How To Improve Your Mobility

Today I'm going to teach you how to improve your mobility. I'm going to take you through it right from the start, as if you're a beginner, to help you understand and fully implement the concepts I'm going to cover. All you need to do is give this piece your full attention. So grab yourself a coffee at sit yourself down for 5 minutes. Once you've read this and understand you'll have all the tools you need to start drastically improving your mobility right away. Improving Mobility. Improving your mobility is a simple and logical process. It's made up of stages which you need to do in order to get the best possible outcomes. You can skip ahead a stage, because you simply won't have the pre-requisites in place to make the next step effective. I learnt this process from the best of the best, and and have applied it with all of my in-person and online clients ever since. Whether the goal is better movement for joint health, better movement for weight training goals, restoring mobility post injury, and injury prevention through stronger and more robust joints, the process is still the same. So whichever of those 4 groups you fall into, after reading this you'll know exactly how to best improve your mobility. Flexibility vs Mobility Before I dig into that actual process, it's important the you understand the basic components and concepts that I'm going to be sharing. The first of which is the difference between flexibility and mobility. - Flexibility is your PASSIVE range of motion. - Mobility is your ACTIVE range of motion. The difference between passive and active is strength, or more specifically being able to able to apply force in a given range of motion. If you can, it's active. If you can't it's passive. A great example of this is to sit on the floor with your legs out straight, then try and reach forward to touch your toes. However far you just got is your ACTIVE range of motion, and you got into that range using your own strength and ability. Now get someone to push your shoulders a bit further forward for you... it's very likely that you at least went an inch or two further. That extra distance is your PASSIVE range of motion, as you CAN get there, it IS accessible, but NOT under your own ability. It required an external force and/or resistance. Understand the difference? Great. You'll always have more passive range of motion than active. Sometimes just by a little, sometimes by a lot, but always by some. Linear vs Rotational The second concept to understand is the nature of the mobility you're looking to improve. The example of the seated toe touch I just described is a linear mobility demand. Linear mobility requires joints to flex or extend in straight lines. In that example the hips and spine are flexing (or bending forward). Both of those joints can also rotate. The hip is a ball and socket joint, so it can internally and externally rotate as well as flex and extended (and it can do both at the same time in movements like squats). The spine is a facet joint and can do the same. It can flex (bend forward), extend (lean back), and rotate (or twist) left and right. Why is this important to know? Because there is a hierarchy to these movements when it comes to improving or restoring mobility in a joint. Rotation comes first, flexion extension comes second. If a joint doesn't rotate well, it definitely won't flex and extend well, and improving rotation will improve flexion/extension at the same time. Working flexion and extension is unlikely to improve poor rotation. So where a rotational deficit is present, work that first, and watch everything improve. Structural vs Neurological The final part we need to understand is what is causing the movement restriction. Most of the time we assume that it's a structural thing. "My pecs are tight". "My hamstrings are short". "My traps are knotted". All of this teminology suggests that we have a structural issue with the muscle itself. That's actually quite unlikely. True structural problems are more likely to appear in the form of bony structures. Blocked ankles where bone hits bone. Deep hip sockets where bone hits bone. Repaired joints where plates and pins are present. These are structural problems that cause significant restriction. We can't train bones to change shape or location. But most things relating to the muscle are more neurological in nature... which is why they can be trained and improved. Sometimes the muscle is truly damaged through injury or other circumstances... but for most of you out there your lack of mobility is more related to your brain having not learnt how to control the movement you want. How To Improve YOUR Mobility Now we can start to improve YOUR mobility using the understanding that we just gained. Here is the process we are going to follow to improve your mobility.

1. Assess movement

2. Identify target range

3. Increase passive range of motion

4. Strengthen passive range to make it active

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 plenty of times.

6. Reassess movement

7. Repeat as required

Let's explore each step in a little more detail. 1. Assess Movement The questions we are looking to answer are: - Which joint(s) are we looking at? - What movement(s) should be possible at that joint? - What movement is accessible passively (rotational and linear)? - What movement is accessible actively (rotational and linear)? These should pain a good picture of where you joint(s) are at as a starting point. 2. Identify Target Range Now you've assessed what that joint should be able to do, and what it can currently do, you need to ask one more question. What's missing? Remembering that rotational work comes before linear work, you've now just identified your target range. Now we can go train it and make it better. 3. Increase PASSIVE Range of Motion In terms of increasing overall range of motion, we need passive range of motion first because you can improve what you can't do. The ONLY exception to this is when your assessment shows that you already have WAY more passive range than active range of motion. In that scenario you've already got a window of opportunity open. In most cases, the door to progress will be firmly shut with limited passive and active range of motion. So we create additional passive range of motion by... PASSIVE STRETCHING. This is your traditional long hold stretch targeted at the motion you need. This can be done for linear or rotational ranges, and should always be done for AT LEAST 2 MINUTES. Any stretch done for less than two minutes is going to be way too temporary to stimulate your body to change. Compare it to your 8 hours slumped in a chair at work. 20 seconds isn't going to compete with that. Unfortunately you'll need to hold your stretches for an uncomfortably long time. Sorry... I didn't make the rules. It's just how it is. 4. Strengthen Passive Range To Make It Active. Once you've opened up some new passive range of motion it is IMPERATIVE that you work on making it more active straight away, otherwise it's just going to go right back to how it was before. Think about all those stretches you've done to no avail. It's because you stretched... opened up some range... then did fuck all with it and your brain deemed it unimportant to keep. If you USE that new range immediately by applying force there... it will gradually become an active range of motion (remember the difference between passive and active range is STRENGTH), and you'll KEEP because you OWN it. The safest and most effective way to do this is to hold an isometric (no movement) contraction in that new range of motion. It's safe, it's specific. It's effective. Say you just stretched your hamstrings and found new "length" there. No go and do some light RDL's and hold your new lower bottom position for 3 sets of 5 seconds. That's as simple as this stage needs to be. Open up and range, strengthen it straight away. Keep it light. Remember this is new range so it's not going to be strong range. 5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 Plenty Of Times Progress takes time and repetition... so definitely do this bit. 6. Reassess Movement After a month of doing steps 3 and 4 at least twice a week... reassess your movement. If you did it right you should be better. Awesome stuff. 7. Repeat As Required. Now assuming it worked... is the problem fixed, or is it just a bit better? If you now have the entire range you want and need, then you can just work to maintain it, which means using that joint and muscle through that full range of motion under load regularly. If it's better but still needs work... just continue for longer. This is where most of you will sit.... needing to do these steps for a lot longer than a month. But at least now you know it's working. You Have Now Improved Your Mobility (Knowledge). If I was going to simplify that even further to help you remember it so that you actually do it in the gym I would say: - Assess - Stretch - Strengthen - Repeat It really can be that simple and easy. The only time it isn't is when you don't follow that process and it doesn't work and it seems really hard and ineffective. So my advice is to take my advice and assess > stretch > strengthen > repeat. Your mobility WILL improve. Thanks, Ian.