Mobility Training: What It Is and What It Isn’t

What’s the first thing you think of when it comes to mobility? Previous to finding mobility reels on Insta, I would’ve said what you are likely thinking…the ability to move in various ways, flexibility, dynamic movements like ankle or hip circles. What I learned once I started to delve into mobility accounts and became a certified mobility specialist blew my mind. Ok, let’s get into the fun stuff first - what IS mobility training?

Mobility training is…focused training of one joint at a time with the intention of increasing your range of motion. To do this, we use tension throughout the rest of the body to reduce compensations (movement of other joints) so your brain can laser focus on the one joint. Allowing our brain to focus on one thing at a time can “wake up” the joint and start to teach it new patterns.

Mobility training is…strength training. Specifically, we are strengthening the ligaments, tendons and smaller tissues that make up your joints. But don’t get confused; you have to use several if not all of the larger muscles in order for the joint make up to get stronger (remember, we’re reducing those pesky compensations!). Sometimes we load our mobility movements with weights and resistance bands and other times we’re using just the body itself. When done correctly, you may be surprised at how difficult it is, whether you’re working on a small or large movement.

Mobility training is…injury prevention and injury recovery. Take it from me, had I never done any mobility training previous to breaking my leg, my ankle would be a hot mess. As soon as I was given the go ahead to move my ankle, the first thing I did were controlled articular rotations (CARs) of the ankle. I did these as often as I could stand them and it didn’t take too long for me to regain a lot of range of motion in my left ankle. Believe it or not, I have better ankle mobility in the leg I broke than most people have in general. And that’s not a brag, because I’m no where close to others in their ankle mobility. On the prevention side, mobility training helps our joints stay strong when something happens like taking a tumble on the sidewalk or going through a rough play in sports. The stronger those joints are, the more resilient they are when we need them most. Does this mean your joints are “bulletproof”? Of course not. Oh and PS. there is no such thing as bulletproofing your body unless you are actually covered in bulletproof material.

Ok, now to the less fun part, mostly because this may challenge what you think you know and let’s face it, it’s never fun to admit you’re wrong lol.

Mobility training is not…stretching/dynamic movements. For a dynamic movement, you might think of arm circles, leg swings, or wrist rolls. For stretching you might think low lunges and tricep stretches. Now, before you shoot the messenger, please note that I have nothing against stretching or dynamic movements. I use them daily and they have their place in helping warm up big muscle groups and increasing flexibility. The difference is that stretching typically focuses on a large muscle(s) like the quads or hamstrings and most dynamic movements involve several joints and muscles to perform. When the brain is working to make so many different things move, it’s attention isn’t on increasing a specific joint’s range of motion.

Mobility training is not…flexibility. You can have the ability to do a split or bring your head to your knees and still not have great mobility. Sure, your joint may be able to move in a wider range of motion than those of us not as flexible but if you’ve not trained each joint specifically, you’re at just as much risk of injuring yourself as someone else. Often, super flexible people have to be even more careful with their joints because of their flexibility, as it’s easy to push a joint further without the strength behind it.

Mobility training is not…for a certain kind of person. You don’t have to be older in age or a professional athlete for mobility training to benefit you. If you’re going through chronic pain, want to walk, sit or grab things from your cabinets at an older age, are a competitive athlete, are a women, a man, etc. etc. mobility training is for you. Let’s make this simple - if you are a living being, mobility training is for you.

Mobility training is not…what you see on Insta for the average person. If you follow accounts like @beardthebestyoucanbe, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Amir can do incredible things with his body, but that’s not how he started. And even so, he is a fitness professional who’s job it is to be so good at mobility that he can wow you with crazy sh!t. Most of us teaching mobility, Amir included, understand that mobility training is about helping your joints feel and do their best for your every day life. Most of the folks that come through my door and work on mobility (which is everyone btw), have told me an anecdote of tripping and being surprised that their ankle/knee didn’t hurt as much as they thought it should. They were able to get right back up and keeping moving on with their day. That’s what mobility training is all about!

Here are some examples of ways mobility training can help:

1) You’re a stay at home parent and one day you realize you can’t reach behind your car seat to help your toddler grab their stuffy without turning your entire body. Knowing that you can’t take your eyes off the road, but you also can’t stand the crying, you decide to reach out to a mobility specialist and work on your shoulder mobility. This gives you the ability to reach behind you comfortably without needing to turn and risk everyone’s life (or your sanity) in the car.

2) You’re an office worker, sitting at a desk 6-8 hours a day. Your back is killing you on a daily basis. You decide it’s time to work with a trainer to ease your chronic pain. In your sessions you work on increasing your spinal range of motion and strengthening your hip flexors and glutes. You start to implement some mobility movements at your desk and notice less pain throughout the day.

3) You’re a competitive athlete coming back from an ACL tear in your knee. You’re heading back to competition and want to make sure it doesn’t happen again. You start working with a mobility specialist to continue strengthening your knees. One day you collide with another player and you’re filled with dread that you may have hurt yourself all over again. To your surprise, your knee is fine albeit a bit achy and bruised.

These may seem like silly examples, but I promise you they are more common than you think. Don’t believe me? Come in for a visit and we can test where your mobility lies!