How to increase mobility
Without a doubt, mobility is the single most crucial factor when it comes to your body because it deals with movement. You’ll notice that your daily life is probably impacted negatively if you have limited mobility. You might find it challenging to do certain physical activities, such as walking, hiking, cooking, dancing, and gardening. Decreased mobility can make you more susceptible to injuries and pain, too.
Luckily, every time you get up to move, you practice— and can widen— your range of motion. But, if you’re used to sitting for hours on end, following a more defined mobility practice can be beneficial. This is especially true right before you exercise.
What is mobility?
Strength and flexibility are popular fitness goals, but mobility is actually more important! What is mobility? It’s basically the ability to move freely. This is defined as the area where strength and flexibility meet in the fitness world. Your body can’t just be strong or just be flexible— the two are not complete without each other. When you work toward achieving optimal mobility, you’re working toward achieving pain-free movement and the freedom to use your body at its best possible capacity to do the things you enjoy in your life.
How can you increase your mobility?
Many think they are restricted in movement due to a lack of flexibility or strength, but they think of these deficiencies in terms of actions like performing a pull-up or doing the splits. In these two scenarios, the mobility part is what matters most. Again, think of mobility as your ability to move freely in your life, including the ability to participate in sports and other physical activities.
How can you increase your mobility? An easy and efficient way to help develop mobility is doing warm-ups and cool-downs before and after exercise. You can also do one or two mobility drills a few minutes each day, as demonstrated in the video above. Before exercising, you can do the regiment above all together or do any of the exercises as stand alones, increasing the number of repetitions for each exercise.
Remember that you need to work on your mobility regularly to increase your overall range of motion. This requires that you continue to discover yourself and refine your motion. Over time, you’ll notice that movements in your everyday life will become easier and easier.
Dasha L. Anderson is a celebrated trainer and fitness expert in New York City, with a master’s degree in exercise science and sports nutrition and a specialty in performance enhancement and injury prevention. She is also the founder and head certifying instructor of Kettlebell Kickboxing and has contributed to Self, Shape, Fitness Rx, and Epoch Times.
