Are You Ready?

I’m a preparedness junkie. I was in the Cub Scouts for a little while, and the Boy Scouts for even less time, so I can’t blame that for my love of being ready. I have a deep need to be prepared for whatever I’m doing. Going to a new restaurant? Better believe I’m gonna google it and check out the menu. Buying something online? I read no less than 100,000 reviews. That might be a slight exaggeration, but I go deep. When I go camping, I need all my gear. I bring a bag everywhere not because it’s a cool fashion accessory, but because I might need all the stuff inside.

I used to do the same thing with exercise: 30 minutes on the foam roller, another 15 on the lacrosse ball, 45 minutes of pre-habilitation and movement prep, all before my 6-8 warm-up sets leading up to my work sets. Then a bunch of accessory work to correct all my muscle imbalances. I never did anything without thoroughly preparing my body in advance. Because if I didn’t, I was going to get hurt.

But then I started moving more outside the gym. Started with walking, playing at the park with my kid. Did 5 minutes a day of joint rotations and stretching. Nothing magic, literally just moving my joints in different ways. And something wild happened: my mobility improved. My body felt ready, more prepared. Things that I previously thought I had to spend 30-60 minutes warming up to do, I could do cold. Sure, sometimes I need to do a couple squats, or shake it out, but once I started the dialogue with my body, it let me know “I can do it.”

The body is a perpetual motion machine: not literally, but in that when it moves more, it moves better, feels better, and is more open to new things. Give your body a chance to do what it does best: move. Move without expectation and judgment. Move in the ways that feel good to you, and inspire you to explore your limitations, perceived and otherwise. Stop spending all your time fixing the car and start driving it.