Flexibility, Mobility and Stability
by brandon gallagher
June 4, 2018
Reach your hand over your head. Touch your toes. Scratch your back. All of these things require a term known as Flexibility. Flexibility is defined as “freedom of movement without restriction”. While flexibility is important in our day to day life, what if I told you the fitness world has been focusing on the wrong word for a long time. You’ve heard the terms “swole and flexy”, seen the gymnasts and athletes perform crazy tasks with ease, and move their bodies through space as though they are walking on the ground. You think to yourself, “Wow I wish I were that flexible….I’m going to stretch!!!” You go through your same stretches and hold for 30-40 seconds, 20 mins a day and think, “Yes, soon I will be moving like a gymnast”. Over the next few weeks you begin to loosen up, but don’t necessarily feel stronger or more stable in these positions, and may open yourself up to injury. That’s because flexibility isn’t the same as (though often mistaken for) Mobility and Stability.
Stability, Mobility, Flexibility...what’s the difference?. Let’s start with the basics. While Flexibility is the ability to “move freely without restriction”, Mobility moves through these positions with strength, and Stability adds integrity when resisting force. I believe everyone has been striving for all three, but we have been going about achieving them in the wrong fashion. In this three part series I will go over the main differences between these three terms, why mobility and stability are important and how we can incorporate all three into our lives. First, let’s look at a few myths about flexibility, how it can actually hinder performance and create injury, and look at the spectrum of flexibility to mobility.
Next time you’re around a baby, take the time to watch their movement. What do you see? Tons of flexibility! Movement isn’t second nature to them yet, but they have a perfect squat and great ankle flexibility! It is an athlete’s dream (so you think)! A baby is not thinking of its movement in terms of function, they are just doing what is instinctual to them as a human. Walking, moving their arms, head movements; all of these come natural to us from birth. Where babies excel in flexibility and movement, they lack strength and stability. This is the Flexibility end of our spectrum.
Now, let’s look at the opposite end, Mobility. Go to any regular gym, find the biggest guy or girl you can. What are you likely to see in their movements? Strength and power. BUT, for what these lifters have in raw strength and capacity, they lack in true flexibility in other positions. (Yes, I know there are exceptions. We’re looking at the majority rather than the outliers.) Can they sit comfortably in a squat? Can their arms go straight over their head without straining? They have the ability to move massive amounts of weight but may struggle with movements outside their usual squat, deadlift, press movements. This may not be a problem inside the gym, but when doing things outside of their usual movements injuries occur and poor movement is seen.
Finally, we’ll look at Stability, the link between Flexibility and Mobility. Stability is the ability to resist forces brought upon our bodies from everyday activities. When the body is able to create safe, stable positions, it is able to move through them with strength and a full range of motion (ROM). If you cannot fully lockout your arms at the top of an overhead press, your body is telling you something. Without the requisite stability to maintain integrity throughout the movement, our bodies only allow us to extend to the point it can keep us safe. For example, through pressing movements such as the bench and overhead press, if the scapula is not loaded correctly, we give up our ability to maintain the best possible position. Outside of this position, we either lose strength, which in return will cut short our ROM, or lose stability, which can lead to injury. This is seen a LOT on the bench press when finishing the lift. Lifters will internally rotate and extend through the shoulders, leaving the shoulder joint vulnerable.
Along with these three different aspects of fitness on the Flexibility/Mobility Spectrum, there is a fine line that has been slowly creeping through the fitness world. I’m here to tell you it is possible to move a lot of weight, stay safe, and move well while doing it! This is where the buzz word “Functional” comes in! You may have seen it. We even use it here at Thrive to describe what it is we do on a daily basis in our programming design. What we all truly mean by functionality is being able to move our body through space with strength and stability! Think of mobility and stability as the keys that unlock the door to true strength and freedom of movement and freedom of life. Inside that spectrum sits an ideal zone, a perfect blend of pure strength capacity, stability, flexibility and overall movement. Athletes in this zone can move through most, if not all, positions without restriction (flexibility), they are strong throughout and have minimal mechanical flaws (stability, strength) and can move through all positions while bearing weight (mobility). These athletes show the true potential of what the body can achieve when put through the correct training, and they allow themselves a “barrier” for injury. Freak injuries can always occur even to the best athletes, but finding ourselves in that perfect blend allows for consistent and purposeful training with the least possible risk of injury, resulting in more time training or doing the things we love outside of the gym. Finding that balance of great ROM and learning these movements safely will help build that “barrier” to injury and keep us training, while allowing us to realize our true potential.
Thank you for taking the time to read!! If you have any thoughts or questions feel free to ask!! If you haven’t, make sure to follow us on Instagram @Thrivefitnesswellness or my personal instagram @Brandon_Thrivefitnesswellness.
Part 2 coming soon! In the next part to this series I will dive into why mobility and stability are important and how it can prevent us from the injury bug.
