Mobility & flexibility

Story

Connected to · 4

cofactor · 3

Does stretching prevent injury
A full-range loaded squat trains a large range of motion at the hip, knee and ankle while building strength and control within that range. Mobility backed by strength handles load better than flexibility alone, for the same reason that active control at the end of a joint's range beats passive lengthening.
Training injuries
Strength training through your full range of motion builds strength at the angles you actually use; train only the partial range for a long time and the weakest part of the range stays weak, so the body keeps compensating. That is where the value of mobility lies, not in how far you can stretch.
Sedentary office body
The claim that sitting tightens your hip flexors and makes your glutes lazy has some truth to it, but the fix is not passive stretching. It is standing up, walking, and strengthening the hips and legs so that muscles held in a shortened position get used again.

regulates · 1

Nervous
After long static stretching of a muscle, that muscle's maximal strength drops briefly and slightly (about 5% in the studies pooled by Simic 2013) and recovers within minutes. There are two reasons: the nervous system's drive to the muscle is temporarily turned down, and the tendon is left slacker, so force is passed on more slowly; the muscle is not injured. With less than 60 seconds per muscle followed by a dynamic warm-up, whole-body performance such as jumping and sprinting is largely unaffected.

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How flexibility differs from mobility

EVIDENCEREVIEW 3

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Someone else pushing your leg up high does not mean you can lift it there yourself. The largest angle someone else can push a joint to is flexibility; the largest angle you can reach under your own control is mobility. The two often split apart:

Yoga teachers can be extremely flexible yet lack strength at the end of their range; habitually pushing into overextension can even hurt the kneesStrength athletes can squat all the way down and stay in control at the bottom without being unusually flexiblePeople who sit all day are poor at both, and stretching alone will not rebuild the mobility half
Static stretching does let a joint be pushed farther. But the sports-science textbook view is that the range you can control yourself has to be trained at the end of the movement, under load. In practice this is simple: take every strength exercise through its full range, and for most people most of the mobility problem goes away.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.

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Mobility & flexibility

Story

Connected to · 4

cofactor · 3

Does stretching prevent injury
A full-range loaded squat trains a large range of motion at the hip, knee and ankle while building strength and control within that range. Mobility backed by strength handles load better than flexibility alone, for the same reason that active control at the end of a joint's range beats passive lengthening.
Training injuries
Strength training through your full range of motion builds strength at the angles you actually use; train only the partial range for a long time and the weakest part of the range stays weak, so the body keeps compensating. That is where the value of mobility lies, not in how far you can stretch.
Sedentary office body
The claim that sitting tightens your hip flexors and makes your glutes lazy has some truth to it, but the fix is not passive stretching. It is standing up, walking, and strengthening the hips and legs so that muscles held in a shortened position get used again.

regulates · 1

Nervous
After long static stretching of a muscle, that muscle's maximal strength drops briefly and slightly (about 5% in the studies pooled by Simic 2013) and recovers within minutes. There are two reasons: the nervous system's drive to the muscle is temporarily turned down, and the tendon is left slacker, so force is passed on more slowly; the muscle is not injured. With less than 60 seconds per muscle followed by a dynamic warm-up, whole-body performance such as jumping and sprinting is largely unaffected.

Read full story

Stop 1/5

How flexibility differs from mobility

EVIDENCEREVIEW 3

READ THE ORIGINAL

Someone else pushing your leg up high does not mean you can lift it there yourself. The largest angle someone else can push a joint to is flexibility; the largest angle you can reach under your own control is mobility. The two often split apart:

Yoga teachers can be extremely flexible yet lack strength at the end of their range; habitually pushing into overextension can even hurt the kneesStrength athletes can squat all the way down and stay in control at the bottom without being unusually flexiblePeople who sit all day are poor at both, and stretching alone will not rebuild the mobility half
Static stretching does let a joint be pushed farther. But the sports-science textbook view is that the range you can control yourself has to be trained at the end of the movement, under load. In practice this is simple: take every strength exercise through its full range, and for most people most of the mobility problem goes away.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.