Description

Do your joints or muscles ever feel stiff or achy?  Do you have trouble comfortably squatting or bending down or reaching your arms overhead? Have you ever hurt your lower back? If you fall into any of these categories, you need to start giving more thought to your mobility training.  Today we’re going to be talking about the difference in mobility training vs flexibility training, and why it’s so important to achieve your health and fitness goals, stay pain-free, feel better, and perform better on a daily basis.

Check out our FREE 30 DAY MOBILITY CHALLENGE here: https://www.insideoutsp.com/30-day-mobility-challenge 

Hot and trendy topic, but there’s some misconceptions in the difference between flexibility and mobility and how to properly train them

• Difference between flexibility and mobility
  • Flexibility is the passive ability of your muscles/tissues/and joints to get into certain positions
  • Mobility is the ability to actively achieve positions with tension and control through your full range of motion
  • You can have more flexibility than mobility, but you can’t have more mobility than flexibility
  • Overhead squat example lying on floor vs standing
  • Having limited flexibility in general can make you feel very stiff and achy
  • **Having more flexibility than mobility is a recipe for injury**
    • You’re lacking control to get into the positions that are necessary for life and for sport
    • Ankle sprain example
• How to train both properly
  • There is nothing wrong with flexibility work, commonly thought of as static stretching, but it should ALWAYS be followed up with mobility work - which is more active in nature
  • Ex: hamstring stretching - dead bug or deadlifts
  • When?
    • Mobility work pre-workout
  • Test/retest
  • Areas to focus on
    • Ankles
    • Hips
    • Thoracic spine (mid back)
    • Shoulders
    • Wrists

If you’ve been dealing with aches, pains, or limited mobility - a solid mobility strategy is often the ticket to a better feeling, and higher performing body.  Whether your goals are simply to feel better, or to perform at a higher level in the gym or in your sport, you can’t neglect your mobility training.  This is something that I do custom for each program I work with based on the movement assessment that our clients go through - but if you’re looking for a general starting point and a great resources, make sure to sign up for our Free 30 Day Mobility Challenge in the show notes.

Keep those muscles and joints happy and mobile, thanks for listening in and see you guys soon.

If you haven’t yet, make sure to join like minded men in the our Men Made For More Facebook Group - designed to offer Performance Coaching to Help Men Get Strong, Feel Confident, and Level Up Their Life.