If you want to move with ease and minimize your risk of injury, you have to prioritize your mobility and flexibility. Daily activities like walking without pain, tying your shoes, getting out of the car, or getting up off the floor from playing with your child all require both mobility and flexibility.
Mobility is the ability of a joint to move through a full range of motion without pain or obstruction.
A great way to keep your body mobile is to follow a well-rounded strength training program (wink, wink). Another awesome, underrated mobility practice is walking!
Flexibility is the ability of a muscle to stretch to its end range.
The combination of mobility and flexibility can prevent injury and help you to move comfortably.
When it comes to knowing which areas we should focus on mobilizing, I follow Gray Cook’s joint-by-joint approach.
The foundation of his approach basically states the body has a series of joints stacked on top of each other. These joints should alternate between being mobile and stable.
The big toe is meant to be mobile, the foot is meant to be stable, the ankle is meant to be mobile, the knee is meant to be stable, and so on.
So, when we stretch, we’re going to focus on increasing the length (or flexibility) of muscles surrounding the mobile joints. (The exception to this would be if someone is hypermobile and has too much mobility around a given joint, but this doesn’t happen too often.)