Two Ways to Live Your Best and Happiest Life: Mobility & Stretching
It’s funny (not funny, but funny) hitting an age where things start to hurt as an adult because I still feel like I’m 18, but my body laughs at me and reminds me that I am in fact in my… late twenties. Gone are the days I can sleep on a random couch without getting a LITTLE bit of neck pain the next day. If you’re here to tell me it just gets worse, I’m here to say please don’t tell me that. I can’t handle that news right now.
BUT since my movements have become much more sore/tight/stiff more frequently, I’ve been doing some personal research on mobility work to add into my workouts for myself and my clients. Both stretching and mobility work are important and should be added into any workout plan you have, but there is a time and place for both.
Mobility work involves the range of motion of your joints and having your muscle and skeletal systems function correctly and safely. Think about a barbell back squat and watching someone with terrible form complete the exercise. You will probably see their knees buckle inwards, their shoulders hunched upwards toward their ears, an arch in their lower back, and probably not a 90 degree angle in their knees. With mobility work, you are working the skeletal system combined with your muscular system to open up your hips more to be able to complete the barbell back squat in a safe way. Mobility work does involve stretching and relaxing some of the muscles involved in whatever mobility exercise you’re doing, but the focus is not solely on stretching and relaxing those muscles, but doing so with the goal of moving your joints in a full range of motion. When you are using mobility work the most is pre-workout, where you are loosening up your joints to hit a full range of motion to be able to handle the load (ie: weights) you are lifting. Think about this as your warm up for your activity.
Stretching is solely based on stretching and relaxing your muscles without the use of joint movement directly involved in the stretch. This is solely focused on your muscular system without your skeletal system involved. When you think of stretching, you probably think of things like yoga and the downward dog stretch; maybe warming up for a workout comes to mind. Your joints are involved in this process, but they are not the focus of this movement. Both mobility work and stretching are important in your exercise routine, and they are very similar, as you can’t have one without the other, but the main difference is mobility work involves and is focused on the range of motion of your joints, while stretching is based on the relaxation and stretching of the muscle. When you are using stretching the most is post-workout, where you are loosening up muscles and stretching out what you have just put under tension. Think about this as your cool down after your activity.
Some great mobility work exercises can be found on my Instagram ( @coachfrankie17 ), but just moving your body and getting your joints to the full range of motion (or working towards it) can be very beneficial to your quality of life as we age, as we all know we won’t be 18 forever! The next time you sleep on that random couch or don't have your memory foam queen mattress on a camping trip, remember that there are mobility exercises and stretching that you can do to lessen the soreness of your muscles and joints and help prevent future injury, due to lack of range of motion and tightness in your muscles!