Benefits of a Daily Mobility Workout

What is Mobility?

Mobility refers to the range and ease of movement around your joints. It’s also useful to understand the difference between mobility and flexibility. Flexibility refers to the extension of muscles. For example, the ability to touch your toes in a forward fold. Meanwhile, mobility refers to the strength and movement of joints. For example, the ability to move into a forward fold or maintain a squat with the correct form.

To understand the difference between mobility and flexibility, try raising your leg to a 90-degree angle. You can lean against a wall to help with balance. How far you can lift your leg without assistance indicates the range of motion in your hip joint. Now, lift your leg again but use your arms to pull your leg as high as it will go without straining your muscles. This indicates your hip flexibility.

A balanced workout program should include both flexibility and mobility exercises. However, dynamic mobility stretches - which take you through a range of motion - are more effective for building strength and stability while improving flexibility.

How Daily Mobility Workouts Benefit Your Training

A baseline level of mobility is essential for basic daily activities, from putting your shoes on without hurting your back to going for a run. Incorporating mobility exercises into your routine can also have a massive impact on your regular workouts. Doing a few mobility exercises between your warmup and workout prepares the body for more intense training.

Mobility exercises increase blood flow to the tissue around your joints and encourage the body to produce more synovial fluid - a liquid that lubricates the joints and reduces friction. Naturally, you’ll find that you’re able to perform better in your workouts when you can use the full range of motion in your joints.

Likewise, adding mobility exercises to your cooldown should reduce your chances of being wiped out by delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Mobility exercises can even signal the brain to release endorphins which can boost your mood and energy levels.

Additionally, mobility workouts include strength exercises. This makes them useful for addressing muscle imbalances and weak points, as well as reducing your risk of injury.

Basic Daily Mobility Exercises

Here are some basic mobility exercises that you can do anywhere.

Shoulder Pass-Through.

This is a great exercise if you are tight in the chest and shoulders. Hold a broom, yardstick, or another prop, horizontally with your hands in line with your shoulders. Slowly raise the stick over your head without arching your back. Reach past your head until you reach your mobility limit.

Hold for five to ten seconds, then return to the starting point and repeat three to five times.

Deep Squat.

Position your feet shoulder-width apart and lower down into a squat. Keep your heels on the ground, back straight, and knees in line with your toes. You may only be able to squat halfway while maintaining the correct posture. As your mobility improves, you should be able to squat deeper.

Hold your squat for 30-60 seconds and repeat three to five times.

Hip Openers.

Particularly useful for runners but also for anyone who spends most of their day sitting. While standing, raise one knee in front of you so that it’s 90-degrees to your hip. Then, keeping your chest facing forwards and your knee raised, rotate your leg outwards from the hip until your knee is parallel with the side of your hip, or as far as you can rotate without bending.

Repeat five to ten times on both legs.

Yoga or Pilates.

Both yoga and pilates combine stretching, balance, and strength. All without raising your heart rate too much. Because they’re low impact, you can easily tag a short session onto your regular workout or do a longer session on an active rest day.

How Can You Benefit From a Mobility Workout Routine?

With so many benefits to unlock, it’s worth finding the time to incorporate mobility training into your workout plan. Adding dynamic mobility exercises to your warmup routine can improve your technique by enabling you to use your full range of motion. As a result, you’ll perform better, get stronger, and reduce your risk of injury.

Meanwhile, adding stretches to your cooldown can speed up recovery times. You don’t need to spend an hour on the yoga mat. Adding just a 5–15-minute daily mobility workout to your routine is enough to start reaping the benefits.

Daily Mobility Workout FAQ’s

When is the best time to do daily mobility exercises?

You can do mobility exercises at any time of the day. First thing in the morning is perfect for a mobility workout because it boosts your energy levels and sets you up for the day. However, you can slip a quick mobility workout into your lunch break or after work - particularly if you work a sedentary job. Alternatively, add mobility exercises to your warmup/cooldown routine.

Is it better to do mobility exercises before or after a workout?

Ideally, you want to incorporate mobility exercises into your warmup and cooldown. Mobility training before a workout can improve performance and reduce injury risks. Meanwhile, post-workout mobility training can help prevent muscle soreness and stiffness. Just remember to stick to dynamic stretches before a workout instead of static stretches.

What is mobility training for runners?

Running is a repetitive exercise. As a result, runners that don’t practice mobility exercises often develop tightness in the hips and calves. Therefore, the best mobility workouts for runners focus on stretching and strengthening muscles and joints in the lower body. Typically exercises include front, back, and side lunges, heel raises, and leg swings.

Want to incorporate mobility exercises into your daily workout routine? Use Fit! daily mobility exercise programs to bring a dynamic edge to your workouts and unlock a full range of motion.