Make Your Stretches Active for Improved Mobility

"My hamstrings are tight... and I stretch all the time!"
                                                                                     (quote extracted from 99% of clients)

People often believe that poor posture and injuries are a natural aspect of aging. Back pain, knee pain, and shoulder pain are all more common as people get older. In fact, experts suggest that eighty percent of people will suffer from back pain at some point during their lives. Fortunately, injury is not a natural aspect of aging. More injuries occur later in life because people stop exploring their dynamic postures as they get older. Most children have no set workout routines. They play all day at school, ride their bikes in the evening, and maybe receive some organized activity during a sporting practice. Fitness and play are synonymous. Unfortunately, with each stage of life, more structure is added to our routine. With more structure, fitness and exercise often take a backseat to the demands of life. For many:
 
School becomes more challenging...
Work days become longer…
Family activities take time during the day…
Energy levels decrease...
 
In every stage of life, the freedom for movement can gradually get sidelined. Playing all day as a child typically turns into a quick two-mile run or a quick five-mile bike ride. Our movements become narrow and linear. We lose our ability to play and explore new movements. Ultimately we lose our joint mobility. 

What is Joint Mobility

Joint mobility is the available range of motion between two bones to allow for normal movement (e.g. the femur bone and tibia bone meet to make up the knee joint).  When someone has muscle tightness, scar tissue, or even wears a brace/cast for too long, their joint mobility can become restricted. For example, imagine an older person using a walker at the grocery store. This person is likely slouched forward with a rounded upper spine. The prolonged slouched posture can create joint mobility restrictions due to the lack of upright movement. For a second example, imagine someone who recently rolled their ankle. Following the injury, the person took time off running and even modified how they walked. For a few days or weeks, their ankle does not receive the normal amount of stress and loading it normally would receive. In response, the ankle range of motion becomes limited and the ankle joint loses it's natural mobility. 

​Our joints are important centers of movement that allow the body to twist, bend, reach, and perform other complex motions. ​

"People need to perform both stretching and joint mobility exercises to keep the muscles extensible and joints mobile." -Jim Heafner PT, DPT, OCS

Why is Joint Mobility Important?

Conditions such as lower back pain or knee pain, plus some forms of arthritis, are often caused or magnified by a loss of joint mobility. When someone lacks mobility, they will compensate by moving from another region of the body. For example, if someone lacks hip range of motion, the low back may take on additional stresses. This commonly happens when someone is squatting or lunging.  When a person with tight hips performs a squat, the brain will attempt to take load off the hips because the hip joint has not been in that position recently. Receptors on the hip joint surface quickly send signals to the brain, seeking permission to lower into the movement. The brain sends a quick response back saying, "Hey hips, we have not been in this position in a while...it may hurt...it may cause injury...temporarily offload, reassess, and retry!"  The person performing the squat will likely feel a pinching sensation in the front or outer part of the hip joint. If the squat is taken further, a nearby region --often the low back-- absorbs the added force  ​(Check out the video below to learn about common squat compensations).

Top 6 squat mobility exercises

How is Joint Mobility Different from Stretching? 

Boulder, Colorado is a known hub for Yoga studios. In a town with just over 100,000 people, there are over 40 yoga studios. That is a ton of stretching! It is natural to assume that everyone must be flexible. However, that is not the case. Yoga is a great practice, but many postures are held in static positions that do not stress the full joint motion. The muscles receive an incredible stretch, but the joints do not receive adequate input. If an imbalance exists between the muscle stretch and joint position, a sense of stiffness or tightness may be the result. 

When someone stretches, they typically hold one position for a certain length of time (typically >30 seconds). On the contrary, mobility exercises are much more dynamic movements with continuous movement.

Stretching = prolonged holds = targets the muscles
Mobility Exercises = dynamic movements = targets the joint 

With mobility exercises, the goal is to stimulate all parts of the joint surface. Targeting the end-range of these movements lights up receptors on the joint surface (specifically mechanoreceptors and proprioceptors) sending feedback to the brain. By activating these receptors in a safe and controlled manner, we strengthen the connections from our brain to that joint, effectively reducing our risk of injury.

Examples of Joint Mobility Exercises

Take Home Advice

1) Perform dynamic joint mobility exercises as part of your warm-up and cool down.  Instead of isolating one muscle group and stretching for 30, 60, or 90 seconds, I recommend only holding the end-range of a mobility exercise for 1-2 seconds.  
2) Perform joint mobility exercises first, then static stretching second. Targeting the joint first will allow the muscles to get further into the stretch. 
3) Find a daily mobility and maintenance routine! This routine should incorporate whole body movements (like the exercises above) and last approximately 10-15 minutes. 

Reference:
Myers, Thomas W. (2011). Anatomy Trains. London: Urban & Fischer.