Forging resilience as you age becomes a balance between building strength and maintaining mobility. Many of us prioritize the strength side and don’t give mobility training the attention it deserves.
But access to your joints’ full range of motion is the key to fluid movement, preventing compensations, and preventing injury.
The issue is that mobility work is not the most entertaining part of training and often feels like a chore.
It often becomes overlooked or rushed in favor of moving weights and getting a sweat.
That’s why I choose high-value exercises that mobilize and strengthen at the same time.
But, there’s another way to improve your mobility that can easily be included into your down time – resting on the ground.
Why You Should Rest On The Ground
There’s a theory that relates the high prevalence of back pain to our modern lifestyle with less movement and more sitting.
During our early evolutionary years as humans, we spent most of our waking hours moving in search of food.
But during our down time, we rested on the ground.
We used to play on the ground all the time as kids, and as grapplers we get our fair share of ground work.
But spending your rest time on the ground can help “tune” the body, as author Philip Beech put it, for better mobility and movement.
The idea is that shifting through various positions on the ground will decompress tissues, recalibrate joints, and build endurance in the supportive tissues for better posture.
If you’ve ever spent any time on the ground, then you know you must change positions frequently to stay comfortable.
Here are 4 positions to shift through to improve mobility while you rest and recover.
Seiza
Seiza is a classic sitting position in Japan used by martial artists for hundreds of years. It involves kneeling with the glutes and hips resting on the heels and the tops of the feet flat on the floor.
This position requires high degrees of knee flexion and ankle mobility.
Simply by maintaining more time in this position you will mobilize your knees, hips, and ankles, while strengthening your core and spine.
You can also tuck the toes under, which is especially useful for grapplers, as it stretches the bottoms of the feet and mobilizes the toes.
I call this “toe tuck” position, and it may be hard to maintain for longer than a few seconds at first.
But once your tissues start to adapt, this will help greatly with “toes on the mat” ability to create forward pressure against your opponent.
Hunter
The next position progresses from “toe tuck” by simply raising one leg up. This will work deeper hip flexion on the raised side, while also adding pressure to the down leg.
Because this position shifts the weight to down leg still in “toe tuck,” it will increase the demands on the toes and plantar fascia even more.
Hunter position can even be used on the mats to transition up from the mat. That’s why I do Hunter Squats with load to strengthen my hips, knees, and back for mat ready movement.
But simply resting in this position, on both sides, can stretch and mobilize your lower body for more resilient jiu-jitsu.
Shin Box
Then, simply shift your hips to the side and down to the mat to reach the Shin Box position. In my opinion, this one of the most valuable moves for any grappler, and can be used to improve mobility, strength, and even grappling technique.
It can also be used to asses asymmetries between your sides. If on one side, your hip hikes up and your spine curves over like a C, then you likely have a hip restriction on that side.
Ideally, you should be able to hold both sides comfortably with a vertical spine.
There are various drills and transitions we can use to make our Shin Box better, but try to just rest here for a few minutes on each side.
Final Thoughts
Any time we can make gains without much thought or effort is a win. You only need to get into these positions and hang out for a few minutes to get the benefits.
Each position also builds on the last, starting from Seiza to Toe Tuck to Hunter and finishing in Shin Box.
Simply resting on the floor more and letting your body self organize to get comfortable will help over time.
If anything, floor time will also get you out of chairs and sitting so much.
But it might just help you move better and stay longer on the mats too.
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