Mobility. What is it and do I need it?

Mobility is about increasing the range of motion around the joint.

Stretching is about lengthening the muscle.

So what you we need and why?

 

Mobility allows your body to move easily and freely without any hinderance or pain caused by the muscles moving around the joint.

Muscles get shortened by contraction (which happens during exercise) and daily patterns (eg: sitting). Lengthening the muscles helps to relieve pain and give the muscle the flexibility it started with before it was shortened.

 

Good mobility therefore gives you a better range while performing strength exercises. Quite often people struggle to get into position (eg: bottom of the squat or deadlift) and it increases the changes of injury, or just limits their potential for greater strength gains. And we are not just talking about lifting big weights for bigger muscles, but lifting heavier increases core strength as well. And this is what can help with a lot of injuries – having a stronger core.

 

The downside to having reduced or restricted mobility can mean that other muscles overcompensate. For example if you have a left hip that is restricted and less mobile, then when you go to do a deep squat you are likely to move to the right side as you lower and therefore load not only your right glute and also your right lower back and hip. The more you do it, the bigger the problem becomes. While we might not all be trying to squat deep and squat heavy, we do all sit at some point in the day. It’s the same movement pattern, same issue.

 

Performing mobility as part of your warmup is a great solution for getting warm and increasing range of the joints you are going to use during your exercise session.  An additional mobility session throughout the week is an added bonus especially on a rest day. A day when your body is recovering from all of the load you have put it through throughout the week while giving it some love.

 

Check out here when our mobility session is on :

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