Ok…so what exactly is mobility work and how do we start to add it into our routine on a regular basis? Lets first talk about what mobility is NOT. Mobility is NOT laying on our foam roller for 5MIN at the end of the day and passively rolling over painful lines of tissue in the body while we hold our breath and try not to cry. Mobility is NOT static stretching while we drink our coffee and think about the list of stressors we have going on that day. Mobility is NOT grabbing the theragun after our workout and drilling into our ‘tight shoulders’ with the sharp pointy setting (again while holding our breath and trying not to cry). Mobility IS the ‘Able-ity’ (pardon my play on words) to move a joint through its full range of motion. It is also-to level up a notch-the ‘able-ity’ to travel through that full range of motion in the joint with load or weight. Maybe you have no clue what the Heck I’m talking about? That’s ok! Read on, and hopefully this will bring some awareness and knowledge to what mobility work (emphasis on work) really truly is…and how it can benefit your performance, your gains, and most importantly-how your body FEELS.
I’ve worked on many of you during or after an injury that’s happened in sport or while doing some kind of lift. Makes sense…something happened (sometimes you can’t remember exactly what it was or the exact movement that incurred this injury) and now there’s a compensatory injury in the tissues somewhere to makeup for…drumroll…pushing the limits of a joint past its capacity in range of motion. First of all-what does ‘range of motion’ even mean?? Range of motion is the capability of a joint to go through its complete spectrum of movements. It can be passive or active. Passive range of motion can be defined as what is achieved when an outside force, such as a therapist, causes movement of a joint. It is usually the maximum range of motion. Active range of motion is what can be achieved when opposing muscles contract and relax, resulting in joint movement. Active range of motion is usually less than the passive range of motion. (As defined by this article in Science Direct ) Let’s try and imagine this through the lens of a running injury. I've had a few of you come in with low back pain after a few weeks of higher mileage in your run program. Something that seems to be a common factor is restriction or high tension in the hips. If we think about the movement of running, it's extremely linear (a little less so for you trail runners-with more lateral movement on technical trails). This means that the hips are mostly moving in a repetitive and limited range of motion for long periods of time (over and over and over and over). This movement, biomechanically speaking, is hip flexion in the sagittal plane. This is the most commonly used plane of motion in our everyday lives. Much of our movement patterns occur here. However-our hips should be able to move in ALL planes of motion!! They can adduct and abduct (moving towards and away from the center line of the body), externally and internally rotate, and flex and extend. These movements are how our hips were MADE to move and exist in the world.
A fun test to do, to see if we can extend at the hip joint is to lay face down on the ground and try to pick up each leg-one at a time. Keeping the leg straight (in full extension at the knee), try and see how far off the ground you can get your leg...WITHOUT using your low back. Chances are, not very far. Now try rolling over onto one side of the body. Keeping your body in a straight line, try picking the top leg up (keeping the leg in full extension at the knee)...really focusing on using just the muscles of the hip...again-probably not very far. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to testing and working the hip joint through a full range of motion. Let me know if you'd like to learn more sometime-I LOVE chatting people up on the table about their hips! You can apply this method to any joint in the body...what are the actions that the joint SHOULD be able to perform? You can do a simple google search for the actions of specific joints if you have any questions. Any question is a good question...
Don't get me wrong-I have plenty of my own work to do in the realm of mobility. Just because I know about and tout the importance of this work, in no way means that I've been perfect with it myself. Because of the nature of my work and my background in running and soccer, I've struggled with restriction in my ankles, hips, and my thoracic spine. These are areas I will always need to place focus on with my mobility. Something else worth bringing up is that this work will just become part of your regular exercise routine. It isn't something that you work on separately when things hurt...but rather something that is always present and part of your warm up or cool down or even the movements themselves. Be creative in how you add these exercises to your day/training. Make them fun or even make them strength focused by adding bands or weights! Mainly-keep those joints moving in all planes and ranges of motion!
Be well. Be mobile. Be pain free.
xoxo-Kim.
Comentários