Understanding Mobility vs. Flexibilty

Take a walk trough any gym and you'll hear the words “flexibility” and “mobility” used interchangeably. If you're lucky you might even see someone rolling around on a foam roller for a full hour calling it mobility training.

The common misconception is that if you stretch or foam roll enough you will remain mobile and injury free. Historically, the typical "mobility" routines involved stretching and passively holding positions without active movement in order to stretch "tight"muscles".

Don't get me wrong, these methods have some value and we use them quite effectively when the right situation presents itself. This is usually when we have identified a tissue extensibility dysfunction through passive testing where we use an external force to test how much range of motion we have. Simply put, something is too tight blocking our ability to each an end range of motion.) However, trying to foam roll or stretch your way out of a true mobility deficits will leave you frustrated. 

Heres why:

Flexibility refers to the ability for a tissue to extend to a certain point

Mobility refers to the capacity to move using active, stable and controlled motion.

Why does it matter?

Flexibility does not usually improve function or performance by itself. It may be a component to a high level of performance, think about a yogi trying to reach a split of a deep back bend... they would need to be flexible.

Mobility, however represents the stability and motor control that one possesses throughout that range of motion. This is a necessity for maximizing movement capacity, safely , efficiently and effectively.

"Flexibility without the stability to control is is a liability."

 
In order to truly enhance your mobility we must first understand what our individual restrictions are. Two reasons why we wont have good mobility:

1. Tissues are actually restricted 

2. We are lacking the stability and motor control to use what range of motion we do have.

Check out this video for a live demo of this concept. I hope you like it.

That's all for now.

- Dale