What I Learned By Changing My Outlook On Mobility Training
By: Juha Juppi
Tags: Mobility, Fitness Tips, Flexibility, Deadlifts, Strength And Conditioning

Photo by Sonnie Hiles on Unsplash

You’ve heard the term mobility before, but different people seem to give it different definitions. That leaves room for confusion and misinterpretation for how to improve it.

Most people look at mobility as just another way of saying flexibility. It’s something you do at the beginning or end of your workout — and might help you feel ‘less tight’.

They also associate it with resistance bands, rolling on balls and foam rolling.

Person A: “Dude, do you do mobility?”

Person B: “Yea man, I foam roll and sometimes do band assisted squats or glute bridges. It helps with my mobility”

This was always so confusing to me. What does doing that actually help you with? Make your body feel ‘warmed up’? Does it help your range of motion in some way? The way people describe the literal outcome of ‘doing mobility’ was always so vague. It always left me thinking it’s something you should do, but if you don’t make time for it that’s okay too I guess?

My outlook on this started to completely change in 2012/2013 when a classmate in college told me I should check out ‘Dr. Andreo Spina and this Functional Range Systems thing’. Now it’s almost 2021 and I’ve taken a couple of his seminars.

Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specalist (FRCms) — taken in 2013 Functional Range Assessment (FRA) — taken in 2017 Kinstretch — taken in 2018

Here are a few ways my outlook has completely changed as a result.

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Before we start, just to make sure we’re on the same page on mobility vs flexibility

Mobility: The ability to actively achieve a range of motion

Flexibility: The ability to passively achieve a range of motion

—

Mobility IS NOT just a ‘warm-up’ or ‘cool-down’ tool

People who think this way don’t realize the opportunity their missing. Let’s say the main focus of your workout a Deadlift. Can a deadlift make your legs stronger? Yes. Let’s look at a one joint involved in that exercise — Hips. What directions can the hip move? Flexion, Extension, Abduction, Adduction, Externally Rotate, Internally Rotate & Circumduction.

Do deadlifts (or similar exercises) strengthen each of those movements in full range of motion? It absolutely does not. Does that make a deadlift a bad exercise? No. It just means in addition to deadlifts, you should be trying to get stronger in the ranges of motion a deadlift doesn’t challenge. Mobility exercises can do this for you — especially when trying to develop strength in end ranges.

Mobility IS NOT a zero sum game

Let’s build off of the above point here. Instead of looking to mobility as a way to ‘warm-up’ or ‘cool-down’ it can also build strength in ranges that aren’t typically challenged in most exercises. The more time time you spend strengthening your hip — the more you’ll be able to exert yourself when you do your deadlift. Don’t look at it as something that takes away time from your main lifts. Look at it as something that helps you get better at your main lifts.

Mobility IS NOT just another tool in the tool belt

This point is more pointed towards the seminars I attended. I remember graduating from college and my family got me a gift. My late-grandfathers old watch and some money. The watch obviously has huge sentimental value to me. The money however, I remember instantly putting towards professional development. There was one online course that would teach me more about the shoulder, another about the hips and finally one about the core. I felt great after taking in all that info — but something felt off.

I couldn’t help but feel like I was constantly chasing the next course. Every product was marketed at ‘game changing’. It made me feel like unless I took this new course that I would have a gaping whole in my understanding of how to help clients. I felt like I was getting trapped in this never ending cycle of thinking “Just wait till the next course, THEN I’ll have the full picture. The next course will finally connect all of the dots for me”.

The above seminars changed that for me. This isn’t an ad for them. I’m genuinely not trying to sell you on any of this, so take what I say with a grain of salt. However, for me I started to learn how to connect the dots. I stopped looking at mobility training as some boring thing I have to do, rather something that makes me better at ‘being human’. Having healthy joints and being strong in end ranges of motion carry over to any physical activity you chose to do.

Mobility belongs in EVERYONES routine — regardless of your goals

Given everything I said above — this point shouldn’t require much more explanation.

I can’t think of a single instance where having healthier joints that move better is possibly a bad thing. A sprinter who has more end-range strength & control of their hips can increase their stride length and potentially run faster. A swimmer who has less joint coupling (bad) in glenohumeral internal rotation will likely experience less injuries. etc. etc.

This post is just to share how thankful I am that things seem to just ‘make sense’ more then ever. If just one person who reads this finds this helpful— then perfect :)