Flexibility vs Mobility
What’s the Difference and What do You Need to Know
What are flexibility and mobility anyway?
You may have heard that you need to do stretches to become more flexible. You need to do mobility exercises to prevent traumas within the joints. It seems like in both scenarios you need to do some kind of flexibility exercises, but that’s the wrong point of view.
Mobility is the ability to move a limb through its full range of motion. This is not to be confused with flexibility which is simply the length of the muscle. Mobility is a controlled voluntary movement through its entire functional range of motion. Mobility training is the process in which you work to improve mobility in all or a single joint. On the other hand, flexibility — the ability to stretch your muscle tissue and lengthen your muscle movement.
Doesn’t matter where — the gym or outdoors, you need to cultivate both — flexibility and mobility. Here’s why:
Imagine you’re an active lifestyle advocate, you’re going to the gym (or anywhere else) developing your muscles. They’ve got size, you feel strong and muscular, but you forget to stretch and do mobility exercises. What happens? When your muscles grow they get hypertonia (high muscle tone) — increased tension in the muscles which makes it difficult for them to relax and move. That can lead to a change of your skeletal structure.
For example, too big back-blade muscles or trapezium can lead to rounded shoulder posture because of high muscle tone there (to prevent that — do back stretches after your workout). Thus muscle stretches apply to every muscle group, depending on your workout it can be a leg day, chest day, etc.
To imagine what exactly mobility means — how far can you reach your hand up before your shoulder tightens up? When does your shoulder stop you when you try to scratch a spot in your back? Those motions are limited by your shoulder mobility. There are a lot of different things that could be going on in your shoulders. For many people, the way they exercise might be a factor. If you spend a lot of time in the gym doing bench presses or working your chest fly, that could encourage the shoulders to rotate forward. Sitting hunched over a computer or phone all day –is the culprit. Mobility exercises (shoulders) must be done to free space in your shoulder joint and develop a full natural range of motion in your day to day life.
But while mobility and flexibility differ, they do impact one another to some extent. For example, if your shoulder muscles are tight, you may have trouble moving those joints through their full range of motion. So be sure to address both mobility and flexibility in your training.
Strengthen your deep muscles, joints and lengthen your muscle tissue. Develop your inner Empire and stand like Constantinopolis.
Ričard Dechtiarenko
TAKEAWAYS:
- After every workout do your flexibility exercises for muscles that you’ve worked on;
- Dedicate a day in a week to do mobility exercises (shoulders, hips, ankles, spine, neck)
BONUS TIP:
- Do a proper warm-up before a workout to create a blood flow into your muscles and deliver oxygen to your joints. Listen to me, make a hell of sweat before your workout.
