Mobility & Flexibility: What's the Difference?

I believe some of us get a bit mixed up with these two important concepts in training. With this week's newsletter, I wanted to give a break down of what each of these major concepts mean, provide you insight on what it is to have good mobility & flexibility, and how it can benefit for you now & ultimately, for years to come.

What is Mobility?

Mobility can be defined as being able to move any part of our body in given space with the range of motion that it holds. When discussing mobility, it typically refers to how well our joints move and one of the few vital bodily tissues that help connect one limb to another.

Think of being able to scratch your back with one hand. If you are unable to do this, then you, unfortunately, suffer from limited shoulder mobility. BUT you don't have to. There are exercises and methods that help with shoulder mobility and eventually down the line, if you were to consistently and diligently work on mobilizing your shoulder joints the next 2-6 months, your mobility can improve drastically. No need to use a back scratcher or the corner of a wall to get that sweet spot!

What is Flexibility?

Flexibility, on the other hand, typically addresses the muscles and how much they can be pulled or stretched to a certain extent.

Think of when you were in PE class as a kid where the PE teacher would have you stretch before the activities that you would be doing that day. They would tell you to touch your toes to stretch out your hamstrings or to grab your ankle behind your butt to target your quadriceps. During these moments (in which I might have triggered a core memory of), you were specifically working on your flexibility in order for your muscles to be loose and ready.

SO WHY BOTH?

Why Do Both Play a Critical Role in Your Health?

Now you may be wondering if you are trying to target both, could there be a possibility to do well in one and lack in another?

And the answer to that is, yes!

As a former Flexologist from Stretch Lab, I've come across several clients that were able to go into a deep stretch across many muscle groups. In fact, it would be pretty difficult to feel a stretch within their muscles because of their mobility being impressively high (you may consider these people as 'hypermobile')

However, because they stretch often but fairly considered joint mobilization, these particular experiences had shown that mobility does not equate to flexibility. For these rare cases, the goal was to have their joints be mobilized because they still encountered discomfort/pain and needed more assistance in getting those muscles to be stretched to a certain point.

But Wait... There's More!

In other cases, I had people who had substantial mobility within their joints; for example, their shoulder joints, but dealt with muscle tension in the chest or traps. These clients were likely undergoing episodic acute stress where typically their desk job would make these muscles to progressively tense up throughout the day.

Since they had great mobility in their joints, I would recommend them to incorporate stretches to where they would have to emphasize their breathing technique to relax the muscle they were stretching to get the full benefit of it and just how we mentioned earlier, when we address the muscle, we are talking about flexibility.

Without having them stretch and move those muscles after long periods of immobility and less movement, down the line this may possibly cause stiffness in the joints themselves.

One Size Does Not Fit All

It is now your job to address which exercises target 1) mobility, 2) flexibility, or 3) both! If you don't, then stay tuned for the following two newsletters for mobility and flexibility exercises that I continuously program with my current clients and how they can be highly beneficial for YOU moving forward.

References:

Mobility vs Flexibility: They Are Different And Why You Care

https://velocityspusa.com/mobility-vs-flexibility-they-are-different-and-why-you-care/

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