Articles
Mobility System: A Complete Process
July 23 2024
July 23 2024
As someone who advocates static passive stretching, I get the sense that a lot of people misinterpret that to mean it’s the only thing I recommend for mobility, which couldn’t be less true. Here’s a look at what I consider to be a complete system for improving and maintaining mobility.
The Components
Following are the components of a complete mobility system. These should be used to varying extents based on need for each athlete, which will usually vary over time, but all of them should play some role at all times. The exact exercises, movements, positions and tools will need to be chosen to address individual needs as well.
Soft Tissue Work: This includes foam rolling, more specific work with balls and similar, and even massage, ART and other manual therapies from professionals.
Dynamic Mobility Work: This is range of motion work you’re doing primarily in preparation for training—DROMs, flow sequences and various prep exercises that are intended move your body through increasingly longer ranges of motion and even improve the function of muscle systems to actively create stability.
Static-Passive: This is classic stretching—moving into stretched positions and holding. This includes anything from the most basic long duration holds, to series of shorter holds, to PNF work.
Static-Active: This is similar to the above in the sense that we’re holding positions at least briefly rather than simply moving through them, but those positions are being reached through the effort of antagonist muscles rather than gravity or similar.
Weak Muscle Strength Work: This is specifically targeted strength work for muscles that have been identified as comparatively weak, which is a common cause of tightness. This typically means isolation (or nearly) exercises of the prehab/rehab type.
Full ROM Training: This is the bulk of your training—simply performing exercises through the full range of motion you currently possess. This improves stability of increasing ROM achieved with all of your mobility work, and secures the ROM long term. To some extent this can also increase mobility as a type of loaded active/dynamic stretching.
Putting It All Together
Morning: Do some simple dynamic range of motion work soon after you get up in the morning—things like arm circles, leg swings, trunk rotations, etc. You can also do some more flow-type things as you warm up more. This is a way to help neurologically reset muscle tension/length after a night of short muscles and no real movement.
Pre-Training: After a brief period of something like cycling to get blood flowing and actually increase body temperature, this is the time to do your soft-tissue work: foam rolling and/or ball/similar into specific problem areas. Then move on to dynamic range of motion, whatever preparatory movements/exercises you find effective, and potentially some static stretches for specific areas (to help open up the shoulders, as a common example).
Training: Of course as mentioned previously, your training itself will help improve and preserve mobility if you’re lifting through full ranges of motion. You can also perform static stretches between sets. This is a good choice for your priority areas/biggest limiters and an efficient use of your gym time. Generally avoid stretching the muscles you’re using in the exercise you’re presently doing, e.g. don’t stretch quads and hamstrings during squats. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but potentially, so it’s easy enough to just avoid it altogether.
Post-Training: This is the best time for more aggressive static stretching because you’re warm and you’ve established full range of motion in all of your previous activity as a baseline to try to push farther from. You can start with some slow, gentle flow work as a kind of cooldown and transition from training to relaxing, then finish with a series of static-passive stretches that cover all the major points and any additional specific to your problem areas.
Before Bed: This should be similar to post-training: relaxing. Light foam rolling, flow and static-passive stretching to help you stay feeling loose and ease tension before sleep.
It’s a System
Improving and preserving mobility involves a lot of elements—even things like reducing general stress that creates undue tension. One of the primary reasons mobility work seems ineffective for people is that they fixate on a single “cure” for the problem—that one perfect stretch, exercise, drill or method they think will solve the problem. Like all training, for maximal effectiveness you need to ensure you’re addressing every element consistently and treating the body as the complex system it is.
The Components
Following are the components of a complete mobility system. These should be used to varying extents based on need for each athlete, which will usually vary over time, but all of them should play some role at all times. The exact exercises, movements, positions and tools will need to be chosen to address individual needs as well.
Soft Tissue Work: This includes foam rolling, more specific work with balls and similar, and even massage, ART and other manual therapies from professionals.
Dynamic Mobility Work: This is range of motion work you’re doing primarily in preparation for training—DROMs, flow sequences and various prep exercises that are intended move your body through increasingly longer ranges of motion and even improve the function of muscle systems to actively create stability.
Static-Passive: This is classic stretching—moving into stretched positions and holding. This includes anything from the most basic long duration holds, to series of shorter holds, to PNF work.
Static-Active: This is similar to the above in the sense that we’re holding positions at least briefly rather than simply moving through them, but those positions are being reached through the effort of antagonist muscles rather than gravity or similar.
Weak Muscle Strength Work: This is specifically targeted strength work for muscles that have been identified as comparatively weak, which is a common cause of tightness. This typically means isolation (or nearly) exercises of the prehab/rehab type.
Full ROM Training: This is the bulk of your training—simply performing exercises through the full range of motion you currently possess. This improves stability of increasing ROM achieved with all of your mobility work, and secures the ROM long term. To some extent this can also increase mobility as a type of loaded active/dynamic stretching.
Putting It All Together
Morning: Do some simple dynamic range of motion work soon after you get up in the morning—things like arm circles, leg swings, trunk rotations, etc. You can also do some more flow-type things as you warm up more. This is a way to help neurologically reset muscle tension/length after a night of short muscles and no real movement.
Pre-Training: After a brief period of something like cycling to get blood flowing and actually increase body temperature, this is the time to do your soft-tissue work: foam rolling and/or ball/similar into specific problem areas. Then move on to dynamic range of motion, whatever preparatory movements/exercises you find effective, and potentially some static stretches for specific areas (to help open up the shoulders, as a common example).
Training: Of course as mentioned previously, your training itself will help improve and preserve mobility if you’re lifting through full ranges of motion. You can also perform static stretches between sets. This is a good choice for your priority areas/biggest limiters and an efficient use of your gym time. Generally avoid stretching the muscles you’re using in the exercise you’re presently doing, e.g. don’t stretch quads and hamstrings during squats. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but potentially, so it’s easy enough to just avoid it altogether.
Post-Training: This is the best time for more aggressive static stretching because you’re warm and you’ve established full range of motion in all of your previous activity as a baseline to try to push farther from. You can start with some slow, gentle flow work as a kind of cooldown and transition from training to relaxing, then finish with a series of static-passive stretches that cover all the major points and any additional specific to your problem areas.
Before Bed: This should be similar to post-training: relaxing. Light foam rolling, flow and static-passive stretching to help you stay feeling loose and ease tension before sleep.
It’s a System
Improving and preserving mobility involves a lot of elements—even things like reducing general stress that creates undue tension. One of the primary reasons mobility work seems ineffective for people is that they fixate on a single “cure” for the problem—that one perfect stretch, exercise, drill or method they think will solve the problem. Like all training, for maximal effectiveness you need to ensure you’re addressing every element consistently and treating the body as the complex system it is.
