The Missing Piece of Your Fitness Routine: Mobility

When it comes to gaining momentum and progressing on your fitness journey, you are likely familiar with the three obvious components of training: cardio, flexibility, and strength. However, before any of these areas can see true progress, there is an additional aspect of your fitness that you absolutely cannot ignore – your mobility.  

While mobility and flexibility are often used interchangeably and they do share similarities, it’s important to acknowledge that they are not the same. Understanding the difference between these two aspects of your training can help you improve upon them and rocket launch yourself towards better health and body functionality.  

In this article, our trainers at Get F.I.T. explain what mobility is, why it’s important, and how you can improve your mobility to boost your overall well-being.  

What is Mobility? 

Mobility is most simply defined as “the ability to move or be moved freely and easily.” Who doesn’t want that? Mobility often gets confused with flexibility. While they are similar, the differences are critical to your success as a gym rat!  

Many people think they need to be more flexible, but what they really need is to be more mobile. Flexibility is the amount of passive movement at a joint, while mobility is active movement that allows us to produce power. 

Why is Good Mobility Essential? 

If you are flexible, you may be able to reach your end ranges of motion with help (I.e., grabbing your toes and pulling your upper body forward or grabbing your hands behind your back to stretch) or your need to move with momentum that lacks control, such as pulling back erratically for a golf swing.  

Unfortunately, these kinds of “flexible” movements without adequate muscular support and control can put an individual at risk of injury. With mobility, you can move through a range of motion with control. With this understanding, we can see how mobility = flexibility + strength.  

Stretching alone will not help you achieve mobility. You must build specific exercises into your routine to target this kind of controlled movement.  

This kind of controlled movement isn’t only useful in the gym – it is necessary for overall quality of life and performance of everyday activities, especially as we age.  

Exercises to Improve Your Mobility  

No one wants to be injured. Injury means no play, no golf, and possibly even no walking. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to reduce your chances of injury. We have many moving parts in our bodies, so it’s important to allocate some attention to each area to avoid muscular imbalances.  

The following exercises will help your shoulders, hips, knees, and spine be stronger, more flexible, and more mobile.  

1. Shoulder Flexion with Wall Feedback 

Start this exercise sitting against a wall with your feet stretched in front of you. If this position is too challenging at the moment, you can bend your knees or stand with your heels against the wall. 

Pull the rib cage back so that there is no space between you and the wall. Slowly raise your arms with tension while keeping your shoulders down and away from the ears. This will ensure you do not increase tension in the lumbar spine. After momentarily pausing at the end of your range, gently lower your arms down to complete one rep.  

Focus on moving with your breath. Placing a towel behind the small of your back can help give you even more feedback to ensure you are not extending in this area.  

Repeat this movement 10 times. 

2. Deep Squat Hip Openers 

It’s easy for many people to let gravity force them into this position, but that doesn’t mean you are using the proper technique. 

Begin in a deep squat, or yoga squat, but make sure you are engaging your glutes. If this is challenging for you, practice sitting in this position with the abdominals and glutes activated. If you aren’t sure if your muscles are properly engaged, try tapping them to stimulate the nervous system.  

Using your hand as support (and not to push) on the inside of your right thigh, open your right hip even further. The inside of the foot should slightly lift off the ground. You will need to use your glutes and external hip rotators to properly complete this movement. Slowly return to your starting position.  

Perform this on both sides ten times. To reiterate: do not force this movement or push with your hand! 

3. Deep Squat Internal/External Hip Rotations 

Once again, start in a deep squat position and be careful not to force any movements during this exercise. You will slowly draw in your left side to tap your knee to the ground so that your hip is internally rotated.  

You will then pull your leg back up to return to a deep squat position. Complete these motions slowly and with control.  You can also complete this seated on the ground with your legs further out in front of you if you are having trouble with balance. 

This movement should be felt from the glutes, not in the knees or the hip joint. Repeat this movement 10 times on both sides. 

4. Deep Squat with Thoracic Spine Activation 

Return to your deep squat position. Engage your abdominals and glutes so your pelvis is in a neutral position. Extend your arms out to the side with them gently resting on your knees. This will activate your upper body.  

Then, with control, you will lean forward in between your knees, drawing your arms in without touching the ground. While in this position, you can subtly bounce to maintain glute activation and balance. Hold this for 2-5 seconds while engaging the upper abdominals.  

Slowly return to your starting position and repeat 10 times.  

5. 90/90 Hip Flow 

This movement is incredibly powerful to target many areas of the body when performed correctly.  

Begin with one leg at a 90-degree angle in front of you and the other leg at a 90-degree angle to your side. If you feel pain in your front knee, you can place a foam roller beneath it or you can sit on a yoga block. 

Lengthen your back and neck while drawing your chest towards the front knee. You will then slowly twist from your abdominals gently back towards the other leg. Make sure you are not twisting from the upper back and shoulders. 

Return to leaning into your front leg. Repeat this back and forth 3-5 times before slowly opening the side leg, sitting on your glutes, and rotating to repeat the same pattern on the other side.  

Learn More > Better Hip Mobility for Golfers 

Stay in Control with Get F.I.T.  

Control is a critical component of functional movement. Otherwise, you risk damaging your joints and suffering from injury. The best way to improve your control is to implement mobility exercises into your fitness routines.  

If you master the above drills, your mobility will slowly but surely improve. You must practice and maintain patience to see improvement, which is why having someone to hold you accountable is so important. Our team of trainers and our community of fitness lovers at Get F.I.T. will keep you going so you can see true, lasting improvement in how you feel, think, and move.  

Learn more about our trainers and our hybrid personal training program!