Mobility Work is Overrated
(Note: this post does NOT claim to give any medical advice or really solve any problem at all. These are just my thoughts. I ask a lot of questions but don’t provide a lot of universal answers, and this is not written to be a close examination of the topic of mobility work/mobility interventions/injury prevention/etc. All that stuff is tied up together, and that’s part of the problem. I just want you to think about WHY you do things in the gym rather than just accepting them based on someone’s perceived authority)
Having “poor mobility” is one of those sacred cows of the fitness industry that doesn’t really make sense when you look at it closely.
We’ve been told that “poor mobility” can result in “poor movement patterns” and injury. If we do a bunch of weird looking warm-ups, foam roll, and pay a bunch of money to get soft tissue work done as often as possible, we can improve our mobility, and by extension, our movement technique in the gym and quality of life. Supposedly.
So let’s start from the beginning: what do we mean by “mobility” in the first place?
In the fitness industry, I haven’t found an agreed-upon definition. Mobility seems to be something that’s floating around out there in space that we need to get, but how do we know when we’ve gotten it? There’s always some yoga instructor that can put their knee behind their head or something ridiculous. Do we need to be able to do that to do the athletic activities we want to do? Or do we need to conform to a guru’s standard before participating in an activity?
In its most basic sense, “mobility” just means the ability to move. We say “good mobility,” we essentially say “good movement;” “poor mobility,” “poor movement.” So how do we define “good” movement? Who defines that, and what’s the standard? What differentiates “good” movement from “poor” movement?
Many clinicians have tried to define “good” movement and there are lots of systems and assessments out there. On a much more basic level, we’ve all heard statements like “don’t round your back when you pick something up,” “don’t let your knees go over your toes when you squat,” “don’t heel strike when you run,” on and on. Lots of harmful, negative, fear-inducing language.
Despite the prevalence of these types of statements, I have yet to see a universally agreed-upon and applicable movement standard with strong evidence for its use (if you’ve seen one, send it my way). So when we do mobility work, what exactly are we working toward, and why? “Better” technique? Less risk of injury?
I minored in philosophy in college. One of the fundamental logical fallacies we learned about is post hoc ergo propter hoc. “After this, therefore because of this.” Now think about all the times you’ve heard someone say something like “I have back pain because I lifted something with a rounded back.” That statement is a perfect example of this fallacy. It’s not a good argument, even though on the surface it makes sense and is easy to understand.
The human body is more complex than “if A, then B.” So-called “poor” movement does not always lead to injury. Using our example, plenty of gym bros deadlift with a rounded back every day with no issues. World record deadlifts have been done with rounded backs. Conversely, people also have pain deadlifting with seemingly “perfect” technique.
Am I saying technique for a given activity doesn’t matter? Of course not, it matters a lot. What I’m saying is that in any discussion of mobility and movement, we need to leave a LOT of room for individual differences since we don’t even have a universal standard for what “good” movement actually looks like. In the injury prevention discussion there are a lot of other factors to discuss besides mobility and technique. We can redefine what’s “good” (or at least “more optimal”) according to the individual and their performance in an activity.
Here’s the real question that I care about: do we need to spend a ton of time using what one would normally think of as “corrective” or “mobility” drills, or is practicing our athletic activities (or close variants) a better use of time?
Static stretching doesn’t have much evidence for efficacy at all and decreases performance when performed before strength and power activities. Dynamic stretching, or simply unloaded movement, does have evidence for increasing performance in strength, power, and speed and agility activities when done immediately prior to the activity.
Foam rolling and other self myofascial release techniques can increase range of motion in the short-term and don’t seem to harm performance. Before you decide to include these, I’d ask yourself if this would be a better use of your time than practicing whatever specific movements you want to improve.
I recommend a simple, specific warmup before activity. Unloaded (or light-load) warmups should resemble the movements you’re going to be doing. Bodyweight squats, Cossack squats, and similar drills are great as a warmup for barbell squats – seems obvious. You don’t need to spend time stretching or working on positions that have nothing to do with what you’ll be doing. Once you start to warm up, squat the empty bar for a few sets. And so on. You may find that you feel just as “loose” and “warm” as when you use an extended general warmup, plus you’re practicing more squat reps.
If you’re doing more of a circuit-style workout, the same process applies. Start with a very easy version of whatever you’re doing - lower load, fewer reps, less speed, etc. Then work into your actual workout.
If you struggle with a certain movement, PRACTICE THE MOVEMENT. It probably isn’t tough for you to hit squat depth because your hamstrings are “tight.” You need practice squatting. Do them unloaded, slow them down, etc. Progress the range of motion gradually, using the actual movement. That goes for any movement or exercise you’re looking to improve.
With ALL of that said, if you just genuinely enjoy mobility work and it improves your quality of life, DO IT. Just realize that you don’t have to do it to lift weights, compete in sports, or do any other physical activity well.
You aren’t broken, and you don’t have a million mobility “problems” to fix. You’re just human like the rest of us.
For a much more extended discussion of these issues by people much more qualified than myself, here’s some recommended reading for you.
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/mobility-explained/
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/lumbar-flexion/
https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000374
https://www.painscience.com/articles/posture.php
https://www.painscience.com/articles/mobilizing.php#prevention
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24100287
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4637917/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25968853
Make 2019 your best year for fitness yet. If you’re looking for a fitness trainer in the Mt Juliet/Hermitage/Nashville TN area, online fitness training, or just need some advice to get your fitness program started, contact me