Assessing and Improving Front Rack Mobility with Dave Tilley

General stretching is ok and all but if that’s all you do, then you’re likely not getting the most return from precious time you spend to do your mobility work.
Doing general stretching, mobility drills and soft-tissue work without first assessing where you actually have problems is the “shotgun” approach. You may hit the target but your efforts will be so spread that you’ll only make a bit of actual impact. To make a big difference, it’s gonna take a lot of shotgunning. Which means more time and effort on your part. Not to mention, it may just be flat out dangerous or even counter-productive. Especially if you’re doing things that may end up causing more pain and problems in the long run.
The opposite approach would be to assess range of motion and pinpoint where you are limited so you can target and focus your mobility work to addressing those issues with the right stretches, drills and soft-tissue work. This would be the “sniper” approach.
 

Mobility work should be focused and targeted to maximize return and minimize liability.

Knowing how to assess movement is half the battle but it’s not obvious. You’re going to have to do some learning if you want to be able to help yourself or help others.
During the Power Monkey camp, we were fortunate enough to spend some time with Dave Tilley, DPT of Shift Movement Science who walked me through an assessment he uses to gauge front rack mobility. It turns out, I have quite a few restrictions that are keeping me from getting a good full-grip during the front rack. Dave walked me through the entire process along with what specific mobility and soft-tissue drills are used to address these restrictions which I continue to use to improve my mobility.
Watch Dave Tilley assess and improve my front rack mobility :

This was just one of the many assessments Dave and Dan cover in their guide Monkey Method: Movement Essentials.

Use the code “Shrugged” at checkout to save 20% here

In this guide, they go over tests for ankle, thoracic spine, hip, wrist, and shoulder mobility as well as specifically how to improve range of motion for those joints.  Everything’s really simple and easy to follow along with video explanation and demonstration.
It’s a solid resource that I definitely recommend checking out.
Alex
For more: 

• Be sure to check out Dan & Dave’s “Monkey Method Movement Essentials” Guide . They are hooking up our fans with 20% when using the code “Shrugged” at checkout. It’s case sensitive so don’t mess that up!
• Catch more from Dave Tilley and Dan Pope on Episode 216 “How to Address Painful Movement w/ Dr. Dave Tilley and Dr. Dan Pope”.
• Download our free overhead squat mobility guide.