The Importance of Mobility
What is mobility? Mobility is the ability to effortlessly move a limb through the full range of motion. Mobility can be confused with flexibility which is how far your muscles can be stretched. Essentially the goal would be able to move without any stress or stiffness throughout the whole range of motion
As we age, our bodies naturally lose mobility. Our muscles will become tighter and joints stiffer; everything will become less responsive and slower. If mobility training is not incorporated into your workout routine, you may slowly become stiffer until inevitable injury. To combat this, try to take 10-20 minutes out of your day and soon will starting benefits, such as:
● Reduced stress
● Improved range of motion
● Breaks up the monotony of your workouts
● Reduces injury
● Faster recovery
Here is an easy and effective mobility workout that can be done anytime using a few simple items. If you want more mobility exercises, ask a fitness staff to point you in the right direction.
*each should be help for 30 seconds to 1 minute and repeated at least twice*
Anterior Compartment Smash
● Position a large ball on your pec minor and apply pressure. Notice that my right hand is behind my back. This is an easy way to not only bias the tissue into internal rotation.
● Push off the mat using your left hand, rotate toward your left, and pressure wave the tissues.
● After hunting out a stiff spot, throw your left arm behind your back, and grab your right hand.
Improves:
Shoulder mobility
Bench Press Setup
Rotator cuff stability
Psoas Smash & Floss-Opt I
Think about it like this. Imagine bending your arm 90-degrees and then having someone pull on your hand, putting a low-grade tug on your biceps, for six hours. What do you think is going to happen to your biceps? It will get brutally tight, causing acute pain and your elbow and shoulder. This is exactly what happens to your psoas when you sit for a long time. Your psoas is under constant tension to maintain an upright position, causing your hips and low back to hurt. This is one of the reasons I encourage people to use lumbar back support that forces you into a neutral position. In a neutral position your psoas is not overburdened trying to maintain normal lumbar curves.
● Position a lacrosse ball a couple of inches to the outside of your belly button.
● Drop your right knee out to the side, keeping downward pressure on the ball. From here, you can move your knee from side to side, straighten your leg, or move on to another area of your psoas.
Improves
Hip mobility
Squat Depth
Lower back and Hip Pain
Hip Joint Health
Single-Leg Flexion w/ ER Bias-Opt I
● If you glance at the photos, you’ll notice that I’m essentially mobilizing the bottom of the squat one leg at a time.
● First, you must apply motion to this mobilization by hunting out tight corners and then oscillating in and out of those vectors.
● If you are tight in that first position, try capturing the tight pieces of your hip capsule by drawing small circles with your elevated hip. Once you feel like you’ve made some change, turn away from your elevated leg or rotate your belly button toward your knee while shoving your knee out. You can also shoot your hips back and extend your lead leg, which ties in the hamstring and allows you to hit a different corner of the hip.
● The second key is to consider proper squat mechanics as you hunt around for tight corners. For example, the most common fault with this mobilization is to let your foot come off the ground as you drive your knee out to the side.
Improves:
Bottom of the Squat
Deadlift Setup
Overall Hip Function
Hip Flexion with External Rotation
Low Back and Hip Pain