You want to get bigger, stronger, and faster? If your weekly routine just consists of lifting and conditioning work, you’re only incorporating 2 of the 3 ingredients necessary to reach this goal. What’s missing?  Your ability to actually move, also known as mobility. My latest YouTube video will teach you how you can increase your mobility to prevent injury and increase your strength.

GFX: MOBILITY TRAINING

Mobility exercises combine strength and flexibility to increase your range-of-motion.

GFX: WHO SHOULD DO MOBILITY WORK?

Literally, everyone should add movement work to their warm-up. Just because you know your way around a gym doesn’t mean you in any way have good range-of-motion.

GFX: WILL MOBILITY REALLY HELP?

There are two reasons to do mobility work: to prevent getting injured and to get stronger.

Inadequate mobility and stability lead to about 90% of the injuries. Spending as little as 15 minutes of mobility warmup every day can prevent a devastating injury—torn rotator cuff, slipped disc—that’ll keep you out of the gym and in pain for months. 

GFX: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MOBILITY AND AESTHETICS

Limited range-of-motion translates to limited muscle growth. For example, doing deep squats builds more thigh muscle, improves knee extension, and boosts the power behind your squats. 

GFX: HOW TO INCREASE YOUR MOBILITY

Let’s take a look at some basic mobility exercises:

  • Myofascial work like foam rolling or ball rolling. This is great to massage sore muscles and increase blood flow. You can roll either before or after your workout. Find a position that feels comfortable for you and enjoy the moderate pressure. 
  • Controlled dynamic stretches. I love stretching and incorporate before and during my training sessions.  Make sure to stretch ALL parts of your body including lower abs upper body. There are also some cool abdominal stretches you can do. The more you stretch the better you’ll get at it.
  • Bodyweight movements, like the squat or lunge

When doing these move slowly and deliberately and do your warm-up first. You don’t need a weight, just use your own body weight. Contrary to popular belief mobility is not just associated with yoga and dance or hitting the foam-roller for a few minutes before a heavy lift day. Everyone should be including mobility work in their training to ensure they’re performing at their best and decreasing their risk for injury. Let me know in the comments below if any of this surprised you and don’t forget to like and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any of my educational content.