Using the knee as an example. The knee is a stabile joint and surrounded by two (above and below) mobile joints, the ankle and hip.
Let’s go through this starting at the bottom of the body:
Ankle: Mobile
Knee: Stabile
Hip: Mobile
Lumbar Spine (Low Back): Stable
Thoracic Spine (Mid/Upper Back): Mobile
Scapula: Stable
Shoulder (Glenohumeral Joint): Mobile
Elbow: Stable
Wrist: Mobile
So, first thing we need to do is examine the 2 definitions from above and decipher which each one really means. According to the definitions above, flexibility is the ability to bend. At first glance, this doesn’t look too bad. Being able to bend and stretch is good. Flexibility is important, we all know that. I am not trying to refute that. But mobility is the ability to move. Essentially, flexibility is the stretching or lengthening of a muscle and mobility is the movement of a joint. In this particular respect, we are talking about the body being able to move in certain directions. Mainly, the mobile joints shown above being able to move in the greatest range of motion, or ROM (there is such a condition of being too mobile, or hypermobile, causing joint laxity – but I will cover that in another post).
As an athlete, which is more important? Would we rather have an athlete with a great sit and reach but cannot move side to side? How about a defensive back who can touch his toes standing, but can’t flip his hips when the receiver eats up his cushion? A catcher who can palm the ground but can’t get into a blocking position? Are you beginning to see the difference in terminology and why mobility may be more important than flexibility?
Increasing mobility of our mobile joints will subsequently add stability to our stable joints. For example, a typical pain point is the low back in rotational sports. Some may look at it and say the athlete needs to stretch the low back, or even the hamstrings.
The low back pain is the site, but it may not be the symptom. As a rule, I look at the joints above and below the affected joint. This would be the hips and the thoracic spine (T-Spine). The low back, or lumbar spine, only rotates 10-13 degrees but the T-spine, or upper back, rotates 60-70 degrees and the hip rotates 20-120 degrees in various directions. This being said, if the mobility of the T-Spine or the hip is decreased or negatively affected the low back must compensate for the lack of mobility. Putting even an extra 2 degrees of torsion on the low back, and making a stabile joint engage in mobility, can cause serious effects on back health. Stretching the low back or the hamstrings probably will not fix the issue because the issue lays in the mobility of the joints not the flexibility of the musculature.
So how do we get mobility? We like to use our warm up as our greatest asset in terms of mobility. We use several warm up exercises to elicit great ROM in our ankles, hips, T-Spine, and shoulders. All of our workout exercises are performed in full ROM (bench and squat included) and we end everyday with some soft tissue work with foam rollers and lacrosse balls (baseballs and tennis balls work fine too). The soft tissue work helps break up scar tissue and myofascial “knots” to help the quality of our muscles and it aids in recovery and decreased soreness post workout (Pearcey et al, 2015). Think of it as a self-inflicted deep tissue massage.