Last month, I was able to get a free copy of the Competitor Magazine and one of the featured articles is about Kelly Starrett’s stretching methods and workouts which are featured in his blog at www.mobilitywod.com. In his blog, he promised his readers that he will post stretching exercises on a daily basis which started sometime in August of last year.

What impressed me most is his 10-minute “squat test” which he featured in his first “you tube” post in his blog. And for the past week and days, I’ve been dong this workout on a daily basis. On my first day, I could hardly bend my legs due to the tightness of my left lower quads, calf and knee (due to my injury). I could hardly complete a 2-minute duration of half-squat. I admit I cheated on my first day by trying to tip-toe my feet while bending my legs on half-squat. It was really painful and challenging that I have to sweat it out before finishing a duration of 2 minutes. I was not able to complete the 10-minute squat test on my first day!

Persistence and patience did it and after 10 days, I could already fully squat with my feet flat on the floor but I have to either use the wall as my anchor on my back or hold the legs or edge of a heavy table while keeping myself on a squat position for continuous duration of 10 minutes.

I am happy to say that I got positive results for the past 3 days. My tight quads and calf had loosen and I could no longer feel any pain on my left knee while walking or jogging. I would say that the daily 10-minute squat test is very effective in treating my injury.

As what Kelly Starrett has recommended, I have been strictly following his basic instructions for injured runners/athletes on their lower extremities. Aside from the daily 10-minute squat test, these are his key instructions:

1. Hydrate your body tissues. The formula is to divide your weight in pounds by two and the result is the number of fluid ounces your have to normally drink everyday. If you are involved in running or any endurance sports, you have to drink 16 fluid ounces for every hour of workout. Right now, my weight is 146 pounds, by dividing it to 2, the result is 73. That is 73 fluid ounces of water! If there are 33.8 fluid ounces in one liter, then you can do your math as to how many liters of water you have to drink every day.

2. Take some supplements. He recommends Glucosamine and Omega Oil (Fish Oil) as daily supplements for one’s nutrition needs. He says that these supplements lubricate the joints, reduce inflammation and speed recovery.

3. Follow the Mobility Workout of the Day as featured in his blog.

Desperately wanting to speed up my recovery from my injury, I’ve been a “sucker” to Kelly’s method and instructions. I’ve been following his instructions for the past two weeks (to include the supplements) and I am recovering fast. One more week of “squats” and I would be back again pounding my feet on the ground.

If you are interested to follow the Mobility Workouts of the Day of Kelly Starrett, you can click the MobilityWOD on my blogroll.

The following “you tube” clip was Kelly Starrett’s first blog post on the 10-minute “squat” test.