Mobility and flexibility are two terms that are tightly connected to each other and they refer to the movement range of your body as well as how far your muscles are able to stretch before it gets uncomfortable. Mobility is determined by many factors, such as the central nervous system, muscle soreness and adhesion. To improve your mobility you need to do a series of exercises that will increase your range of movement and many of these exercises include stretching your muscles and joints. To sum it up, it’s called mobility training.
What Is Mobility Training?
Mobility training consists of exercises that are designed to improve your range of motion, balance, and muscle control. Although mobility is closely connected to flexibility, it’s not the same at all and mobility training does not consist of only stretching exercises. It has also strength exercises incorporated in the training session. There are many different programs of mobility training and most of them are great but there are some that aren’t the best. For example, if the warmup starts with static stretching exercises the program may not be the best for you because a study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning showed that it’s much better to incorporate dynamic stretching as part of your warmup.
5 Benefits Of Mobility Training
Injury Prevention
Mobility training focuses on increasing your strength and your flexibility. This type of training will increase the ability of your body to withstand much harsher physical stress. By doing strength exercises combined with proper stretching you are making your muscles, bones and joints much more durable which reduces the chance of getting injured. Mobility training also corrects the muscle imbalances in your body which further decreases your chances of injury because it’s much easier to pull an underactive muscle.
A common injury factor is not executing an exercise the right way and that is often caused by lower mobility in your muscles and joints. When an exercise is done incorrectly, your entire body is not placed in the optimal position for the exercise and the chance of an injury occurring is much higher. Mobility training helps with this part as well and you will lower the chance of getting injured when performing an exercise.
Better Posture
The lifestyle today is dictating that we sit all the time. Most of us work in a sitting position, we come back home and we sit down to eat, watch TV or on our computers. This way of life is affecting our posture negatively causing our hip flexors to become shorter and hamstrings to become longer. That’s bad because it causes kyphosis which is an exaggerated forward rounding of the back and with it come many more issues. When your posture isn’t right, the risk of injury becomes higher and you may experience pain in your knees and your back.
With mobility training you can prevent this from happening and improve your posture in case it already happened. By increasing the flexibility of your muscles and strengthening them at the same time your posture will improve and align. Your muscle imbalances will start to disappear and you will have an improved range of motion which will allow you to sit in a less negatively impactful way.
Increased Strength
Mobility training will increase your strength as well because the amount of strength you can generate is closely linked to the length and tension in your muscles. With mobility training you will be able to increase the length of your muscle which will allow you to have a full range of motion. This will also allow you to release the generated tension to the exact length of your muscles to maximize the power of your move.
Reduced Pain and Stress
Because of the modern way of life many of us suffer from some kind of pain in our joints, lower back, shoulders or neck and it’s often because our range of motion is restricted. If you have issues with pain such as lower back pain, mobility training might help you get rid of it. When you perform mobility training, the range of motion increases and your muscles lengthen, get looser and become less tense. When your muscles are more relaxed your body will feel much better and you’ll feel less pain overall. Your muscles are also less likely to cramp up even after hard workout sessions.
Stress is also a huge part of everyday life and it can often overwhelm us causing our body to produce cortisol which is very bad for us. But if you do your mobility workout you are more likely to release the accumulated stress. Mobility training is similar to Yoga workouts which are able to reduce stress. When you are working out and focusing on your body in an environment that you feel comfortable in, you allow your body to relax and get rid of the stress. Your anxiety levels will also go down significantly and stretching your muscles will improve the blood flow which will help your body recover faster.
Increased Performance
If you are an athlete that competes, mobility training is a must. By increasing your range of motion and flexibility of your muscles your physical performance will increase as well. Your performance increases because your muscles are able to function with maximum efficiency. Your performance will also increase because you will be less prone to injuries and you will be able to recover much faster. It goes without saying that when you improve your strength you improve your overall physical performance as well.
Mobility training is a very important exercise routine that you need to incorporate in your workout schedule to maximize your range of motion and improve your overall fitness. By regularly doing mobility training you will be less prone to injuries, improve your posture, reduce pain and stress and increase your overall physical performance by increasing your strength and flexibility.
If you are looking for a professional team that can design an amazing mobility training for your specific needs we are here for you. Feel free to contact us right away and book a session to improve your mobility.
