The Importance of Mobility Training…for Pretty Much EVERYTHING

Good mornings to you interwebs

I thought it was due time for a blog post. As the title eludes, the topic today will be on mobility training. Specifically, I will provide an introduction to what mobility training is and isn’t, why and when we should be working on mobility, and some tips to get you started on the journey to increased bendyness.

I’m happy to see people to start talking more about mobility, especially the heavy lifters and even more recently the YOUNGER heavy lifters (you know who you are).

When I first started in the health and “fitness” industry, there really wasn’t a lot of focus on mobility training, other than what was practiced in yoga (either that or I just didn't know what was going on). 

Stretching seemed to be always secondary to the “main workout”.  However, it is becoming increasing clear how imperative mobility is as I, and the industry in general, learn more about injury prevention and optimal performance.

I. What is mobility training?

·      In short, mobility training is any modality/activity used to maintain/increase the range of motion in your joints.

·      This includes not only what people “traditionally” think of when they hear the word “joints” (e.g., elbow, knee), but also less obvious joints such as the intervertebral/spine joints, ankle joints, the joint where the spine meets the pelvis (SI joint), and even finger joints. 

    To get your geek on, I would recommend looking into some anatomy literature to really get a good understanding of the different structures that may cause restrictions in certain joints

·      

    There are a variety of different tissues/anatomical structures/physiological processes that mobility training seeks to improve, keep moving, and maintain health, which generally includes….

o   Muscles

o   Fascia (the shrink wrap that surrounds muscle)

o   Joint capsules (these are less pliable then muscle and fascia)

o   Joint surfaces, which receive nutrients through movement and loading

o   Increased blood flow, which helps with healing and recovery

Now, I find a common misconception with mobility training is that it only involves stretching. Although “traditional” static stretching, (i.e., where you hold a position for say, 20 seconds) is important, it is not necessarily the best or most efficient method for increasing mobility, depending on what joint/tissue structures you’re seeking to manipulate. Efficiency or the most “bang for your buck” is important, considering time is a major concern for most people when it comes to physical activity.

Before I get into the different ways you can start to increase your mobility, I’d like to talk briefly about the potential issues that can occur due to immobility. For the sake of simplicity, I will focus on the traditional lifter, as these people tend to be the most immobile due to the type of training. OBVIOUSLY, this is a stereotype and I’m not suggesting that if you lift heavy then you don’t do mobility training, that’s just silly.

II. Why should I do mobility training?

The short answer is: Mobility Training decreases the chance of tissue wear and tear and/or damage/injury:

If you are regularly active… well existing, keeping your movements as fluid as possible should be a main priority (although it’s really up to you, no one can tell you what to do).

In other words, maintaining optimal range of motion in all joints (or as many as you can) will keep your movements and anatomical strutures healthier for longer and decrease the chance of injury. The way I explain this to people is using the following analogy…

Imagine you have a door in front of you. You don’t open that door very often, and eventually the hinges start to get “stiff”. You don’t oil the hinges and only open the door wide enough so you can fit through it. One day you try and fit a new couch through the door, so you open it wider than it has been in years. Because it hasn’t been moving, the hinges aren’t ready for the load and they will ultimately break. Also, the hinges will sustain more wear in general as they move only through a short range, thus less force distribution is occurring through the structures on a day to day basis.

So, in a human example, say you do not keep optimal flexibility in your upper back and hips, yet you lift a LOT of weight (although through a sub-optimal range). When you go to help your friend move his couch, and you need to get down to the ground to lift, you’re more likely to hurt your upper back, lower back, and hips, because your body isn’t used to the range.  A wham, you’re injured for 8 weeks. There goes all your gains bro!

Also, if you’re not moving your hips and back through full range when lifting, you are stressing the structures over and over in a short range, which will decrease force distribution in your tissues, and increase wear and tear over time.  It may not seem like a big deal now, but trust me when I say that in 20-30 years you’ll probably be wishing you treated your body in a different way.

Mobility training has other benefits other than just preventing injury and joint wear and tear… such as…

• Reducing stress
•  Increasing recovery (if done appropriately)
•  Improving performance WHEN you are lifting/training/competing

III. How do I do the mobility trainings?

There are SO MANY WAYS/METHODS out there for mobility training. The short answer to the afore mentioned question is: It depends

I cannot tell you, the reader, exactly what mobility training you should be doing because I would need to do a formal assessment to identify where your restrictions/limitations are and go from there.

I can however guide you in the right direction towards begin to incorporate mobility training into your training regime/life.

Tip 1: Find a physiotherapist (or similar type-health professional): I know this is kind of self advocating since I’m in PT school, but seriously, we can help in this area.

Clinicians that specialize in movement can get you perform what you usual do in the gym (snatches, deadlifts, squats), analyze your movement, then provide suggestions on ways your body has been adapting/moving to account for mobility limitations and how to overcome these deficits.

If you are not injured, or have sneaky overuse injuries creeping up 1-2 sessions with a PT (depending on how restricted you are) can provide you will some basic tools to help increase your flexibility.

ALSO: PTs, registered message therapists, myofacial release specialists, some chiropractors, and osteopaths can provide manual hands on techniques for some areas that are known to be difficult to release on your own: like the hip flexors, damn those things are hard to stretch and roll out

Tip 2: Do some reading

If money is an issue for you, there are a lot of resources on the interwebs that can help you with beginning to target your restricted areas. For example, a simple search term of “myofacial release” can do wonders

The trick is, is navigating what is good information, and not-so-good information on the net.

Tip 3: Do NOT over do it!

Mobility comes with time (like everything good in this world). Unfortunately, as humans we tend to adopt the “all or none” mentality, especially when it comes to health and fitness, instead of the “one step at a time” mentality. I’m hoping to see a change in this mentality as the industry progresses and demands more education of it’s professionals, but that’s a rant for another day.

Lets go back to our door analogy, but instead of stiff hinges, lets say the door is attached to the frame with tight rubber bands. Now obviously body tissues have much different properties in terms of self healing then a rubber band, but if you want to “Stretch out” that rubber band, doing it super quick with a lot of force is not going to be very effective (you could actually break the rubber band).

Instead, applying gentle pressure, gradually, within a force range that the band can handle is the most effective. There is also a point (as there is with any structure) where if there is TOO much flexibility/give then the other structures are at an increased risk of injury. We often see injuries in athletes like gymnasts because they have “too much” flexibility.

So what are you suppose to take from this tip? Well if you’re overwhelmed and feel like you don’t know where to start, I highly recommend returning to tip 1.

Tip 4: Stay hydrated and eat well

What does this have to do with mobility training, well pretty much everything. If you are looking to improve your range of motion and adapt your tissues to be more elastic, being hydrated and having the right amount of nutrients is super important.

This is NOT my area of expertise (yet?) but I know enough that if you are dehydrated your tissues are more “brittle” (for lack of a better term), and you are more likely to become injured if the tissues are stressed too far.

Tip 5: If all else fails….

If the first four tips aren't doing it for you, I would recommend joining a mobility based fitness class led by an educated and highly qualified professional.

Some common exercise class formats that can enhance overall mobility are….

1. Yoga: Yin, Hatha, hot yoga..etc.  I would stay away from power yoga type classes for enhancing mobility if you are starting out and are very stiff/restricted 

2. Pilates: Especially the reformer based classes, and try pick classes that focus on whole body rather than just core work

3. Tai Chi

4. Functional movement/mobility based classes: Look at what certifications the instructors of these classes have first

Give yourself a solid 1-3 months of regular gentle practice to start to see mad gains bro. Again, gaining/regaining mobility is a marathon, not a race!

I think I’ll leave it there!

So I hope this helps shed some light on the topic of mobility training!

MERRY CHRISTMAS/FESTIVUS/HAPPY HANUKKAH etc…

And of course…

Stay strong

~Byn

Evolving your body: More than what you think

Good Thursday to you Internet Friends

I haven't written in awhile due to lack of inspiration/time. However, once again I find myself at a point in my training life where I find that my perspectives are evolving and I think it may be beneficial for some of my readers (if there are still any!) who currently find themselves in a rut with their workouts/body/performance.

I recently had the opportunity to have a six week placement at a fantastic private physiotherapy clinic in Burlington, Ontario with an extremely talented and knowledgeable clinician with over 20 years in the field. This preceptor has done an incredible job at helping me continue to fine tune my approach to looking at the body, including my own.

I won't mention their name, as I haven't asked their permission to blog about them, but this physiotherapist has a strong Pilates, yoga, and manual therapy background and does an excellent job at combining all three to give patients what they need to get better and avoid injury in the future.

My first day in this clinic I was excited and apprehensive to see 4 Pilates reformers staring me down. Now, I've always turned my nose up at Pilates proclaiming "Pilates is bad for your lower back, and is not an efficient form of training...it's just another fitness fad to make money".  However, I thought why not give my preceptor's evening reformer class a go, since it was better than sitting on my but charting.

All I can say is … holy potatoes! I engaged muscles I never knew I had and have finally had a deep abdominal "a ha" moment. In school we are taught how to engage the deep stabilizers of the pelvis in one or two ways on our back and on all fours. My preceptor quickly taught me that engaging those muscles in isolation is all well and good, but if you cannot engage them when they count during everyday movement and exercise then they are essentially useless…. Pilates taught me just that.

Another wonderful thing I discovered about Pilates is that it is like yoga… but more… flow-ey, at least the way my preceptor taught it. We used our muscles in a way to lengthen and engage full range of motion. I found that after the class I felt fantastic. It is a great adjunct to my overall training.

Upon some reflection I had another a-ha moment. I had always dismissed training such as Pilates proclaiming that building muscle and functional strength is the "only" way to train. However, as I age (as we all do), strength training can only bring you so far without mobility.

I'm seeing something interesting happening in the fitness world with the heavy lifters. I don't know if it's because my friends are becoming older along with me, or if this is a true evolution of the industry, but mobility training is starting to become an essential part of over all body health and performance.

I kind of always knew this in the back of my head, and about 5 years ago made a solid effort to increase my flexibility. However, the more and more I learn about the body from a functional and injury prevention/rehabilitation perspective, I find that mobility training is way more than just stretching.

So to avoid further rambling, I'm going to put in point form some stuff that I have learned since last September on incorporating mobility into your sport/lifting/training program.


1. Breathing is way more important than you think it is: After I wrote this, it seemed kinda silly. Of course breathing is important Robyn, you need breathing to live and stuff. However, I've noticed through observation of myself and clients that we often do not breathe properly. Breathing seems pretty straight forward. However, as you are moving, working, stretching.. etc notice how you're breathing. Here are some common things I have noticed that contribute to inefficient breathing...

• Holding your breath: no brainer, don't hold your breath. However, pay more attention to your breathing during the day and notice when you do so (it's probably more than you think). Also, when people hold their breath they tend to tense their neck and upper back… bad news bears.

• Upper chest breathing: a lot of us, especially when stressed/working hard, breath with the top of our chest (think everything pec/boob up). Efficient breathing involves the entire lung, including the lower half (think belly button to bottom of pec/boob). When stretching/lifting/stressed out think about breathing from your belly, mid-chest, then upper chest last.

• Inhalation/exhalation timing: Some people will exhale when the abdominal cavity needs stabilization naturally. However, a lot of us don't or simply don't think about it. This is even more likely to happen during everyday movement. It feels weird at first to be constantly thinking about when to exhale, but eventually it becomes habit. The idea is simple…. we want the spine and pelvis to be as stable as possible when moving and lifting, so, ideally, we want to be exhaling and thus engaging the deep abdominal muscles during these movements. For example, when getting up from a chair, ideally, you should exhale and engage your deep abdominals (that's a topic for another day). The amount of exhalation and deep abdominal activation will vary on the amount of load you are moving (your body vs. deadlifting weight).

2. What is your body actually doing?!: This is something that I see as being a subtle/often overlooked contributor to overuse injuries. To go into depth on this topic is way beyond the scope of this blog post, so I'll just use this point to put a little birdy in the back of your head to pay attention to your body when you're using it.

• Cervical spine and head: your c-spine is your neck and your head is… attached to your neck. A lot of the time slight changes in your head and neck position during movement can lead to injury/pain over time. Something common I see is people "leading with their chin". This is especially apparent when people deadlift or squat. When going into a deep squat or deadlift the body actually needs quite a bit of thoracic (upper back) extension and hip flexibility (which a lot of us are deficient in since we SIT too much). Therefore, the body will naturally compensate by "poking" our chin out and extending through the neck. It looks like this….

Holy neck strain batman

VERSUS

Some sneaky chin poking/c-spine extending moments can also occur when driving, working on the computer, and going from seated to standing. So pay attention to what that head is doing!!!

• Thoracic Spine: Ohhh the t-spine. My love hate relationship. The t-spine can cause all sorts of problems. I actually contemplated going straight to lumbar spine/pelvis because mines so terrible and I'm not sure how the picture will turn out. As mentioned previously, lack of t-spine flexibility causes all sorts of issues in the head and neck (i.e., the head and neck will extend to obtain the extension lacking in the t-spine). Climbers and people with crazy back muscles I'm talking to you! If your t-spine is hypomobile/inflexible this will effect things above and below your upper back and just make everything so much less efficient. An example of an inflexible t-spine is when you generally look like this….

Notice the considerable rounding of the subjects upper back contributing to forward head posture and overall generalized sadness

So instead of being a douche-bag  unhelpful and just telling you to "stand up taller and don't round your back", how about I give you a simple thing to do to help your back extension.

First you need two towels (or a foam roller if you have one)….

two towels

Second, fold the two towels in half and then roll them tightly into a log type situation….

old-school foam roller

Finally, place the log towel down longitudinally (along your spine) and lye down on it starting at your bum all the way to your head. You can put your arms over your head to increase upper back extension or make your arms into a cactus to open the chest…. as so….

arms above head (not in cactus) for ease of viewing 

I would keep your knees bent to support your lower back. Here's some cactus arms….

Muther fudging cactus arms

If this position is too easy for you (the towel longitudinally along your spine that is), you can alternatively put it horizontally across your upper back. I like to do this with a foam roller at various hypomobile sections of my upper back. Cactus arms/arms over head still apply to this towel position.

Ok jeeze. I think I'm gonna leave it there. I'm not sure how this blog post started about me now loving Pilates and turned into me taking pictures of myself with a towel, but it is what it is.

There are, indeed, other parts of the body that we must be aware of (like everything below the belly button) that I'll try and make a post on before the ridiculousness of my 4th unit of physio-school ensues.

Any questions/comments are always appreciated. They actually keep me motivated to keep posting.

Stay strong!

~Byn