented and your gains will follow. :)

Now, that was a lot... So, here's a simple way to make sure you implement everything you just learned

The most important thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.That is, to develop a consistent, daily, quality routine focusing on the foundations of restorative, confidence building movement.I know how easy it is to consume information without doing anything with it. (Ahem, I wouldn't know anything about binging on Youtube videos or tutorials and not doing anything with them. Nope. Definitely not.)So, I've made a cheat sheet you can print out and put somewhere in your physical environment.If you read my post about the visual trigger technique, you know it's important to make your environment work for you.Click the button below and you'll get access to my pain-free movement routine.

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It's Not Too Late, F*ck Anyone Who Tells You Otherwise

7min read.It was my third chiropractic visit and the seventh person I had seen that year to try to fix my shoulder (not to mention nagging issues with my neck and hip)."It's probably just like that," he said. "You might as well get used to it."I had been dealing with a reality of a stiff, cranky shoulder for what seemed like forever. Despite endless massages, exercises and adjustments, nothing seemed to result in any lasting change."So, is there anything I can do to fix it?" I asked, trying to hide my obvious irritation. This wasn't the first time I heard someone tell me this depressing news."Well, you can try some stretches, but this is kind of what happens as you get older."I got sent home with a handful of exercises and the advice to take it easy and stop expecting so much from my body.You'd expect that I'd be defeated. But I was pissed.I just wanted to work with someone that hadn't also given up on their body. I wanted to feel like I was not just another appointment, another hopeless case on their calendar.

I didn't understand that the system was broken

Call it naive, but after going to physical therapist to chiropractor to massage therapist, I wanted to find someone that would take on my case with a serious desire to help me heal permanently.I wanted someone to get invested in my healing.I thought someone would go beyond trying to fix me and rush me out the door. I wanted a holistic treatment plan. I wanted to be asked what exercises I was doing, be told what to do and what not to do, how to fix my posture, and generally look at my whole lifestyle to fix anything aggravating the problem.I didn't understand at the time that even if someone wanted to do this, the system they were in prevented them from going deep enough with people to heal chronic issues.There's only so much you can do in an hour a week. The system is designed to treat people and get them out the door, which isn't very useful for chronic, long-term issues that involve a complex set of emotional, physical, lifestyle, social, and dietary factors.So I would wander from one person to the next, seeking help, not realizing I was fighting a losing battle.

"Just take my money, damn it"

What's funny is people would recommend I see them in two weeks, which I thought was not enough at all, and I would ask if money wasn't an object (I was willing to spend thousands of dollars to heal myself), how many times should I see you?I wanted to give people more money and often their own limiting beliefs about money, their value, or unrealistic ideas about how much effort healing required prevented them from giving me a treatment plan that would get me results.It took me seeing over two dozen people to realize that it was the system that was broken, not them.But I was on a mission to heal and feel capable of anything. I wouldn't accept defeat.So, I stopped blaming them and realized...

I had to become 100% in charge of my own body—so do you

One of the hardest lessons I had to learn is that no one has the energy, time or ability to care about you and your situation as much as you do.Sure, they can treat you, they can care, and sometimes those things will help, but no one can be in your body. No one can tell you how to move, how to sit, or how to train. No physical therapist or chiropractor can be there when you get excited about climbing or hiking or running and tell you you're not ready for that yet.They can't be there to analyze your gait pattern, what you're eating, and the thoughts you're having about whether it's hopeless for you or not.I'm not suggesting that finding help isn't important, surely it is. But at the end of the day, you have to be the one 100% responsible for your own journey.And sometimes, even people with the best intentions will spread toxic messages. They'll project their own feelings of shame and disappointment that they haven't taken full responsibility for their health and blame it on aging, or it being "just the way it is."

The hard truth: no one is going to save you, it's up to you

No matter how much you want someone to do the work for you, to give you the plan that solves all your problems, I'm sorry to tell you... it's just not going to happen.You have to be 100% responsible for your own body.We all know modern life isn't doing us any favors. In fact, I would say that most people's jobs and lifestyles are violently damaging their bodies on a daily basis.No yoga class or three times a week boot camp is going to fix that.It's up to you to change the patterns, get a new job, create a better environment, fix your posture, change your mindset, eat better, and upgrade your social support.

No, it's not easy, but the alternative isn't very pretty either

Taking control of your habits, learning how to be a good caretaker for your body, nourishing yourself with healthy movement—all of this takes a lot of work.Someone told me the other day, "Jonathan, it would drive me crazy to set a timer to remind myself to move."True, but what is the cost of not moving in the long run? It's only everything.Most people choose to ignore the tension and pain or delude themselves into thinking their shitty gym routine is enough to make up for the daily violence they're waging on their bodies.Delusion is never a good long-term strategy.

I want to sell you on the hard solution because it's the easiest long-term

It would be much easier for me to sell you a 30-minute workout, or tell you that these five stretches will solve all your problems.But personally, I'd rather give you the recipe, not the result. I'd rather show you how to be in charge of your own physical autonomy rather than giving it away to a trainer, coach, or someone that can never really take 100% responsibility for your health.If you want to solve the problem at the root, you need three things:

1. Learn how your body actually works and be able to do basic maintenance
2. Build unshakeable habits of movement that are as routine as brushing your teeth
3. Take back control of your environment and build a lifestyle of movement

This is what I teach in the Primal Body Reboot.It's opening at the end of this month and I hope you'll join me in reclaiming your physical freedom.There's nothing for sale right now, but you can get a free lesson and a sweet discount when it opens.Get a free lesson to move better instantly

The 5x5 Habit for Better Mobility Working on Your Laptop

As much as we know sitting for long periods isn't doing us any favors, it can be hard to get away from it.For many of us, working on a computer, laptop or mobile device is a necessity, not an option.So, apart from standing (which is good, but also just another static position), how do we have better mobility at work?I'd like to introduce you to The 5x5 Habit, a very simple way to reduce tension and fatigue.

1. Set a timer to go off every five minutes (eventually, you'll start doing this organically, without a timer).
2. When the timer goes off, simply change your seating position. Could be a squat, kneel, straddle, cross-legged, butterfly - the possibilities are endless.
3. After 5 different positions (25min) you take a 5 minute break to stretch, move, hydrate, shake things out and recharge.

All you need is a yoga block or a few cushions, and a low table. You can use a coffee table, a step-stool or even a box.There you have it. The 5x5 Method. Try it out and I guarantee you will have more energy, get more done and feel much better at the end of the day.

Can I do this working on a chair in an office?

Yes, absolutely. Try experimenting with different seated positions in a chair. Knees crossed, cross-legged, number four, straddle, and a modified kneel are just a few possibility.Share this with a friend who needs this. Their low back and hips will thank you. 👍🏼

Want a free lesson to undo the damage of sitting and improve your mobility?

Si gn up for my free 10 minute lesson on how to reclaim your physical freedom. You'll trade stiffness and nagging pains for a body that feels capable of anything.Get the lesson and move better immediately.