[Episode 27] Understanding Ways You Can Train: Part Four – Mobility Training

This episode is part four of our mini-series about different training methods. I want to take the time to explore ways that you can train and the outcomes different training styles will have on your body.

Today we’re gonna check out mobility, by that I mean joint mobility. Joint Mobility is how well you can move your joints throughout your body. Now I get this can be seen as the unsexy, tedious side of training, but honest to glob, it’s so ploppin important.

Our bodies move the ways they do because of how our joints are set up. Every movement we make it reliant on our joints being able to move within a certain range.

While our joint mobility can be influenced a lot by how easily our muscles move, it is also strongly influenced by the ways our joints developed and fit together during our development in the womb.

Some people’s joints may be hypermobile which means they can move beyond the standard range generally in the opposite direction to the bendy direction. This tends to happen with folks that have ligaments and joint capsules that are loose. Weaker muscles around the joint can also contribute to this.

Hypomobility is the opposite of this and means that the ligaments around your joint are too tight and limit a joint from completely straightening or extending to within an average range of motion.

Before you begin ANY sort of physical training it is so important to begin by building your range of movement within your joints.

You can practice movements that take your joints, ligaments and muscles through their full range of movement. This helps keep a joint within a functional capacity so they can move without causing you pain, discomfort or long term, wear and tear on your joints caused by a limitation.

If you want something structured, you can quest for some online yoga/pilates/movement flow tutorials or classes. There are so many of them on YouTube and in the socials.

You can check out Episode 14 where I shared a whole bunch about how stretching and moving our bodies can reduce stress. In this episode, I linked to some of the better yoga/pilates/movement flow coaches around.

We run two classes a week called Stretch Club that are focused exclusively on movement and mobility. If you’re keen to work with me and try a more relaxed way to introduce movement into your life.