All protocols

Use a stool without back support to vary posture during work.

Pepper the environment with movement options and inputs throughout the day rather than staying in a tiny movement language.

Use play in warm-ups rather than rote drills; include exploration, speed, and enjoyable movement.

Use a medicine ball as a warm-up and play tool, e.g. throwing it for five minutes.

Alternate which side of the body you use to pick up and re-rack weights to reduce asymmetry.

Potentially emphasize the weaker or less efficient side to address asymmetry.

Use the non-dominant side for everyday tasks like opening doors to increase variability.

Use close-grip hanging to expose the shoulders to fuller overhead range if that range is lacking.

Use seesaw press as an overhead pressing pattern to improve shoulder range and as one of the pressing patterns Kelly considers non-negotiable.

Use dumbbells or kettlebells overhead to improve overhead shoulder expression.

When time is limited, do 10 air squats, 10 kettlebell swings, and 10 pull-ups at 10 p.m. for 10 minutes.

Insert brief sets of exercise between daily tasks such as making dinner.

Do four kettlebell swings every minute for 20 minutes as a simple exposure and loading protocol.

Use rope flow as a playful warm-up to integrate upper and lower body, speed, stance, and varied positions; even five minutes of messing around can help you feel better.

Use a piece of climbing rope for rope flow warm-ups.

Do a shoulder spin-up daily as homework if you have shoulder or neck pain; it is also one of the recommended morning 8 to 10 minute spin-up options.

Pick up a barbell and do a complex as part of a dynamic warm-up.

Include breath hold work in warm-ups to challenge respiration and prepare for high CO2 levels; examples given include dynamic apnea, about seven hypoxic events, and a five-minute bike protocol with a 10-second inhale, maximal hold, and nose-only recovery each minute.

Avoid lying on the ground and foam rolling as your pre-fight or pre-training warm-up strategy.

Use soft tissue work strategically: do 2–3 minutes before exercise if in pain to desensitize tissues, a little in the evening or within 10 minutes before bed to reduce soreness and improve adherence, and generally limit work on one tissue to about five minutes. During mobilization, keep breathing and use volitional contraction; if pressure is too much, back off, and at a stiff or uncomfortable spot, stop, contract the muscle for about four seconds, breathe in position, slowly relax with a long exhale, and repeat the contract-relax cycle two or three times.

A few times a day, bridge the fingers together and pull the chin back to counter forward posture.

Use a four-way neck machine with a plate for neck training.

Adopt a bigger-breath posture to improve trunk organization and movement output; get into the biggest position in which you can take the biggest breath.

Use sun salutations to get the system going and expose the body to positions early in the day.

In the morning, spend 8 to 10 minutes doing one spin-up: hip spin-up if your back or knee hurts, shoulder spin-up if your shoulder or neck hurts, or breath spin-up otherwise.

Mobilize the abdomen, obliques, endopelvic fascia, and pelvic floor with a ball, especially from belly button south if there are pelvic floor issues or discomfort. Stay away from the openings; if anything hurts to compression, contract and relax there. One implementation is sitting on a coffee table or similar surface and placing the ball around the pelvis, glutes, and pelvic floor.

Use a volleyball at home for abdominal or pelvic floor mobilization.

Use a soft ball like a 'princess ball' for abdominal or pelvic floor mobilization.

For trunk training, hang from a bar and curl up rather than relying only on floor crunches.

Train the trunk in long-lever positions, not only short-lever crunch patterns.