How Can Mobility Help Your Exercise

Can you improve mobility without weights? That’s a question many people may be asking themselves, especially if they have recently moved into a senior living facility or rehabilitation center. Fortunately, the short answer is a resounding yes-you certainly can improve mobility without ever holding a weight belt or walking in place. However, there are a few limitations to what you can achieve if you don’t add resistance training to your regime.

Perform functional exercise

First of all, you cannot perform any kind of functional exercise, such as the squat, while sitting. The reason why is because the squat is one of the most effective forms of low-impact exercise when it comes to rehabilitating lower back pain and other mobility-related issues. Squats target the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and deep abdominals. All of these muscles are required to properly execute the full range of motion necessary for squatting. So, if you do not add other forms of movement training, such as the squat, to your weekly workout regimen, you are really limiting your potential to improve mobility and reduce pain-related issues.

Break muscle knots

Another limitation to strength and mobility exercises is muscle knots. While you may be familiar with the term, muscle knots are simply the accumulation of scar tissue, called crumpled or pulled fibers, that form over time as a result of poor posture. If you have ever seen someone with shoulder or neck pain or difficulty getting up from a seated, cross-legged position, you have seen muscle knots. These knots are often invisible on film, but they are extremely painful and difficult to treat. While some people are lucky enough to be able to eliminate them by simply lying down and moving their body in a way that does not engage the muscles, most people will require months or even years of therapy and rehabilitation to eliminate these muscle knots.

Finally, muscle knots interfere with your ability to move freely. While it may be true that stretching before and after your workout will increase flexibility, this is usually only true in the short term. Longer-term flexibility is actually more difficult to achieve without stretching and mobility exercises. In fact, it has been proven that stretching alone will not stretch out your muscles to their maximum potential, but rather just lightly stretch them out, which will result in a minimal increase in flexibility but significantly increase your risk for injury.

A good idea for avoiding injury and rehabbing your body is to include a full-body workout routine in your weekly workout routine. Mobility and strength training is absolutely essential parts of a full-body workout routine. The same can also be said for stretching, as stretching before and after your workout routine will increase flexibility, but it will also decrease your risk for injury.

Prepare for exercise

So what can you do to prepare for your full-body workout routine? Well, the first thing you should do is make sure that you always warm up before you do your actual mobility exercises. Warm-ups should be done before lifting weights, running, or doing aerobics. A good warm-up will help you avoid injuries by decreasing your risk for muscle pull-ins, spasms, or tearing. After your warm-ups are complete, it is then time to start your actual mobility exercises.

When it comes to preventing an ankle injury, there are many different preventive measures you can take. One of the best preventive measures against injury is to properly warm-up and stretch before you exercise. Warming up will improve circulation in your body, especially to your legs, hips, and lower body. Stretching will also improve blood flow to your joints, helping to decrease the risk of joint and muscle pulls and sprains. Finally, keeping up a proper and safe workout routine will greatly reduce the chances of injury and keep your body limber and prevent unwanted pulls and sprains.

Finally

Some of the most common mobility exercises include the deadlift, squat, clean and jerk, deadlift max, stiff-legged deadlift, knee tuck, and hip extension. The deadlift can be considered the ‘queen of exercises’. The deadlift develops upper body strength, while at the same time works the lower body. The deadline can be used to strengthen your knees, hips, back, and shoulders. The squat is another well-known exercise that works your entire core. Deadlifting is the king of exercises for upper body strength, while at the same time works your lower back, calves, and hamstrings.