What’s Your Motivation For Training Mobility?
Online, I recently read..
“Not so long ago I used to think flexibility & mobility were a waste of time…But as I kept training and learning more about the body my opinion started to change. These are some of the things that hit me deeper.”
So this inspired me think more about this. What are some of the benefits to mobility training that I wish I had known years ago?
What could you have told me before about mobility training, that would have encouraged and inspired me to add more of it to my training.
For today, I came up with four things I want to elaborate on.
Improves Joint Health
What does it really mean to ‘improve joint health’ though? Well.. what is a joint? The space between two bones. If there is good joint space, then there should be good amounts of both passive and active ranges of motion.
But there are a bunch of things that surround any joint. Connective Tissue. Examples of connective tissue are bones, ligaments, tendons, capsules, etc.
All those structures can be traced back to a single pre-cursor cell. Because of that, they all respond similarly to external stimulus. So improving joint health actually strengthens every type of connective tissue I listed above.
2. Increase Usable ROM
If you chose the right mobility exercise, it can help build your weaknesses into strengths. Our joints are strongest in the mid range, and weakest when they’re very short or very long. Think about a squat — people are often weak in the middle of the movement, but weakest at the very bottom. If you can become stronger in the positions you are currently weak, that can help you reach your goals faster or push through current plateaus.
3. Helps you preform at your peak safely, efficiently and effectively.
This point is easier to conceptualize. If your joints have the capacity to move without compensation, that helps you stay healthy in your ‘sport’ or ‘activity’ longer. If your joint has the ability to express ranges of motion without pain, it allows you to enjoy your day to day life more. Finally, if your joints can handle more force than you even place on them — you run into injuries less often.
4. Decreased Injury Rates
Some of these points are starting to bleed into one another, so I want to end this off with a few simple notes you can takeaway from this blog.
Load > Capacity = Injury
All injuries can be generally summarized by this. If the load placed on a tissue (shoulders, ankles, hips, etc.) is GREATER than its capacity to handle it.. it will result in injury
Load < Capacity = Rehab
If the load placed on a tissue is LESS than it’s capacity to handle it.. you have rehab level exercises
Capacity >> Load = Prevention
If the capacity of a tissue exceeds the load placed on the tissue.. you have injury prevention. That being said — it is worth saying you technically can’t prevent injury. Accidents hapen. What you can very easily do is midigate the damage caused by the injury. This can be the difference between taking 2 weeks to recover from an ankle sprain vs 4 weeks.
Let me know what your biggest takeaway was from this article. Thanks so much for reading, and I will talk with you soon!