Mobility tends to be one of the most misunderstood and incorrectly performed pieces of fitness. We regularly see individuals randomly performing mobility techniques or coaches recommending random stretches after a workout that won’t necessarily provide any additional benefit to the athlete.
Today we’re going to discuss the four principles of an effective mobility routine so that you can start seeing improvements in your mobility in less time, helping improve your functional movement.
Mobility is something that we deal with on a daily basis, both with patients in the clinic and with athletes in the gym. I've personally done a lot of research on this topic so that I can use the most effective techniques so my patients can get fast results.
So, the four principles that are important for an effective mobility routine are:
what is mobility (and why is this important)
which mobility techniques are the most effective
how to perform each of those techniques
when to perform each of those techniques
What is mobility (and why is this important)
The thing to really understand here is that mobility is not the same as flexibility.
Flexibility is merely how much range of motion we have available at a certain joint. Whereas mobility is the ability to control that range of motion through functional movements. So while we might have available range of motion or flexibility, we want to make sure that we strengthen through that range of motion so we get true mobility.
That's an important distinction, which we'll cover a little bit later here whenever we talk about which techniques are most effective.
mobility techniques
I like the lump mobility techniques into three different categories:
the first one is blood flow
this includes anything like foam rolling, a lacrosse ball, or things like Voodoo floss
the main objective of the mobility technique is to increased blood flow to the tissues in that area
the second is stretching
this is going to include both static stretching (such as a pigeon pose or a seated static hamstring stretch) or Dynamic stretching which are things like toy soldiers, walking lunge, or things that are stretching tissues as we're moving
the third category is load
this includes things like negatives, tempo movements, and anything that increases our time under tension
how to perform each technique
Now let's discuss how to use each of these different techniques.
For blood flow, anytime we do foam rolling or Voodoo floss we want to do it for about 30 to 90 seconds per muscle group.
So if I'm foam rolling my legs I would do one quad for 30 to 90 seconds the other quad for 30 to 90 seconds. Each of the hamstrings for that length of time, and so on, depending on how many different muscle groups I wanted to target.
For stretching, if I'm doing static stretching I'm going to want to do that for 30 to 60 seconds. This can be accumulated time. So that can be one set of 60 seconds, or it can be three sets of 20 seconds. However you want to break that up to accumulate that 30-60 seconds, it doesn't really matter. It all evens out in the end to that total accumulated.
Then for dynamic stretching, we want to spend about 5-10 minutes of total time doing dynamic movements.
Finally, whenever we think about load, these are things like negatives or tempo movements. For these, we want to accumulate about 15 to 24 reps.
Again, the reps can be accumulated a variety of ways. I typically like to prescribe around three sets of the 5-8 rep range when doing those loaded movements.
When to perform these techniques
When we do each of these mobility techniques will have a direct effect on the results we can expect in both range of motion changes or performance recovery benefits.
These timeframes can be broken down into whether we do them
pre-workout
or post-workout
Looking at performing these techniques pre-workout:
If we do the blood flow techniques before we exercise, we're going to get a slight increase in range of motion and also an increase in tolerance to further stretching. These effects are going to last about 30-45 minutes.
So, foam rolling or lacrosse ball or these other blood flow techniques are actually going to let those tissues stretch even further whenever we do some of the other techniques.
The effects of static stretching before we workout, are going to include again, a slight increase in range of motion which is going to last for about 30 minutes.
So, just like the blood flow techniques, it's an increase in range of motion, but it is short-term!
Also with static stretching… along with that increase in range of motion for 30 minutes, if we do static stretching for greater than 60 seconds to a particular muscle group, we will actually get a decrease in muscle power and one rep max!
So we really want to be careful with static stretching. If we're using it before establishing a one rep or doing exercise that requires a lot of power, we don't do it for more than 60 seconds to a specific muscle group because it can actually decrease our performance.
With dynamic stretching we're again going to see an increase in range of motion is going to last for about 30 minutes.
But the cool thing about dynamic stretching is that it can actually undo the adverse effects that we can see with prolonged static stretching.
So if we do feel that we need the static stretch for longer than 60 seconds in a specific muscle, we can then follow it up with 5-10 minutes of dynamic stretching and eliminate that decrease in power in one rep max.
Then for load… these are the things that actually lead to long-term changes in range of motion and control through that newly acquired motion!
This goes back to that principle that we first mentioned, how mobility does not equal flexibility. If we're looking for true mobility and control through a range of motion, then we need to be loading through any newly acquired range of motion. This way we can control that movement and actually use it functionally!
Now taking a look at post-workout mobility techniques:
Of the three different technique categories (blood flow, stretching, and load) the only one that has actually been shown to have any utility after exercise is blood flow.
What it can do is help decrease delayed onset muscle soreness and it can also help increase our recovery of performance.
There's not really anything in the literature that suggests that stretching after exercise has any additional benefit outside of what was discussed above.
There's no real need to go through loaded movements after we've already exercised, because these are the things that we're likely doing during our workouts.
So if we're going to do some mobility stuff after we're done exercising, the best thing to do according to the literature is going to be grab foam roller, grab a lacrosse ball, and do some of those blood flow techniques.
Again, 30 to 90 seconds per muscle group, and that can actually help decrease any delayed onset muscle soreness that we might experience from that exercise and it can help us bounce back a little bit quicker.
References:
- Aboodarda, S.J., et al., Pain pressure threshold of a muscle tender spot increases following local and non-local rolling massage. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2015; 16: 265. doi: 10.1186/s12891-015-0729-5
- Driller, M., et al., Tissue flossing on ankle range of motion, jump and sprint performance: A follow-up study. Physical Therapy in Sport, 2017; 28: 29-33.
- Behm, D.G., et al., Acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance, range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals: a systematic review. Appl. Physio. Nutr. Metab., 2016; 41: 1-11.
- McMillian, D.J., et al., Dynamic vs. Static-Stretching Warm Up: The Effect on Power and Agility Performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2006; 20(3): 492-499.
- O’Sullivan, K., et al., The effects of eccentric training on lower limb flexibility: a systematic review. Br J Sports Med, 2012; 46: 838-845. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2011-090835
- Pearcey, G.E.P., et al., Foam Rolling for Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness and Recovery of Dynamic Performance Measures. Journal of Athletic Training, 2015; 50(1): 5-13. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-50.1.01
- MacDonald, G.Z., et al., Foam Rolling as a Recovery Tool after an Intense Bout of Physical Activity. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2013; 131-142. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3182a123db
- Prill, R., et al., Tissue flossing: a new short-duration compression therapy for reducing exercise-induced delayed-onset muscle soreness. A randomized, controlled and double-blind pilot cross-over trial. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 2018; doi: 10.23736/S0022-4707.18.08701-7