What’s the difference between stretching and mobility?🤔
A common question in fitness, is what is the actual difference between the two and which is right to be doing based on your goals and what you want to get out of the time you spend doing it.
Let's start with mobility. These are often specific and targeted, aiming to mobilise a muscle group or improve the range of motion & ability to get into a certain position.
For example, overhead holds, front rack positions, squat depth may be as a result of tight muscles, joint instability or poor flexibility.
I personally like to dedicate time each day to doing some dynamic mobility drills purely for the performance and movement quality benefits. It has definitely helped my performance in the gym, but also outside and I feel my posture, recovery after sessions and just general movement has improved.
Mobility is something that requires a bit of dedicated time and often can be extremely challenging as you force the muscle/joint to adapt to a new position and way of moving.
Stretches on the other hand, aim to lengthen and ultimately stretch the muscle. There is debate around their use and especially around when they are implemented in your routine. Some people like to incorporate dynamic stretches pre-exercise and static after. This is the most optimal way of doing it, as holding a static stretch when the muscle isn't warm risks injury. They are a way of either warming or returning a muscle to it's pre-exercise state. HOWEVER, there're contrasting views as to how useful stretching actually is when it comes to performance.
Most argue that an active warm up going through the range of motions of what will be in your session and a cardiovascular element are more beneficial. Likewise, an active recovery is more useful. I do like to use stretching when I feel particularly stiff, achey or when I feel that a certain body part feels quite 'uptight'.
For example, if you’ve been sat at a desk all day and your shoulders feel stiff, stretches such as the listed below could come in handy.
- Shoulder static opener stretch
- Thread the needle
- Cobra pose
- Child’s pose
- Kneeling upper back stretch
- Kneeling shoulder extension
You don’t have to spend ages doing it. A lot of people don’t have the luxury to spend ages in the gym. But there are ways you can incorporate mobility & stretching into your day that doesn’t require being in a gym. Having a handy go to routine for both mobility and stretching can save time.
Below are some of my suggestions for at home habits to try to incorporate. There’s plenty of opportunity in a day!
1. Next time you’re sat in front of the tv, sit in a deep squat?📺
2. When you’re sweeping up, practice some shoulder dislocations? 🧹
3. Before bed, instead of scrolling through Instagram, set yourself a 5 minute winddown routine where you have a short series of stretches? 🛌
4. Doing your teeth, you could lean into a door frame and do some pec opening stretches? 🦷
As you can see, a lot of chances to multi-task and fit a bit of muscle/joint TLC into your day.
Don’t worry if you can’t get the full range of motion first time, go to then point that feels comfortable and work from there. Over time you will see improvements!
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