This is a very important article to read for anyone who works in the field of human movement. When it comes to developing functional movement, often the very first step and goal is improving the body’s capability for full range movement. Movement happens about the body’s 360 joints and the degree in which they are able to achieve movement is referred to as ‘range of motion’ or ROM. Each joint must fulfill a specific degree of ROM in order to move in a way that maximizes the body’s biomechanical output, conserves energy, minimizes the leaking of forces, and inhibits the tendency for other muscles need to overcompensate. This is known as functional range. Below you can see a nice and simple example of this where a pelvic imbalance can produce compensations further up the chain at the neck.
If ROM is limited, two things happen: first of all the movement must go on and so other joints must move more in order for the body to reach its destination. And two, in order for the muscles to each do their fair share the body must allow movement into the ranges that call upon each of them. For example, if the SI joint doesn’t allow enough movement, the gluteus medius will find difficulty achieving the leverage needed to work and the hip abductors will have no difficulty working excessively. It's like trying to produce the force to push a shopping cart forward but your body is off balance backwards - it just won’t work!
Now ROM can become restricted in three ways: structural-articular restriction, tendino-muscular restriction, or kinetic-patterning restriction. Structural-articular restriction means that the joint itself is blocked from moving due to some physical structure directly in the way. This can be a tightened joint-space, additional bone growth creating bone-on-bone impingement, or inflammation of the ligaments, cartilage or bursa impeding movement. It's important to see a professional in order to rule out this possibility. If not properly addressed structural-articular restrictions can develop into much more serious pathology.
Next, tendino-muscular restrictions occur due to over-shortened and over-lengthened muscle imbalances as well as hypertonic (strain) dysfunction restricting the allowance of movement. These sorts of restrictions can be greatly assisted with the help of acupuncture! And the last one, a kinetic-patterning restriction takes place when the movement dysfunction deals with inability to coordinate movement functionally and effectively. When dysfunction first arises it’s usually only one of these restrictions that will display, but over time when left unaddressed the dysfunction begins to display itself in all three.
Today we are going to dive into the realm of flexibility and mobility. These two complimenting ROM qualities predominantly deal with regulating the tendino-muscular and kinetic-patterning restriction types. They also are capable of influencing structural-articular restrictions to some degree, but they do so indirectly via the tendino-muscular aspects ability to reduce inflammation and re-position how the bones actually sit within the joint capsule.
Our goal today is to discuss the difference between flexibility and mobility and then understand how to utilize them together to improve our functional range, with the ultimate goal of moving well. These days, mobility is all the rant and rave and we often see flexibility considered to be this outdated thing that should be replaced by mobility altogether. I’m here to tell you that that’s just not true and that although mobility is definitely all that it is hyped up to be, flexibility is on the same playing field and just as important.
Let’s quickly define the two. Mobility, on the one hand, deals with the body’s ability to mobilize or move itself. Within this closed mechanical system that is the human body, the body has the ability to create forces via the muscles that act on the joints and produce movement: this is internal force! When the bicep contracts the elbow flexes and when the tricep contracts the elbow extends. Mobility is the ability of the body to create these sorts of internal forces that result in primary movement about the joints. Muscles have a much more difficult time producing movements in and around end-range. To improve mobility we must frequently challenge this.
On the other hand we have flexibility which deals with our body’s ability to allow movement, and load external forces through stretch or flex. A catapult works not because it is mobile but because it has an incredibly active flex potential. Flexibility deals with response to external forces as opposed to the production of internal forces. Flexibility also plays a role in allowing mobility to happen as there can be cases where the internal force capability is sufficient enough to create the movement range but the opposing soft tissue is not flexible enough to allow things to move to that range.
Flexibility and mobility are yet another beautiful manifestation of Yin & Yang that we can recognize as pervading all things. Flexibility and mobility are a manifestation of Yin and Yang with regards to ROM. Mobility is Yang in the way that kinetic energy predominates and it is actively creating movement. Flexibility is Yin in the way that it is predominantly potential energy and is passively loading, yielding and allowing movement. The beautiful thing about the concept of Yin and Yang is that their existence is dependent upon the other and that they cannot truly be separated from one another in practice. Although our aim may be to develop one or the other, we will always develop a little bit of both in movement.
The body is very well integrated. Both flexibility and mobility always have influence over one another. As we just mentioned, poor flexibility has the ability to restrict mobility, but did you also know that poor mobility will influence flexibility by producing signals of pain and even shutting off the antagonistic muscles ability to stretch in areas where the primary agonistic muscles are weak and thus susceptible to strain. This is one of the body's built in protective measures. There is this continuous back and forth “see-saw” feedback mechanism that communicates between agonist and antagonistic muscles. Knowing this will help you to best design your own training plan aimed at optimizing ROM.
FLEXIBILITY
When an external force is applied to the body putting stress on soft-tissue, that is stretching. Flexibility is our ability to stretch, load force and spring force. It is the flex within a hockey stick that produces the fling of a faster slapshot. We want our body's soft tissue to have this same supple spring-ability. Now there is a variety of soft tissue in the human body. We have the skin, dermis, myofascia (tendon, muscular connective tissue and form of the muscle itself), ligaments, synovium, periosteum, retinacular tissue, and then of course fat tissue, nerves and blood & lymph vessels all fall under the classification of soft tissue too. These soft tissues all have the ability to be flexible and stretched with movement, but of this long list that we mentioned here, there are only a few that are notably challenged with sport and functional range of motion extremes. These are the myofascia, ligaments, synovium and nerves. Of these there is one that is the most powerful, most protective and capable of dampening harshness in the others. Let's keep reading and find out which one that is!
With movement nerves stretch and floss along our frame. With inactivity or chronic muscle tightness our nerves can become “tight” producing pain. The simple remedy for this is just moving well and moving often. For this reason addressing these other soft tissues is more than enough to reset and regulate our nerve flexibility. So we can overlook nerves as a soft tissue of focus when developing ROM.
With all but three of the soft tissue factored out we now know where to place our focus in flexibility training and development. When it comes to the myofascial, ligamentous and synovial soft tissues our most important focus is the myofascial tissue for the reason that it has the capability of being activated or not activated. The ligaments and synovium do not have this choice and so they are more passive. If the myofascia is not activated in a way that allows it to load the greatest amount of force then that force will instead distribute itself throughout the ligaments and put an increased stress on the articular structures like the synovium, bursa, cartilage, or the epiphysial bone itself. Some professionals refer to this passive tissue stretching as stretching the ‘sleeve’, or ‘dumping into the joint’. Increased stress on these structures also has the ability to produce huge degrees of instability in a joint, a large excess of unusable “empty” range of motion, and high susceptibility for joint compression, sprain, rupture/tear, dislocation, osteochondral injuries, and all-around weakens performance.
So now the question is, how do I activate my myofascial tissue to prevent all of this? My simple answer is, learn how to activate the muscles! When it comes to stretching and training flexibility there are two primary distinctions: passive flexibility and active flexibility. Passive flexibility describes the limp flexibility where the muscles and therefore the myofascial itself are not activated. In other words they are removed from the equation and a much greater load is then dumped onto the ligaments and articular structures. In my opinion, there is very little use for this sort of stretching and it almost always does more harm than good. It is for this reason that I am also very weary of our modern day hatha yoga practices. It destroys tensegrity and creates deficiency in the meridians that will not only damage the joints but it can also weaken our internal organs and create psycho-emotional instabilities.
Active flexibility on the other hand completes the integrated flow of forces through the body. Instead of things hopping and pooling joint-socket to joint-socket in this choppy, unfluid and uncontrolled manner, we now see the muscles and their connective tissue that flows between the joints playing a fluid and beautifully distributed role. This activation also unlocks a much deeper sensitivity to Qi especially once relaxation is brought into the picture. This topic of activated relaxation is a very hard to grasp concept in the modern western world as we often equate relaxation with limp inactivation. Learning how to differentiate these two is a central practice to qigong training and a very important piece to take out of this article. We will not be discussing activated relaxation any further in this article as there is a full article to come that will deal solely with this esoteric concept and what the Chinese classically referred to as ‘sung’ or ‘song’ relaxation. Stay tuned!
Training active flexibility requires us to engage, or more simply contract the muscles or kinetic chain that is being stretched. What is often first noticed when we begin to stretch active muscles is that the intensity of the stretch skyrockets and that we are unable to achieve the same ROM without unbearable discomfort. That’s okay! Now we are at least dealing with usable ROM. Many professionals will look at the ROM difference between where one is able to actively mobilize their joint on their own, and where one is able to take their joint when stretched. If there is a big difference between the two this is considered to be an increased susceptibility to injury. This is only partially true as we want tissues to have flex so long as that flex is maximized by muscular activation.
Believe it or not, and particularly in sport, we don’t want to see our mobility ROM equal to that of our flexibility ROM as many experts may claim. This is because it eliminates the incredibly important elastic spring capacity that is our active flexibility! However we do need to make sure our active flexibility is well developed and healthy. That's a must. One more misunderstanding I've seen a lot lately that I would like to clarify is the oversimplified belief that mobility is usable range of motion and flexibility is not. If we consider usable to only mean what we can internally achieve then that would be so, but the act of being able to load an external force and spring 100% of it back redirected is also a very usable feat - even if that ROM exceeds where our mobility can go.
We can divide our ROM training up into concentric, isometric and eccentric exercises. Concentric motion includes any exercise where the muscle is activating/contracting while it is shortening (ex. bicep curl) aka mobility. Isometric exercises allow the muscle to activate/contract without any change in length - hence the joint doesn’t move. And lastly, eccentric motion includes any exercise where the muscle is activating or seeking to contract while in actuality the muscle is lengthening (ex. nordic hamstring curl).
True active flexibility is eccentric loading, but these other two types both play a key role in the development of active flexibility. Concentric motion is only used to build a base level of strength in the muscle, so that it is capable of large amounts of active stretch. All other aspects of concentric motion deal with mobility and its regulatory role in flexibility - more to come on this in the section below.
Lastly, Isometric exercises are used to focus in and develop strong activation at the end ranges. As we said earlier, 'muscles have a much more difficult time producing movements in and around end-range'. Isometric exercises allow us to hone in on this aspect and minimize the steep petering-off of strength in end-range that we often see. what's more, when a muscle is producing an isometric force that is acting against achieving end-range while at that end-range, it modulates the nervous system's involvement in both pain signalling and shutting down the inhibitory role of the muscles that oppose achieving that end range. So much of our ROM is not actually restricted by physically tight soft tissue but rather neurological signals being sent to the central nervous system saying “you can’t do that!”. Isometric resisted training or IRT works to override this sort of programming.
Depending on your sport or practice, the degrees in which we must develop active flexibility will differ. Personally coming from a background in gymnastics, early on I observed the positions that were required in order to execute difficult skills, and proactively developed my own body, and now the body’s of my athletes to be able to not only reach those extreme positions but to be able to do so in an active way that is strong and effective in loading and redirecting force. We also want our body developed in a way that is capable of maintaining superb form and general aesthetic. To ensure this I’ve developed exercises that focus in on all the universal movements. I test my athletes regularly to make sure they stand up to par. If not we must deconstruct and determine where such deficiencies are sourced, establish prehab/rehab exercises based around these deficiencies, and then also lighten the load so that they may continue to train the neurological coordination of the skill itself minus the subsequent wear and tear that a deficiency allows.
MOBILITY
When the body is capable of producing its own internal muscular force to achieve movement we have mobility. Poor mobility means that the body can achieve a very limited ROM due to (1) poor tendino-muscular health, (2) a neurological inhibition, (3) fascial adhesions, or (4) a structural-articular restriction. Good mobility means that the body is capable of achieving a large ROM throughout that satisfies the functional minimum. Minimum functional ROM is of course different for every joint and it is determined by the amount of ROM that is needed in order for the muscles to each work their best and avoid overcompensation. For more direction in this realm come see us at Hero Performance Health or find a nearby movement specialist in your area who will provide a comprehensive movement screen along with a clear & detailed direction to help you meet your health & performance goals, and best mitigate pain and likelihood of injury along the way
As outlined in the paragraph above, mobility can be restricted for a handful of different reasons. More often than not we are dealing with more than one of these at a time. What’s beautiful about developing mobility is that, so long as there is no underlying structural-articular obstruction (in which case you must immediately see your doctor(s) for more aggressive treatment - medication, laser, manual adjustment, surgery), if we’ve ruled this out we’re safe to develop mobility with exercises that will address all the other restrictions together! Mobility-centered exercises will adjust state of the tendons and muscles, and rewire the neurological feedback and movement coordination.
The simple general method to developing mobility is by first anchoring stable base posture, moving the joint of focus to its end range(s), holding with activation for 20-30 seconds, applying an isometric counter-activation for 20-30 seconds, progressing a little further into a greater end range if possible, and then repeating the sequence. This should of course be developed alongside the eccentric loading of the antagonistic muscles as just discussed in the flexibility section. When the linear movement ranges are sufficiently developed, we can then begin moving into more free combinations about the joint through all quadrants. For example, instead of isolated internal-external shoulder rotation we can begin to combine it with different variations in the flexion-extension and abduction-adduction planes using CARS (controlled articular rotations) style exercises, pulsing movements, sport related movements, or free-play expression.
The true Hero Physique is balanced and you can see it show in the proportions and the quality of the muscles. Some sports challenge the lower body more than the upper body or vice versa, other sports demand endurance over maximum strength, and so general differences in physique will show but we do see commonalities shine through all sports. I consider gymnastics when developed properly to create one of the most balanced, pound-for-pound, agile physiques of all. The body all-around feels better and the muscles develop and appear different when they are trained in an integrated and full-range manner. Understand too that this great benefit to gymnastics training also can be highly damaging when done incorrectly. Those who primarily train very linear concentric joint-isolated exercises away from end-range in the pursuit of muscular hypertrophy for aesthetic goals depart from a Hero Physique. They will indeed achieve big muscles, but the overall balance is off. It doesn’t look as nice and the body typically will not feel as good either.
From a traditional Chinese meridian standpoint, developing good mobility will also play a role in balancing internal organ health and psycho-emotional wellbeing. In the Yin & Yang of it all, of course both of these aspects of ROM co-arose mutually, but Yin qualities often have a tendency to appear as a subtle precursor to Yang qualities, although this is not necessarily true it does demonstrate the importance of good physical health as a priority for good psycho-emotional health. Of course it takes a confident and well-willed psyche to practice a regular physical training and hygiene regimen in the first place, it is definitely our best start to “fake it till you make it” if you need to and get out and move in order to address psycho-emotional disorder.
CONCLUSION
Now that we have a strong understanding of the differences between flexibility and mobility as well as recognize the principles that go into developing both of these in the pursuit of functional ROM, we can achieve a clear vision of how to get there. Understand that getting to an end goal takes time and that the best thing we can do is enjoy the journey, triumph in the small improvements and keep chipping away daily even if that means only spending 5 minutes. Increasing ROM takes time but more importantly than that it takes consistent daily repetition. We will have a hard time achieving any substantial ROM goals if we only train rigorously one or two days a week.
Also recognize that our ROM goals must evolve around our physical demands - in some cases this may mean developing ROM that far exceeds the minimum functional range. Understand that although mobility is all the rant and rave these days and often considered superior to flexibility, this is not true and that well developed active flexibility gives us the ability to elastically load and transmit force. Think spring! This means that using high-level flexibility techniques like bouncing is a good thing so long as our movement and activation has been screened and tested and we are developing it with the proper progression. A sport like gymnastics requires that we develop this sort of active end-range bounce or spring. In fact it's a biomechanical advantage!
Lastly recognize that mobility and flexibility cannot exist separately and that they are always both at play. There can be cases where both are being stressed maximally like at the apex of the Switch Split Leap or while initiating the Turn-Over on a Front Giant or Inlocate on Rings. When these two inseparable qualities properly unite we see an optimized level of performance is achieved and the body achieves a great degree of balanced tensegrity highly adaptive to all forces and stresses that come its way. Happy training everyone!
Always if you have any comments or question never hesitate to throw them our way! Also for more info in addition to the Hero Performance Health Blog you can find us on Facebook, IG, or at www.HeroPerformanceHealth.com
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