When was the last time you worked on improving your mobility? Chances are, it has been a while. Nevertheless, there’s never been a better time than now to add stretching and mobility into your routine. This is where mobility therapy comes into play for your overall wellness.
Before we dive into the many ways mobility improves your wellbeing, let’s take a look at what mobility therapy means.
What is Mobility Therapy?
Mobility therapy is a popular topic for strength and conditioning, as well as the fitness world. Physical therapists have long been familiar with mobility therapy techniques and their many benefits.
Mobility therapy combines mobility exercises that improve the range of movement and motion your body can perform. Mobility therapy techniques help improve the performance of your muscles or joints. Engaging in mobility therapy helps mobilize muscles so your workouts can be more effective with better form and technique.
Mobility therapy can also include flexibility, balance, pliability, and strength over time. Well-developed mobility gives you an advantage in athletic exercises, intensive sports, and day-to-day activities. Improving your mobility can reduce joint pain, reduce the risk of injury, and help you work out longer.
You can achieve mobility therapy with a mobility therapist as a one-on-one session, but you can also practice it at home. A well-designed mobility program, like our Optimal On Demand may help you achieve optimal mobility. Our on-demand program uses several techniques demonstrated by our Colorado movement specialists. Our programs can be accessed in the comfort of your home or on the go to meet your mobility needs.
The Importance of Mobility
It’s a common misconception that mobility means flexibility, but it’s much more than that. Mobility is our ability to move through the spaces we occupy freely and without pain. Many factors can determine mobility, including the central nervous system, muscle adhesions, and body soreness.
Mobility is essential because it prepares your body for the stress of a workout or other activities that fatigue the muscles. It is a crucial contributor to reducing the risk of injuries as well as improving technique and range of movement. Strength alone isn’t enough to have good mobility.
Why is Mobility Therapy Essential?
Mobility means being freer to move, gain stability, and improve strength. Mobility therapy techniques can increase your range of motion, stabilization, and better muscle control. Mobility therapy addresses muscle imbalance, which can help protect you against injuries.
Ultimately, the goal of mobility therapy is to help you move better and more controlled without compromise or restrictions. Mobility therapy has a powerful impact on your muscle activities and goes beyond just your workout routine.
What are the Benefits of Mobility Therapy?
A movement therapist can design a mobility program that helps treat your physical challenges, focusing on improving your mobility and flexibility over time. Mobility therapy can have many different benefits depending on your body and wellness needs, below are our top five benefits.
Lowers Injury Risks
The most significant benefit of mobility therapy is the reduced risk of injury. Running, jumping, or shifting directions can put a lot of pressure and stress on your muscles. Injuries can occur for many different reasons, but it is very common for people to have issues performing an exercise due to lack of mobility.
Your body can only absorb a certain amount of force it is trained to absorb. If you cannot move your body into a safe position to perform an exercise in optimal form, you are more likely to get injured.
Regular mobility therapy can ensure that you can achieve whatever exercise positions are needed for a variety of movement patterns for an optimized workout. Mobility therapy also ensures that stress is adequately distributed throughout your body helping to reduce injury. This will help your body learn to compensate in the correct forms to avoid getting hurt during your exercises or everyday movements.
Increases Strength
Your body’s ability to amplify power is directly related to the amount of given muscle tension and length. In addition, being able to create enough tension within a muscle, your body also needs to be able to lengthen the muscle correctly to maximize sufficient power.
Mobility therapy allows you to stretch and strengthen which lengthen muscles beyond what you might usually have needed for an exercise. This way, you’re not limiting your strength in any range of motion. With a more mobile lower body base, you will have the ability to absorb the tension and pressure caused by the sudden changes in your movement pattern when working out. This improved mobility will lead to an increase in strength, allowing you to accelerate and decelerate without the risk of injury quickly.
Improves Posture
In today’s modern world, we sit… a lot. From cars to work, even when we get home, we tend to sit more.
Unfortunately, the human body is built for a very different environment. As our habits change, our bodies are not acclimated to the shift of sitting for multiple hours a day. Constant sitting causes stress on your body.
Sitting causes your hip flexors to shorten and lengthens your hamstrings. The more we sit, the higher the risk of a chain reaction of body pains, higher risks of injuries, knee problems, or back pains.
A consistent mobility therapy program can help alleviate these injury risks. Mobility training allows your body to function as it was designed to because the sitting postures we are prone to do negatively impact your body’s biomechanics. When you are stuck sitting in an office chair for hours, adding mobility therapy into your routine can help improve your posture.
Reduces Lower Back Pain
Connecting closely with improving posture is lower back pain reduction. Many of us walk around with an anterior pelvic tilt which causes more pressure on our lower back than is natural. This increased pressure can likely lead to pain during simple tasks or your workouts.
Pain can spring up for a variety of reasons, but it is well understood that improving mobility can help you reduce back pain. Mobility therapy can improve your pain levels over time if added to your routine.
Reduces Stress Levels
Everybody experiences a great deal of stress in our daily lives. Similar to yoga techniques, mobility therapy can have the same effects of reducing stress. Focusing on your body in a relaxing environment can help level out your stress levels. Stretching out your muscles by increasing your mobility can increase blood flow, which allows your body to recover.
Mobility therapy is a fundamental way to improve your overall health and fitness. Mobility techniques can improve your circulation and your muscle tension. Mobility has the power to improve your ability to relax, which can help alleviate your stress levels.
Is Mobility Therapy Right for You?
If you want to have a higher range of motion and achieve your ultimate fitness goals, you should add mobility therapy to your routine. Mobility is essential when wanting to gain peak fitness, function, and wellbeing.
What will happen if you don’t incorporate mobility therapy into your lifestyle? Generally, your body will have less mobility. Over time, you may find yourself overcompensating when using other muscles and joints, which could put you at a higher risk of injury.
Mobility therapy has many benefits that can lead to better health and agility. Mobility improves your body’s ability to work effectively as one unit. Timing is essential. We can only get away with poor and limited mobility for a certain length of time before our body tells us we’ve had enough.
Start Your Mobility Therapy Journey with an Optimal Movement Assessment
Muscle stiffness, body pains, posture issues, and injuries can all occur for multiple reasons. Still, movement therapy can be a step in the right direction to more significant movement and optimal wellness. Our Boulder and Longmont mobility therapists can help you find a better range of motion by starting with a movement assessment.
At Optimal Wellness, our Optimal Movement Assessment is used to identify imbalances and asymmetries which could result in injury. With the assessment, your movement specialist can begin to create a customized program specific to your body’s needs to begin optimizing health.
Book Your Mobility Therapy Session in Boulder or Longmont Today
Learn more about the benefits of mobility therapy and other massage services to promote overall wellness at our two Colorado locations, in Boulder and Longmont. At Optimal Wellness, we offer a variety of wellness services to help you perform at your best and improve your quality of life. Learn more about our mobility services on our website or book your appointment with our skilled Colorado massage therapist to get on the road to optimal wellness.
Our team of professionals is the perfect choice for you if you are looking for safe and effective massages that will help you feel more recovered even after one session. If that is something you are looking for, contact us right away and book a session now.
