I had a video go viral recently. This happens from time to time, and it’s great to see the algorithm smiling down upon me on those rare occasions.
This video is a demo of several hip mobility exercises I like to use, here it is for reference:
When a video gets millions of views, it can be quite entertaining to read the comments.
There lots of positive comments of course, and the references to Techno-Viking and Ginger Billy make me laugh.
Then there’s the self-deprecating jokes of “I dislocated my hip watching this” or “I wish I could move like that.” I wish it weren’t the case, but that’s a pretty common response from the general population even though I think these movements should be commonplace. Hopefully more people can drop the “it’s too late for me” attitude and adopt the “do what you can with what you have where you are” mindset, but that’s a topic for another day.
Finally, there’s the haters and keyboard warriors that crawl out from their burrows to bestow their knowledge and proclaim their many years of experience. They don’t make their own videos of course, but they see themselves as the ruling authority when criticizing on other people’s work.
Anyway, getting to the point of this blog, there were several people that mentioned I should put a disclaimer before a video like this. Apparently I was moving too fast, ballistic movements are bad and should not be performed, and people who try to imitate it could be injured. I can understand the perspective from a certain angle: I have been training for a while so I would not expect beginners to move like me right away. However, I would still give anyone the same workout/concepts, just scaled to their level.
The idea of never moving fast is completely idiotic in my opinion. We are not sloths. Sometimes life throws ballistic movements at you whether you like it or not.
Are people so fragile these days they need a warning before trying some hip mobility? Now I might understand that for some of the flips and stunt falls I do, but hip mobility? Next thing you know, water bottles will have warning labels for risk of drowning.
You want a disclaimer: Here it is:
WARNING
BEING ALIVE IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND CAN CAUSE SEVERE INJURY OR EVEN DEATH
PLEASE TAKE THE FOLLOWING PRECAUTIONS TO BE AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE:
-PROCEED WITH CAUTION WHEN DOING ANY KIND OF MOVEMENT
-AVOID FAST OR SUDDEN MOVEMENTS
-AVOID TRYING ANYTHING NEW OR TAKING ANY RISKS
-BELIEVE AND OBEY THE AUTHORITIES AT ALL TIMES
-AVOID CHALLENGES
-CONFORM TO THE STATUS QUO
Don’t forget to always listen to someone when they tell you how many years of experience they have.
Obviously this post is sarcastic. Live your life. Try stuff. Use common sense. Sometimes you might get hurt; trying to live in a bubble will only make it worse when it does happen.
No, I’m not letting the trolls win by posting about this. I thought it was an interesting concept that could make for some entertaining discourse.
I’ll finish with this thought:
An incredibly valuable skill from a learning and teaching perspective is knowing how to distill a concept to its core, then modify it based on someone’s abilities and restrictions.
That’s the end of today’s rant. Thanks for reading, now go out and take some risks.