Be a better mover
– Do you want to get stronger?
– Do you want to limit injuries?
RELATED: RECOMMENDED PLANS FOR YOU– Do you want to be more athletic?
– I have one word for you… Mobility!
Avoid the rush
If you’re like most people, you rush through a quick warm-up, usually consisting of 5 minutes on the treadmill, a couple of stretches, and then jumping into your lifting routine.
If this sounds like you, you’re skipping over an incredibly important aspect of your fitness – mobility.
Mobility for strength training
This has become the new hot topic in the fitness industry. Different courses and tools seem to be popping up every other day and for good reason.
Mobility is an important aspect to how your body functions on a daily basis. Not only that, but it has the potential to make you break your strength gains.
What is mobility?
For starters it’s not just flexibility, although that is part of it. Being able to move through a certain range of motion is vital for joint and muscle health, but it’s also important to be able to control that range of motion.
Stability + Flexibility = Mobility
Why mobility?
Working on your mobility can help you live up to your potential. If you find yourself with substandard movement quality, then you need to take some time to focus on this aspect of your fitness.
The body is incredibly adaptive, so if you lack mobility in one area, odds are that it will be made up in another not so mobile area.
Your biggest compound lifts require quality movement patterns and ranges of motion.
Like I mentioned before, a lack of movement in one area is going to limit your ability to perform an exercise. A lack of hip mobility or ankle mobility is going to limit your squatting ability.
This in turn will hinder your ability to get stronger.
Remember muscles like going through full ranges of motion. Having restrictions, knots, or trigger points limit that, which makes your muscles unhappy.
Takeaway
Mobility work isn’t sexy. You won’t find people asking about your mobility like they would your bench or squat max.
I can almost guarantee you won’t hear bros boasting about their thoracic mobility or the fact that they got 10 more degrees on their shoulder mobility.
It won’t make you sweat, nor will it lead to massive fat loss or calorie burn, so why do it?
Because exercise isn’t just about sweating or burning calories.
It’s about making you better, stronger, healthier, and above all else, a better mover. Mobility drills will make you exactly that. A better mover, and all the more likely, a pain and injury free mover.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Connect with WatchFit Expert Chris Cooper