Mobility Programmes can be causing your pain!

Too much of anything is a bad thing! The same goes for mobility work – you can have too much mobility for your sport in this instance more is not necessarily better.

Why are women most often the go to models for mobility? Because genetically, women are more flexible than men, therefore providing the perfect demonstration for most mobility drills. BUT….this extra flexibility has a caveat – mobile people look great at lighter loads and the journey in to the bottom of a squat BUT are often prone to weakness in getting out the squat with the “beautiful form” soon disappearing under heavier loads! Often the people in your gym with more mobility are rarely the strongest, and often spend years with plateaued strength numbers. This is not a coincidence it is linked and here’s why…..

Flexibility training has an influence over the nervous system by reducing its sensitivity to motion. The two primary proprioceptors (nerve receptors within the muscles and tendons) are the muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs (GTOs). Muscle spindles function to detect the rate of the tension within the muscle belly creating a muscle contraction (a stretch reflex reaction). The GTOs function to detect the amount of tension at the musculo-tendinous junction and are inhibited when holding stretches for long periods of time, switching off a muscle to prevent injury when stimulated. When you train flexibility – mobility this way, you are training the muscles to shut down during motion. This often results in a loss of tension and therefore, reduced power due to neurological relaxation. However, to overcome the external loads or forces we are exposing ourselves to the body will search and find tension from other areas. Consequently, overloading the connective tissues and joints in nearby structures. For people with very mobile hips this often results in chronic low back pain, with overactive spinal muscles (erector spinae and quadratus lumborum muscles) taking the load and protecting the body as best as they can or development of hypermobile lumbar vertebrae (segments of the lower spine).

The current fitness “trend” is promoting that increasing mobility is only a good thing and we should all be stretching and mobilising to correct our injuries. Yes, we absolutely require range of motion in joints to execute good movement however, this is SPORT dependant. If you want to pick heavy weights up off the floor you do not need the front or box splits and at JJ Perform we commonly treat ex-gymnasts, dancers with chronic lower back pain who have started weightlifting programmes.

MORE MOBILITY DOES NOT EQUATE TO LESS INJURIES IT EQUATES TO DIFFERENT INJURIES!

Therefore, stretching the muscles in the required range for your sport, whilst maintaining tension throughout is key for optimal, controlled movement patterns. These important checkpoints are covered within theJJ Perform Programme using a combination of stretching (ensuring you have enough range in each joint), stability (ensuring you can control the joint through its range) and functional movement (ensuring you apply these movements in specific ways).