What is joint mobility?
One of the key components of smooth, efficient movement is to have healthy joint function. A joint is a space for motion where two bones segments meet. Maximizing the potential of that space is key. It's the key to movement freedom.
If your joints can express their maximum capacity to move, you will unleash movement potential that you didn't know was possible. You will automatically move and perform on a higher level. Joints that are mobile and strong mitigate stiffness, pain and injuries and promote articular longevity.
This is a foundational building block for fluid, efficient, painfree movement. Every movement has joint prerequisites. We break it down and you put it all together with integrated movement. The better your joints function separately the better the function together.
MOBILITY VS. FLEXIBILITY
If I placed my leg on the cement wall and I can hold it there, that’s a good amount of flexibility, not bad, but who cares? Now, if I ACTIVELY put my leg on the wall...that’s a decent about of mobility. Which would you rather own?
Being flexible is the ability to PASSIVELY lengthen your muscles/tissues and to passively achieve a range of motion. Cool, but it doesn’t have much “pull” in and of itself and it’s not even an expression of movement capacity...or strength. Passive ranges look sweet in a photo, but they don’t translate into functional capacity. You have to sweet-talk your nervous system to own those ranges, produce force there and to actively control them within movement.
Being mobile on the other hand, is the ability to ACTIVELY lengthen your muscles/tissues and to actively achieve a range of motion, with control. Mobility is flexibility and strength combined. It IS an expression of functional capacity, because the nervous system has been taught to control, strengthen and own an arsenal of useable ranges. Learning to create neural drive, especially in the short-range/end-range positions of joints not only translates into more movement a-bility, it expands it!
Strength without mobility is vulnerability, not more “ability.” Being mobile makes you more resilient and harder to take down. It makes you more bulletproof and gives you power to maximize your functional capacity. Not only can you do more, but everything you do is easier (i.e. daily function, lifting, running, athletic performance, etc.)
Mobility is earned! You have to be prepared to step outside of your comfort zone, but that’s where the magic happens. It’s not a bunch of stretching crap, it’s hard work (over time). It’s often not about the muscles you see, but about the muscles you don’t see. Mobility = more movement ability, variability, durability & adaptability!
