How can mobility training, help you stay injury free?

Injuries are annoying, and can set you back in enjoying your day to day life as well as your training.

I´m sure I am not alone going through a lot of effort trying to make sure I stay injury free, - while training hard and pushing the limits in the gym.

Below I want to share with you some ideas on mobility training and how it affects your ability to hopefully stay injury free.

First things first, what is mobility?

Type in ‘Mobility’ and Google will tell you that it’s the ability to move or be moved freely and easily. However, in the world of CrossFit and high intensity training, it could mean so much more. Mobility is geared towards training your range of motion around your joints – it involves actively moving, contracting and relaxing the right muscles at the right time through your joints’ range of motion. 

Mobility, oftentimes, is confused with flexibility and let me explain that further. All of our joints have a range of motion and how much of that range your body can reach while passive- or while someone else is moving your joints is your flexibility.

While on the other hand, how much of your flexibility you can achieve easily with your own control, muscle contraction, without pain is your mobility. Moreso, mobility and flexibility are related. However, they are definitely not the same.

Read more about difference in flexibility and mobility

So, why is this important when it comes to CrossFit?

As most of you may already know, CrossFit is all about functional movements and acquiring new skills each day and those important aspects of CrossFit depend a lot on mobility. Why? Because mobility allows our bodies to maintain a neutral spine, to keep everything stacked for a better “foundation” and to increase the efficiency of our bodies’ movements. Everything becomes simpler & easier when our bodies are able to move as freely as it could.

How does this help with injury prevention?

Mobility can help with injury prevention because when we are mobile, our bodies move freely without straining or forcing its muscles to stretch beyond their capable range. It helps a lot by preparing & strengthening our bodies for routines that require a lot of stretching, lifting & moving. 

Let’s break this down. Majority of us work from nine until five, five days a week and spend a lot of time sitting by our desks and not moving at all. Putting things into perspective, there are a total of 168 hours in a week and if we think about how much more time we spend sitting by our desks all day in one week than actually moving, by the time we are ready to play our favorite sport or do our favorite routine, it might be too much to ask of our bodies to get into tough routines, do sprints, lift heavy weight and so on. 

How can lack of mobility lead to injuries?

Good mobility unleashes our bodies & their potential. It allows us to strengthen our muscles. Thus, it stabilizes our form and this could go a long way toward injury prevention.

To cite an example, if you are doing an overhead press with a barbell or kettlebell and your thoracic spine can’t extend enough, you won’t be able to press the weight. You may even end up overextending your lower back which brings tension on the lower back muscles & spinal disks which can lead to an injury. 

Now, let’s say the injury healed. However, even when the pain goes away, most of the time, you’ll be left with compromised joints and tissues that can’t handle any tough routine/workout. 

Once you get started, there is no turning back…..

On the brighter side, as you begin to mobilize, you’ll see your range of motion improving and you’ll feel greater control over your movements without any pain. See, it’s never about your shoulders, knees or body not being strong enough to lift heavier weights or do tougher routines, it’s just about maintaining the acquiring mobility & maintaining proper position that makes every tough routine doable.

Mobility training is a must for being able to perform these routines without pain and with control. 

When you are ready:

Hope you are feeling inspired to continue your mobility training, or starting incorporating some in your training routine.
If you need help or support finding the best mobility training for you, book in for a 20 min free mobility screening with coach Eik and lets get you on the fast track to better - pain free movements!