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Wellness
Here's why working on your mobility should be your main fitness goal in 2020
You’ve finally got a workout routine in place, but do your joints agree?
Do you move as much as you did a 100 days ago? And no, doing the dishes, trimming your plants and incessant typing on the keyboard does not count, not entirely. While an overload of work may have made it harder for us to find time to move and work our bodies beyond the daily chores, it has also made prioritising the latter all that more crucial.
So, step one: start moving. Step two: start moving well by working on your mobility. It is your body’s ability to move freely, without any stress or pain. Those ‘made-for-Instagram’ fitness poses you see on social media? Remember that they come with a strong backing of a combination of strength, mobility, alignment and flexibility.
Why mobility is the building block to fitness
Our muscles and joints work together to produce efficient movement patterns. A strong mobility helps achieve that. “Mobility is being able to move in a desired and bio-mechanically efficient way. In other words, it means keeping an aligned posture, and producing correct form whilst moving,” explains movement therapist and sports scientist Dilshad Patel, who further adds, “Our bodies are linked via multiple segments called the kinetic or movement chain, that allow us to move freely and to transfer forces from when our feet touch the ground, all the way up to our heads.”
It’s important to keep this movement chain smooth and functioning. “Think of the body as a set of building blocks, starting with the foot as the base of support, and the rest of the joints stacked one above the other eg, the foot and ankle, knee, hip, lower back, T-spine, shoulder, neck and head.” Immobile joints can lead to aches and pains, restricting your movement. “Faulty movement patterns or improper carriage of the body and posture can lead to muscle imbalances, asymmetries, and thus lead to improper function,” says Patel. And in a nutshell, besides a shortened range of motion, movement impediments, pain, injury, increased pain perception, and decreased proprioception (our sixth sense of understanding how our limbs move in space), the lack of mobility or being able to move freely also impacts the psyche, and can lead to depression and social isolation.
How to know if you need to amp up your mobility
“Tightness, shortened range of motion, loss of balance, stiffness and pain, an inability to perform tasks as you were once able to do, are all signs that our bodies are losing muscle tone, mobility, and strength,” explains Patel.
As Patel puts it, movement has more than a physical effect on us, “Our bodies are the home we live in. It is a physical container of our experiences, thoughts, memories, and feelings. Movement helps us understand and discover our body boundaries and what lies inside of us. Additionally, when we move, we address thoughts, emotions and feelings that are deeply embedded in our bodies. Once there is awareness, we can address and find solutions to those issues and thus release stress by moving past our problems by using the body as a tool.”
What is flexibility and how does it relate to mobility?
“Mobility and flexibility are terms that cannot be used interchangeably,” says Patel, who explains that while flexibility is the passive stretching or lengthening of a muscle, mobility is the ability of a joint to move freely through a desired range of motion. So, you may be hyper flexible, but if you’re not mobile, your body may not allow for the movement to occur seamlessly. “Alternatively, joint mobility is influenced by the ability to stretch which allows for the lengthening of connective tissue. Stretching correctly can be used in injury prevention and moving in several different ways can enhance mobility,” says Patel. So, move often, and move right.
Why work on your mobility now?
“There is sufficient scientific evidence that suggests sedentary and physically inactive lifestyles, in addition to poor eating habits, lead to obesity, chronic health conditions, weight gain, risk of falling and other medical conditions,” explains Patel. And if that wasn’t reason enough, those inexplicable morning joint aches and technology-dependent lifestyles should be your warning sign. “With so many hours spent indoors, the time spent working on our computers has increased, and there is a new host of problems that impact our overall health. Consistently looking at our phones can be one of the major causes of severe neck and lower back problems,” says Patel, who points out that getting “unstuck” in our physical bodies by moving in any way possible, limiting our sitting time and time spent with our various gadgets, is the need of the hour.
The pain-free movement routine
While Patel lists down the basic exercises you can attempt for full-body movement, it is important to note that routines are not one-size-fits-all. “It is imperative to make sure that any movement should be done with appropriate form and the activity should be pain-free. If it hurts, understand the issue, fix the problem, then start with an appropriate exercise routine, “ she says. Include these in your fitness routine to get moving:
1
Lunges
2
Wall squats
3
T-spine rotations
4
Scapula wall-slide
5
Glute bridges
6
Bird-dog
7
Wall push-ups
8
Sit-to-stand on a chair
9
Clam shells
10
Straight arm pull downs
11
Sun salutation or surya namaskar
12
Turkish get up
Also read:
How improving your flexibility can help you get fitter, stronger and faster
