What is Mobility in the Body and Why It Matters
Mobility is an ever-encompassing term that tends to get thrown around by trainers and physical therapists, but what is mobility?
Mobility is the overall range of motion a person has within their body, most notably within the joints.
Mobility is incredibly important to one’s health and daily functioning. Increased mobility prevents you from getting injuries. It allows you to squat deeper, run faster, and train harder. Best of all? Great mobility can keep you active for many years to come.
There are so many benefits to increasing your mobility:
- Reduced physical injury through strengthing the joints and increasing body awareness
- Increased strength through muscle activation
- Releasing built-up tension within the body (goodbye, knots!)
- Decreased physical pain and tightness
- Improved posture
- Better understanding of your unique body
Why is mobility important?
Mobility is foundational to physical health and the key to longevity. If you have poor mobility, you are not moving a joint through its full range of motion when active in that joint. This can lead to an uneven distribution of pressure – articular surfaces where your joints connect may wear out faster and your muscles and nervous system may adapt to the poor mobility in the joint, leading to knots and pain.
When we spend too much time in stagnation (like sitting behind a desk for eight hours a day, five days a week) the internal connective tissues become short and tight. This connective tissue is called fascia. Fascia is like the saran wrap for the internal body. It’s a thin and reactive tissue made up mostly of collagen. It encases muscles and other organs and holds the integrity of the body. When it’s not properly mobilized it can leave a person feeling stiff, trigger pain, and even obstruct organs.
When you have optimal mobility within your body this means you’re equipped with a fully functional and active range of motion.
We depend on our mobility literally all the time. When we’re taking a walk, hiking and taking large steps up to tall rocks, doing a HIIT workout, in the garden, or if we take an accidental fall, and reach out to brace ourselves. Mobility serves us always.
Mobility and injury prevention
If you don’t have full mobility in certain joints, you may not be activating the proper muscle systems during movement and other muscles become overworked to compensate. This can lead to pain and injury.
Accidents happen – they’re just a part of life. But severe injury can be avoided when you learn to tap into the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) cues the body is sending. Mobility training prevents the onset of injury by conditioning the joints, keeping the body supple, and offering a routine opportunity to tap in to your body awareness.
Mobility vs. flexibility
There are people (and professionals!) who interchange flexibility and mobility as if they’re synonymous but that’s a bit misleading. Flexibility is the ability to lengthen your muscles. It’s a passive way of getting into your body, like holding a stretch while your body melts into it.
Meanwhile, mobility is the ability of a joint to move actively through its full range of motion.
You do need some measure of flexibility to have good mobility. But you also need stability and strength. Passive, static stretching (e.g. touch your toes) focuses on flexibility while dynamic stretching (e.g. leg swings or arm circles) focuses on mobility.
Flexibility is often seen as a gold standard. We are very impressed by the super bendy people in yoga class with their legs behind their head. But flexibility without strength can do more harm than good.
Constant overstretching without incorporating strength-building can cause the ligaments and joints to stretch without properly preparing tissue fibers. If connective tissue and the fascia are constantly in stretch, they don’t have the opportunity to recoil and regenerate. Imagine taking a rubber band and constantly pulling, pulling, pulling. The band would become long and loose and, equally, at liberty to snap at a minor movement.
Mobility and diaphragmatic breathing
Maybe you’re thinking that mobility is just about the physical support of the active body. It goes even deeper than that!
Mobility encourages and allows the body to find greater relaxation. By expanding your range of motion you create more space for breath.
Have you ever been stressed out and someone tells you to just take a deep breath? Breathing with tension is different than breathing into tension.
Taking a deep breath with tension causes the chest to inflate and the shoulders to shoot up towards the ears. Breathing into tension drops deep into the body, expands the diaphragm, and sends a message to the autonomic nervous system that it can relax. The more relaxation we find, the less tension is in the body. Less tension leads to greater mobility.
Diaphragmatic breathing exercises are common in mobility exercises because nothing in the body works alone. The connection between breath and movement is crucial because oxygen is the force that controls our entire system. Short and shallow breaths activate the sympathetic nervous system which can cause us to feel agitated or anxious. Long, deep, and expansive breaths activate the parasympathetic nervous system which allows the body and mind to chill out.
How to train for mobility
When it comes to training for mobility you should always start wherever you are. No need to compete with anyone else around you, and definitely no need to over-exert yourself (remember: one of the main purposes of mobility is injury prevention!)
If you’re feeling inspired to begin exploring your own mobility system, I’ve put together a Full Body Mobility Plan on Jen Health to help you reach your goals. The Full Body Mobility Plan was built and designed for anyone to increase their range of motion, learn how to prevent injury, and relieve pain. You’ll tap into your body’s unique structure, get a handle on your physical restriction, and enjoy all the benefits of a more mobile body.
I also offer 10 other plans all within this one Jen Health Platform, where I’ll walk you through day to day plans to help you relieve specific aches and pains. Each plan will be filled with muscle activation exercises, functional HIIT or strength workouts, core stability exercises, mobility flows, and individual mobility exercises to support full-body mobility! Basically, it is like having a physical therapist in your back pocket. You can even search anything you need using our explore section!
Of course, I offer plenty of mobility exercises on my website and YouTube channel. Here are a few to help you get started:
Evening bed mobility flow for a restful sleep
4 Easy neck strengthening exercises to increase mobility
Proven breathing and mobility exercises for pain
Want to get a quick pulse on your current mobility status? Check out my mobility test for better squats, faster runs, and a stronger body.
In conclusion… Keep it Movin’!
Mobility is the key to peak physical performance because it’s the functional range and active range that we have within our body. Without strong mobility, the body will begin to break down- whether that be through athletic performance, routine physical exertion, or simply aging. Improving your mobility is one of the most effective ways to have a happy, pain-free body that will sustain you through your entire life.
You want to take care of your body today and think about it in 20, 30, 40+ years from now. Mobility is the key to longevity.
You don’t have to have advanced or extreme fitness goals to want to improve your mobility. Mobility is for everyone! Not just athletes, not just performers, but any person who wants to enjoy longevity and freedom in their body. Don’t let it intimidate you.
I promise the more that you incorporate even small, daily movements you’ll enjoy the benefits and it’ll continue to bring you back to the mat, the gym, or wherever you find mobility.
For more mobility inspiration you can check out my Instagram, @docjenfit (write me!) or tune into The Optimal Body Podcast for tips, tricks, hacks, and interviews.
