What Is Mobility And Why It’s Important

I’d like to put an end to a common misconception in the fitness industry and that misconception is that flexibility and mobility are the same thing. The idea that mobility and flexibility are the same thing is an idea that has been passed around in the fitness industry for far too long. Today, I still see misleading posts saying things such as ‘Do these 5 stretches to improve your mobility’ which is simply not true. What you need to understand about stretching is that in and of itself stretching is useless, I’m not saying stretching is useless as it is a component of mobility but I am telling you that stretching in and of itself is and it will not cause permanent biological change.

To begin we need to understand what mobility is, mobility is the ability to control a joint through all of its available range of motion. The equation for mobility is, mobility = strength + flexibility + neurological control. That is why passive things such as foam rolling and stretch therapy will never improve your mobility. Those passive tools may feel good but they are simply allowing you to temporarily increase your range of motion, they are not doing you any good long term because you are missing two key components of the mobility equation. With that said you should know that obtaining the strength and neurological aspect of mobility is not fun, to be truthful it is actually very difficult, time consuming, strenuous, and tedious but they are required in order to improve your mobility. Don’t blame me, blame biology for that one. I don’t make the rules I simply play by them.

Now you may be asking yourself ‘why should I do all of this challenging stuff?’ Well for starters mobility training increases joint capacities which greatly reduces your risk of injury because injury occurs when load exceeds capacity. Another reason is greater mobility means greater ability to improve any type of training/movement because all training consists of strength, flexibility, and neurological control. Once you have obtained a certain level of mobility you can hone in on the aspect that is most important to you. Another reason mobility training is important is to properly recover from injury because once injury occurs tissue is damaged and that damaged tissue doesn’t fix itself. In order for that damaged tissue to fully recover that tissue needs to be ‘taught’ how to properly function again and mobility training will do exactly that. Last but not least mobility training is necessary to combat the negative effects of aging. As we age we naturally start to lose our mobility, on top of that mobility training is the only way to get blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the deepest layers of tissues in our bodies. Providing the deepest layers of our bodies with blood, oxygen, and nutrients will allow those tissues to last longer. The bottom line is If you want to stay mobile and ensure your body lasts you then you need to learn more about mobility training and start working on it daily. If you don’t care about offsetting the negative effects of aging or feeling and performing at your best then you can keep stretching and foam rolling all you’d like.

For those of you that want to improve your mobility, please keep in mind that is is slow and challenging process. Real change takes time, there are no shortcuts or easy ways to make that change but I promise you investing time into improving your mobility will change your life for the best.