Train Mobility if you Want to Get Fit

“I have always believed that Fitness, being in shape and enjoying a body healthy had to be more than just hitting the gym to do weights or go for a run. That is why both my professional training and personal experience have been aimed at answering the question: What does a body need to be in shape? Answer is clear: Strength and Mobility.” – Antonio Solano

The Importance That Mobility Deserves

The term Fitness,currently, makes us think of defined bodies, strong, with good buttocks and with perfectly visible abs. But where is the fact that you do not feel pain in your day to day?, or where is to improve your ability to move to be able to do more things more easily? Isn’t that  fitness?

When we talk about Fitness  we are referring to the search for a better body and to improve our physical capacity, not to look better in front of the mirror or to get a % of fat highly dangerous for our health.

So, do you think to get a fitness body we must train other qualities beyond strength and cardiovascular work? The answer is a resounding yes.

In this article I want to reveal the 3 reasons for you to start giving it the importance that mobility deserves and include it in your day to day. At the end of it, I will leave you an example of mobility routine. So, you can put it into practice from now on.

In a technical way, we could define mobility as the ability to actively control a joint throughout its range of motion. So that we understand: “be able to control the movements that your body can produce”.

I want to show you a couple of examples of what you can achieve with a good mobility job:

• Here’s a demonstration of great hip mobility: https://youtu.be/1C1Khnb720s
• Here, from a strong and flexible column (or in other, from a mobile column): https://youtu.be/ey0EwVXZf80

Now that you have an idea of what mobility is, I want to give you 3 reasons to integrate it into your day to day and in your workouts.

1.– Training mobility allows you to have healthy joints.

One of the main problems that joints have is that they do not recover like a muscle. A muscle is very irrigated. It, receives a lot of blood and, when it suffers an injury, it tends to recover faster.

However, a joint is not so well irrigated, so for a proper exchange of oxygen, blood and waste products to occur, it is mandatory to move it.

What happens when you don’t move your joints for a while? As the synovial fluid (fluid inside your joint to allow its movement) begins to become denser, the joint capsule (which covers your joint) begins to create adhesions and restrictions and, therefore, it is increasingly difficult to move it.

Have you never encountered someone who is not able to raise their arms completely above their head? There you have an example of limitation at the joint level.

2.- Training mobility allows you to do more exercises.

Have you tried any exercise that has instantly resisted you? It usually happens a lot with the Pistol Squat or with the Snatch. Both are exercises that need a very high mobility so that you can perform them correctly. If you do not know them, you can see what exercises I am talking about right here:

• Pistol squat:  https://youtu.be/Zkw8uWwYnwY
• Snatch:  https://youtu.be/5y4GGp7yNjA

When you have to do any of these exercises and you don’t have enough mobility, you can’t do them. It’s that simple (unless you “cheat” or do it wrong and you’re at high risk of injury).

Therefore, improving your mobility not only allows you to have healthier joints, but also allows you to perform more different exercises.

3.- Improving your mobility reduces the risk of suffering pain in the body.

For me, one of the most important points to keep in mind. I’ll explain this point with an example:

Imagine you’re doing a vertical press with the bar, but it turns out your shoulders don’t have the proper mobility to perform that movement. However, your notes as the exercise you can do it thanks to a phenomenon called compensation.

Compensation is normal in the body. It happens, for example, when you sprain (don’t you notice how you load more the weight of the leg on which it is not injured? That’s a positive trade-off.) However, there are other trade-offs that are not so positive.

Continuing with the previous example, if your shoulder does not have enough mobility to do the exercise properly, your lower back will compensate by arching a little more. This will cause you to carry the bar above your head, but also to overcharge your lower back and, with the repetitions, you begin to notice how your back hurts.

I hope that with these 3 reasons, you understand the importance of including mobility in your workouts. Now, as I’ve promised you before, I’m going to leave you an example of mobility routine.

Session examples:

• Scapula mobility routine: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMUj9dZi5-j/
• Ankle mobility routine: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJy_GLXiwjO/
• Hip mobility routine: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJjNC_WiCwC/

If you want to learn more, follow Antonio CoolDot’s ambassador, in his Instagram account @esantonio. Also follow @cooldotfitness