I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the traits of a Ninja is their ability to move with grace and ease. They posses the perfect balance of mobility, flexibility and strength. Development of all three elements is necessary if you want to reach your potential in any one or all of those areas. While all three are important today I want to address mobility.
First, what is mobility? Not to be confused with flexibility although similar. Flexibility is usually practiced using static holds with the goal of lengthening a muscle and holding the position to increase your range of motion. Whereas mobility is about the useable range of motion of a joint.
Now I know the average person is not out there scaling buildings, and hopping over tall fences but we all move…everyday. We’re walking our dogs, we’re running for fun or maybe to catch that bus we’re about to miss, we’re playing with our kids, we’re working out, we’re playing sports, so wouldn’t you like to be able to move how you like, pain and injury free forever? Or at least for as long as humanly possible?
The truth is, as we get older moving freely and without injury becomes something that we have to work at intentionally, lest we hurt ourselves doing even the most mundane tasks. We all know someone (or maybe you are that someone) who has hurt themselves just bending down to pick something up, or throwing out their shoulder throwing a baseball. I’m not saying being mobile will eliminate all chances of ever hurting yourself but it greatly mitigates it.
All of us wish we could stay our youthful vibrant selves forever, and while we can’t stop or turn back the hands of time we can hack the system. One of the best ways to stay looking and feeling youthful is to make sure you are mobile an flexible. Stiffness, brittleness, and dryness are things we associate with age and death, think of the brown leaf that falls off the tree in autumn, while youth is associated with vitality, movement, suppleness and flexibility. So now you know what to do if you want to feel, move and look younger…..START A MOBILITY ROUTINE!
In my younger training days I would hate warm ups and cool downs so much that I would either skip them altogether or half ass my way through an arbitrary warm up. All I cared about was going hard with the weights. I paid the price for this mentality in the form of many injuries, especially my joints despite being someone who was considered to be “strong and in shape”.
I know warming up and stretching are not very glamorous topics when it comes to training but if done properly and with intention this part of your training session becomes essential to reaching your potential in the rest of your training goals. It also helps prevent injury, and develops athleticism. Even if you aren’t big into training, if you do ANYTHING I’d say do at least a basic maintenance mobility routine regularly and you will feel the difference.
I’ve attached a couple of mobility moves that will get the blood flowing, which is the intention of a warm up but is also great mobility work for shoulders, knees and hips. This type of movement can even be a workout on its own if you increase the intensity and number of reps. This is only a snippet though, I will include more ways you can work on the mobility of your joints.
If you have questions about how you can incorporate mobility into your regimen then feel free to reach out! If not there is so much on the net to get your started!
