Why am I always ranting about Strength AND mobility? Because, IT’S REALLY FREAKING IMPORTANT PEOPLE.
Most people come to MSC and say things like, “i just have tight hips” or “I’m not flexible so I need to stretch more”, but REALLY what they need is to stretch AND strengthen.
Oftentimes, people feel “immobile” and “not flexible” because their muscles feel tight due to an underlying strength or stability deficit. Just because the muscle feels tight, does not always mean it needs to be stretched out. Muscles can feel tight due to your body attempting to provide additional stability to the joint – but the actual length of that muscle is normal. In order to counteract this feeling of tightness, we need to find and strengthen the muscle or group of muscles that are not providing the adequate strength and stability to the joint involved.
On the other sign of the coin, people that are SUPAH flexible or “hypermobile” can feel tightness as well. Too much mobility is not a bad thing, unless there is not enough stability to control the mobility. This type of joint mobility is often seen in people who are very flexible (hello Yogis!) with little to no range of motion restrictions. With all of that mobility, the joints require significant amounts of stability to control the movement. Oftentimes, the surrounding muscles are not doing their job to provide adequate stability, therefore the affected muscles continue to feel chronically tight.
Why is this important in our strength training? If we can’t reach optimal range of motion in our strength training it limits our ability to progress, increases the risk of injury and does not allow us to realize the full potential of each exercise.
At MSC all of our programs are customized so you get the mobility work you need to feel good, get rid of those cranky morning tightness feels and get the most out of your session with us. Mobility work involves loaded stretching, core work, static stretching with bands and other resistance just to name a modalities.
If you are feeling tight, a strength training program with mobility baked in is where it’s at!
