Did the chicken or the egg come first? Who cares? Both chicken and the egg are delicious—and you’re wondering what this has to do with mobility exercises.
Stay with me for a moment. In the fitness universe, “experts” have often debated which exercise quality is more important to train: stability exercises or mobility exercises.
Stability is the ability to maintain or control joint movement or position. The coordinating actions of surrounding tissues and the neuromuscular system achieve stability. Mobility is the degree to which an articulation (where two bones meet) can move before being restricted by surrounding tissues like muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
Which one is more important? Both are important, and will always remain important for overall fitness. But in this article, we’ll dive into the benefits of mobility and four mobility exercises for better movement and strength.
BENEFITS OF MOBILITY EXERCISES
There are a few reasons why mobility is an essential element to include in your fitness journey. Mobility is one of the original foundations of youth, along with being able to build muscle. Plus, having good mobility allows you to move freely and more efficiently. Here are a few important reasons why training mobility is the bomb.
You’ll feel younger: Mobility is one of the youth’s original foundations. The ability to move your mobile joints through a full range of motion will help you keep up with the younger whippersnappers of this world and keeps you upright longer.
Improved muscle and strength: Good joint mobility ensures you can move as efficiently as possible during your lifts. You won’t compensate with a smaller range of motion, allowing you to strengthen all the movement parts. Say if your hip mobility limits the depth of your squat, you’re not strengthening all parts of the movement. That is leaving gains on the table.
You’ll be a better athlete: Many great athletes can change direction without changing speed and quickness. If their mobility were lacking, this wouldn’t happen. When you have good mobility and your muscles are not tight, your movements are easier and more fluid. And when you move better, your workouts will become more effective, and you’ll blow by opponents on the pitch.
Injury prevention: When your joints move freely through their full ROM, it improves their ability to absorb force better when you run, jump, lift, etc. In theory, a more mobile joint is a safer joint. If mobility restrictions exist, your body will compensate and find a way to get the movement done. This leads to muscles and joints up and down the kinetic chain doing the work of your restricted joint. Over time, this may lead to injuries and pain.
4 MOBILITY EXERCISES FOR BETTER MOVEMENT AND STRENGTH
Here are four mobility exercises for better movement in and out of the gym. These moves are chosen because they are simple, don’t require much equipment, and give you the most bang for your exercise buck.
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Walking Spiderman with Hip Lift and Overhead Reach
Otherwise known as “the microwave” because this will warm you up in a hurry. The walking spiderman with hip lift and overhead reach trains the adductors, hip mobility, hamstring flexibility, hip flexor strength, and thoracic and shoulder mobility. If you were to do only one exercise on this list, this move hits it all.
Benefits: This exercise targets every mobile joint in the body to warm you up instantly.
How to do it: Perform a forward lunge and place your hands down inside the forward leg. Then straighten both legs, keeping your hands on the ground, and then come back down and get into a deep lunge. Then reach and rotate the arm opposite the forward leg with your eyes following your hand. Return your hand to the ground, stand up, step through to the other side, and repeat.
Programming suggestion: 5 reps per side as part of your warm-up routine will have you ready to go.
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Half Kneeling Elastic Arm Rotations
Did you know your shoulder joint can rotate 180 degrees due to the unique ball and socket design? All this mobility is great, but it also makes it one of the most prone to injury. The half-kneeling arm rotation takes the shoulder joint through its full ROM with resistance. By doing this, you’re simultaneously improving and reinforcing that mobility by strengthening it. If you plan on lifting overhead, this is a must-do mobility exercise.
Benefits: Being in the half-kneeling position trains hip, thoracic, and shoulder mobility.
How to do it: Get into your half-kneeling stance and kneel on the leg opposite the resistance band. Grip the band with your outside hand. Keeping your elbow straight, think about taking your arm straight up as you rotate your arm up and behind you. Rotate your hips as your arms form a T and then return to the starting position.
Programming suggestion: Perform 6 to 8 reps per side before lifting overhead.
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3-Way Ankle Joint Mobilization
The ankles need both mobility and stability. With calf raises and other lower-body exercises, you have the stability part taken care of, but what about mobility? Your ankles need to dorsiflex and plantar flex to make most lower-body exercises and movement work. Enter the 3-way ankle mobilization, which flexes your knee forward and over the ankle to work the joint in three directions.
Benefits: Improving your ankle mobility makes it less likely you’ll get your ankles ‘broken’ on the field of play and suffer from the dreaded ankle sprain.
How to do it: Get into a solid half-kneeling stance and hold a stick in front of you for balance purposes. Perform the three directions, straight ahead, inside, and outside, driving your knee over your toes without your heel coming off the ground. Do this slowly and with control.
Programming suggestion: 5 reps in each direction as part of your warmup or as a recovery drill between lower body exercises.
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Prying Squat
The prying squat mobilizes up your adductors brutally, inhibiting the hip abductors from engaging to get better depth in your squat. This exercise trains your lower body to stabilize the squat by actively driving your knees away from your elbows while holding the bottom of the squat for better hip mobility and squat technique.
Benefits: This is the drill for you if you have trouble ‘feeling’ your adductors. Prying squats improve hip mobility, which will help your squat technique.
How to do it: Hold a kettlebell goblet style or perform with your body weight. Set your feet in your preferred squat position and lower down into your squat while keeping an upright torso. Get your elbows to the inside of your knees and actively press your elbows into your knees, and rock from side to side.
Programming suggestion: Hold for 30 seconds before your lower body workout. This is a great drill to do daily, especially if you spend a lot of time sitting.
