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Оглавление1 Mobility—Modern Flexibility Training
When I start our Calisthenics X Mobility workshop, I always begin with the following question: “Can someone give me the definition of mobility?” Almost all our workshop participants have watched one of my videos on YouTube, which is why most of the responses go in the right direction. The following catch phrases are then tossed around:
• “active flexibility training”
• “like stretching, but with strength”
• “range of motion”
Mobility training clearly focuses on movement. Unlike stretching, where a position is held for an extended period, mobility training always requires active control over a certain distance. Here’s a simplified formula:
Mobility = a large ROM (range of motion)
+ strength
+ coordination (active flexibility)
Next, I always demonstrate a practical example. Imagine I let myself slide from a standing position down into the straddle splits and then returned from the splits to a standing position by using only my leg strength.
This type of mobility stands in contrast to passive mobility, which is called flexibility. Imagine holding on to one ankle while standing and pulling it toward your backside. You’d be passively holding your leg at this range of motion without tensing the muscles in your legs.
Of course, we don’t start the workshop by practicing the splits. To achieve long-term mobility and strength, we must understand how mobile our bodies should really be.
Mobility and strength are always mutually dependent. Imagine a seesaw with flexibility on one side and stability on the other. Since the body is a dynamic system, much like a seesaw, we need a mix of flexibility (passive range of motion) and stability (strength) to keep our balance. The sweet spot is called mobility.
In medicine, we refer to homeostasis, meaning a state of equilibrium. By definition, it’s subject to dynamic self-regulation.
These are fancy words that ultimately describe the fact that our bodies vacillate between flexibility, mobility, and stability. Thus, our joints also have different functions. Some primarily provide stability, while others primarily provide lots of mobility.
Here’s what this teaches us about our mobility training:
1. Not every joint must be pushed to be as mobile as possible. (In fact, in some cases, this can even cause damage and lead to pain.)
2. Feeling less flexible on some days than others is completely normal. We’re all subject to natural fluctuations.
In section 2.1, “How to Become More Mobile,” I explain how you can create a harmonic balance so you don’t have to move through your daily life with tight muscles and pain. But first I want to briefly talk about how mobility training has become so popular.
ORIGINS OF MOBILITY
Mobility training is gaining increasing popularity. With mobility training, the focus is very much on the health-preserving aspect. For an athlete, be it recreational or professional, injuries are always a setback. Injuries lead to a sharp decline in athletic performance and, in some cases, can even trigger depression. An athlete’s sport is often a huge part of his or her identity and is directly linked to self-confidence and overall satisfaction.
Someone who loves her sport and is injured will do anything to quickly return to her previous performance level.
For a long time, the problem was that the subject of “prevention” was written off as rather boring. People preferred to push the limits of their performance capacity and to do so at every training session. Until they couldn’t.
Once the injury had occurred, the search for the cause and a solution began.
In the past, this was a real problem. In 2009, YouTube didn’t yet have the number of high-quality help videos about pain that it has now. The first descriptive videos about sports came from bodybuilding, a sphere that still provides the bulk of sports videos on the internet.
The bodybuilding hype has always motivated more people to go to a fitness center. Due to the influence of social media, the makeup of that population got increasingly younger. And then they started to “pump away,” having only a smattering of knowledge.
Here’s the problem: just working out all the time doesn’t make for a healthy body.
Then, a few years ago, the alleged savior of injured shoulders, backs, and hips came on the market: the foam roller.
Now, apparently, every pain was caused by tight muscles, connective-tissue adherences, and trigger points. No one had an actual plan as to what to do with these rollers and, later, the trigger balls. So people lay down on the rollers and pushed and rolled everything that hurt.
Whether foam rollers make sense or not is discussed in more detail in section 2.5, “Why Foam Rollers Won’t Make You More Mobile.”
Over time, it became clear that foam rollers weren’t the answer, and the search continued. Yet many still used the rollers for warm-ups or for mobility training. Despite their questionable effectiveness, the rollers were part of a very positive development. More and more athletes were thinking about preventative health measures. This also helped introduce the concept of mobility.
And then there was a second major influence on making mobility more popular:
MOVEMENT CULTURE
Created by Ido Portal, movement culture is a philosophy of movement that’s characterized by much of what has to do with movement. Because of him, I landed on this topic also, and he’s one of my greatest role models with respect to my work as a trainer and athlete. Movement culture made a couple things popular, including animal moves and a movement concept that added the strength component to mobility training.
Most athletes now include mobility training in their training regimen, though unfortunately, they often still prefer static stretching to active mobilization, completely missing the effect of mobility training. Nevertheless, it’s good that more and more people are opening up to the idea of mobility training, thanks to rolling and more. It doesn’t matter whether they’re bodybuilders, CrossFit athletes, or calisthenics athletes.
