Optimise Your Program - Mobility/Stability

Hopefully you've took my advice from yesterday and made some steps to get yourself an actual training program to assist you in reaching your goals.

Today we'll start to look at things that should be included in every training program. starting with mobility and stability training. 

Flexibility has been the term that's been used to cover this for eons but I'd rather use mobility and stability because it better represents what is actually required by the muscles and joints. 

Flexibility usually refers to muscles only.  

Mobility can be thought of as the ability to move through a specific range of motion and is very task specific, meaning you can have adequate mobility for one movement but not for another.

Stability can be thought of the ability hold a specific position with or without other forces passing through you.

Using some real world examples, squatting down to talk to a 3 year old requires great mobility of the ankle, knee and hip joints.

Carrying a heavy bag of shopping on 1 side and a light bag on the other, but being able to keep your "heavy side' from dropping far lower then the light side, is a great example of trunk stability. 

If you didn't have adequate stability to handle the off-set loading then you'd probably tip right over!!

If you don't have adequate mobility or stability in the required joints and you need them for a specific task, you shift that stress to the joints that do not possess adequate mobility or stability, to get the job done. 

This can result in overuse injuries in the stronger joints leaving you with 1 side that doesn't want to do much work, and another side now that can't!!

Any training program should address these issues either directly or indirectly because this is probably what is going to keep you pain free.

Just touching on flexibility, I bet you've had an injury and immediately thought that stretching will help out somehow - it won't.

Why?

A lot of times you've sustained an injury because there is not enough stability strength and you've moved into a vulnerable position to do a specific task. 

All that stretching does is make this area even more vulnerable by trying to give it more mobility - it's like trying to fix your loose elastic band by stretching it more - it's already unstable because it's loose, and now making it looser makes it even more unstable!

With any injury comes tightness which is actually the nervous system making the muscles spasm and contract to protect the area, by making you unable to move it or yourself. 

The brain and nervous system perceives a danger and does this as a protective response.

The brain and nervous system control everything - yep even your level of mobility / flexibility - so if there is a perceived lack of stability through a given range of motion, then they will both send off messages telling the muscles/joints to not move through a greater range of motion, for a fear of an injury.

If you build stability in the area's that need it, then the brain and nervous system slowly recognise this and thus, gradually allow more messages to feed that area to say "it's strong and stable - it's safe to provide more range of motion".

So getting back to muscles spasms and tightness post injury, the best thing you can so is work out what needs to stabilised and what needs to be mobilised so that the brain and nervous system gradually releases the breaks from those contracted muscles, allowing you regain full movement through the injured site and the affected movements.

I have had clients come through with frozen shoulders who couldn't lift their arm over their head upon entering and leaving the session with pretty much full range of motion shoulder mobility. 

I've also had clients with chronic knee pain be able to walk stairs, squat and lunge pain free after avoiding those moves for years.

By knowing what to stabilise and what to mobilise, you CAN regain lost range of motion and increase movement efficiency at any age!

Tomorrow- strength training.