How to Best Prepare Your Hands and Feet for Animal Flow
Preparing your hands, feet, wrists, and ankles before a workout can help ensure that your limbs are ready to provide the best and most intelligent support for your body throughout the training session. This is especially true for any other ground-based training practice that integrates quadrupedal movements.
For most of us, we have grown unaccustomed to moving our hands, feet, ankles, and wrists through their full and natural range of motion and, in many cases, have even lost functionality. As a result, it is common to experience soreness and discomfort when first learning how to balance and move on your hands and feet. Like any skill, your body will grow and adapt, especially if you are strategic with your progressions and incorporate mobility strategies to adequately prepare the tissues.
Mobilizations are an essential part of the Animal Flow system. In fact, wrist mobilizations are the first of six components that combine to form the Animal Flow system. Adding them to your regular warm-up routine is an important ritual to help prepare your body for movement. It can also free you to worry less about joint discomfort and focus more on the full experience of your body in motion.
Follow along with Animal Flow creator Mike Fitch as he guides you through some critical preparation for your hands and feet. These mobilizations are simple to perform and accessible to anyone. We highly recommend that you perform them before, during and after your Animal Flow practice.