Mobility & Flexibility

 

Every so often I get questions about how to become more mobile or how to increase flexibility. Like many health & fitness topics, it can be complex & there tend to be bits of misinformation mingled in with actual, research-supported statements/ideas.

Before we can learn how to improve mobility and/or flexibility, we need to know what they are.

Mobility: The ability to actively move a joint through a range of motion

Flexibility: The ability to passively move a joint through a range of motion

The difference between mobility & flexibility lies in how the joint/joints & tissues are moved.


Mobility requires us to actively move the joint(s) & tissue(s) ourselves with our own body

  • Lifting a foot off the ground to step up onto a box - the ability of your hip flexors to actively lift your leg high enough to step up

while flexibility is passive & can be done ourselves or with an outside/external force

  • Laying on your back & pulling your knee up to your chest with you arms or having someone else push your knee to your chest - the muscles are not engaged & contracting for this to happen, rather the joints & tissues are being move


It's been commonly said that to be more flexible or mobile you should stretch more often.

The truth is, stretching to increase flexibility needs to be done in long durations - meaning holding a posture for <60s is likely not long enough to illicit a response & improve flexibility of that joint/tissue. In order to use stretching to improve flexibility, you likely should hold a position for 2+ minutes at a time.

And in order to increase mobility we don't really need to stretch at all (in most cases stretching does not positively impact mobility because it's a passive activity trying to better an active one). Rather, to improve mobility we want to load the joint(s) & tissue(s) in end ranges of motion.

 

SIDE NOTE: Emerging research even suspects that loading at the end ranges can improve flexibility, too!

 

What does that look like?

Lifting weights through a full range of motion & working to increases your ROM on lifts.

This might look like:

  • Holding a deep squat position to improve hip mobility

  • Adding a pause to a weighted bench pullovers to improve shoulder mobilty

  • Incorporating ankle dorsiflexion wall leans to increase ankle mobility in all lower body lifts

Of course there are many, many other drills & variations on lifts we can incorporate to increase mobility besides those listed above.

If you've been feeling like you want to add in mobility work or specific flexibility work... good news is, you're already doing just that when you lift weights!

So next lift make sure you're not cutting reps short - take your push-ups as close to the floor as possible, get that back knee to the ground (gently) in your split squats!

Questions? Comments?

Drop 'em below-

Hey, I’m Kirsi!

Certified Personal Trainer & online fitness coach
I help women explore their strength & challenge themselves with simple programming & comprehensive coaching.

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