For this month’s CaliUnity Wisdom I wanted to talk about Mobility....obviously. I wanted to showcase a routine that anyone can do from anywhere to be able to keep themselves nice and supple, as well as showcase what mobility and flexibility are.
When it comes to training, mobility, and in turn, flexibility can become overlooked or even forgotten. Mobility and flexibility are often interchanged and used in the same context, which can make it hard to know where to begin when it comes to keeping more mobile.
Mobility relates to how your joints move, their range of motion and the strength of movement with full control of muscles and joints being worked, which is more active.
Whereas flexibility is the ability of your muscle tissue to stretch and the range of motion of muscle tissue, which is more passive.
So now you may be thinking ‘what’s the difference between active and passive stretching and/or motion?’ The Active side uses the body itself to contract one muscle or muscle group to stretch another opposing muscle or muscle group. In Personal Training terms, the contracting muscle is called the Agonist and the opposing muscle being stretched is the Antagonist. Flexibility tends to use external forces, like resistance bands for example, to help increase the range of motion we are trying to work.
So now we know the fundamental basis of mobility, and of flexibility, what comes next?
We need to keep our joints, mobile in order to maintain healthy and free movement. When I’m speaking with clients before a mobility session, or in the consultation process, I always love to know what their hobbies are, what they do for a living, how they travel, etc as these types of questions give me a clear picture and can help tailor a mobility session to a client. Sat at a desk all day? Shoulder, hip and spinal mobility are key facets to look at. Play a lot of ball-based team sports? Ankle & knee mobility are going to be very important. Getting a lot of headaches? Keeping your neck mobile with a full range of motion should help ease that tension. With this kind of approach, we can target specific areas more than others when it comes to our mobility
.
I like to work either from the head down or from the feet up when it comes to mobility;
The Neck, Shoulders, Spine, Hips, Elbows, Wrists, Hands & Fingers, Knees, Ankles & Toes are the main joints I like to work, but if you feel you have less mobility in some areas, take your time over these areas and work on them more to make them more mobile, if only gently.
Everyone is different, so listen to what your body tells you.
Here’s a mobility routine as an example:
Starting from the head working down;
- Neck Rolls with full and slow 360-degree movement (to a count of 5 per roll); clockwise x
10, anti-clockwise x 10
- Neck turns side to side (to a count of 3 each way); look to each side x 10
- Neck Look up (chin to the sky) to Look down (chin to chest) (to a count of 3 each way); x 10
up and x 10 down
- Shoulder shrugs with a full range of motion x 10 up and x 10 down
- Shoulder circles (with arms outstretched) using a full range of motion (with a 3 count per
circle) = x 10 small, x 10 medium and x 10 large – forwards and then backwards.
- Arm swings x 15 each side – forwards then backwards.
- Shoulder and chest X openers x 10 each side – with arms outstretched, open your arms
and chest out to be as wide as you can, then back to centre.
- Upper body lunge rotations – From a plank, step one foot between the hands and perform
x 10 upper body rotations with one hand down, then x 10 with the other hand down. Then
switch feet and repeat (x 40 altogether).
- Cat Cows – x 10 slowly and fully articulate the spine
- Elbow flexion – start with arms straight by your side and then hinge at the elbow and bring
your closed fist to your shoulder, keeping the elbow level by your side, think of an
unweighted bicep curl. (with a 4 count on the way up and a 4 count on the way down) x 10
for each elbow.
- Horizontal elbow flexion – start with arms straight with elbows in line with the shoulders
and extending outward into a cross shape (with a 4 count on the way out and a 4 count on
the way in) x 10 for each elbow.
- Cuban Rotation – Elbows out to the side with knuckles pointing forward at 90 degrees and
rotate from the rotator cuff x 10.
- Forearm rotations from elbow bent arm – elbows in by your sides, rotate each forearm
from the elbow x 10 each side.
- Forearm rotations from shoulder – straighten your arms and perform from shoulder height
x 10 each side.
- Motorbike Revs – pronated, neutral and supinated grips – point the lead knuckles up to
the sky then slowly down to the ground = pronated, point the lead knuckles in and then out
= neutral and then point the lead knuckles down to the ground then slowly up to the sky =
supinated, x 10 each side for each grip.
- Prayer hand wrist rolls – clasp hands together and roll from the wrist in circles, x 10
clockwise and x 10 anti clockwise.
- Bent finger grasps – imagine your clinging on to the edge of a cliff! x 20
- Straight finger grasps – imagine you’re making a hand puppet crocodile x 20
- Deep squat (hold for 30 seconds) + with hip movements from side to side in the deep
squat x 10 each side + with ankle movements in the deep squat x 10 forward and back +
with pike up to rotation each side x 5 each side
- Pigeon pose – 30 secs on each side x 3
- Hip opener CARS – x 10 each side - Lie down on one side with your knees out in front of
you at 90 degrees, Lift the top knee up so that it’s over your side, keeping the 90 degree
angle. Then rotate that knee towards the outstretched foot, keeping the 90 degree knee
angle. Bring your leg down to join the other knee, repeat and then switch to the other side.
- 90/90 hip drills – 30 second hold then x 5 repetitions lowering over the front facing leg on
each side, then repeat facing the other way
- Half pancakes with folds over outstretched leg, beside outstretched leg and out to the side
(holding each one for 30 seconds)
- Cobra/up dog to down dog combo x 5
- Couch Stretch x 30 second hold on each side for 3 sets
- Jefferson curl x 10 – stand on and elevated surface Then forward fold down and lower
yourself down so that you end up as low as you can below your feet then slowly return to
stand straight. This is more advanced, so be careful with this movement.
- Standing 1⁄2 Good Mornings/Ostrich Stretch – 30 secs x 3 each side
- Ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion – point the toes up and then down slowly x 15 each
side
- Sit down on knees and tops of feet for 30 seconds then x 10 knee extension to kneel from
that position, then perform x 10 knees raises.
- Sit down on heels and toes for 30 seconds then x 10 knee extension to kneel from that
position.
This is a mobility routine which can mobilise all of the major joints. You can use part of it a warm-up, or as a whole routine.