Weighted Mobility: Benefits, dangers, and accessibility of working on mobility with external loads?

An excellent question taken from FAQ No. 11 of the podcast which allows me to both present to you the more ADVANCED possibilities offered by joint mobility work and to expose you to a more specific part of my personal practice!

I imagine that few people know that mobility can also be achieved with external loads.

By “external loads” I include bars, dumbbells, kettlebells, elastic bands, cables, as well as more specific machines.

This “loaded” part of joint mobility work, which adds more STRESS to your joints than body weight , is designed to strengthen muscles, tendons, ligaments, and even cartilage. You’ll see, it’s crazy.

The exercises inherent in this aspect of joint mobility work have similarities with training protocols from the world of gymnastics and weightlifting.

We're going to dive into quite a few concepts in this article, so feel free to ask me for more details in the COMMENTS at the end.

Very good reading my move.

Joint mobility work to become more FLEXIBLE and STRENGTHEN

Before diving into mobility with external loads, a quick and important recap on terminology .

One way to introduce the joint mobility work I love is this:

“Joint mobility is strength training for your joints.”

Working on your mobility means reconnecting your central nervous system to your joints to allow you to gain a range of USABLE motion!

This means being able to manipulate your joints with strength and control throughout their range of motion and being able to generate force at any point within those ranges.

Even at the extremes of these amplitudes!

Mobility is therefore closely linked to body control, that is to say that it is work which is ACTIVE , unlike many other “flexibility” training methods,

Which promote PASSIVE stretching, such as flexibility work or certain forms of Yoga .

Since the concepts of FORCE and active control are absent from these modalities, you will not be able to create lasting structural changes in your central nervous system.

This is why you feel good at the time and a few hours later, but if you stop your prolonged static passive stretching for a week, the amplitudes are no longer usable (when cold).

The only way to make this work in the long term is to actively engage your central nervous system.

In this sense, joint mobility is an INTERNAL task , which improves neuro-muscular connection and lastingly modifies your neural network.

Hence the lasting transformations at the tissue level: muscles, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, fascia.

Being stronger in greater ranges of motion means being able to get in and out of more positions safely,

And so, you are better prepared in case your body is forced to move out of a stable position suddenly or against its will,

Like when an opponent tries to twist your arm in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or when you miss a step, the sidewalk, or you run over a stone while running.

You are better prepared for these eventualities because you have STRENGTHENED your body in more positions.

Your body knows it can go into more positions safely, so when that happens, your body isn't shocked; it knows those areas are safe for it.

This is why you get injured less and are less likely to get injured in everyday activities.

Then, mobility work also has the function of MAKING your body FLEXIBLE.

Regaining range of motion actually allows you to feel more flexible, more “pliable” or “twistable” if you will allow me these invented words,

That is to say, having the ability to twist or bend yourself, without being soft , like bamboo for example.

Indeed, “strength” combined with “flexibility” is a valuable combo that supports you in times when you cross red zones, almost extreme in certain movements because it allows you to go there and come back there, without danger!

Therefore, approaching mobility work from the point of view of strength work for the joints allows you to understand, as with all strength work, that there is therefore an interest in adding external load!

This is what we will see in detail in the rest of this article.

The Benefits of Weighted Mobility

The principle of adaptation

In bodybuilding, adding external load means adding stress to your body, which, followed by adequate rest, will be able to ADAPT and make you stronger, more muscular...

Working on joint mobility with external loads follows precisely this same principle of adaptation , and seeks additional gain.

To know whether or not it is interesting for you to move towards charged mobility, it is important that you first ask yourself the following questions:

• Your current physical activity? Your physical activity history
• Your experience with mobility training and physical preparation in general?
• Your body awareness? Include: breathing, concentration, self-awareness, core strength, etc.
• Your goals for your body, your movements, your health, and your longevity?
• The state of your body? Injuries, traumas, accidents, restrictions, limitations, asymmetries, discomforts...

If you are an athlete or simply a seasoned practitioner, passionate and curious about the idea of ​​going further in the exploration of your physicality, there is an interest for you to try to perform mobility exercises with external loads!

Reducing the risk of injury

Loaded joint mobility work is often associated with the notion of making the body “bullet-proof”.

This is of course a marketing term because it is not possible to make your body 100% injury-proof …

On the other hand, working on joint mobility with external loads, performed CONSCIOUSLY, certainly allows you to optimize your body's capabilities!

Indeed, it is an excellent way, once you have for example already worked with body weight for several years to go even FURTHER in gaining range of motion ,

But also in the gain of FORCE at any point of this amplitude.

For example, if you imagine that you are already able to perform Jefferson Curls with your body weight, you can stand on a box, use a Kettlebell or a loaded barbell,

To try to take your posterior chain flexibility even further and strengthen the muscles around the spine up to the hamstrings,

By controlling the descent of the movement and then raising this additional weight to return to the starting position.

You can see from this simple example that loaded mobility is a great way to ask your body to adapt to an even more demanding stimulus .

Improve body control and awareness

To this end, handling an external load when you perform a mobility exercise also helps you gain body control , insofar as,

Your concentration must then be at its maximum to ensure that the movement is executed correctly, without the risk of injury.

This is why I asked you in the short questions at the beginning of this chapter, your level of body awareness, your ability to concentrate during physical effort,

Awareness and control of your breathing , your ability to recruit all the muscles involved in activating the core, and even your emotional and psychological state to make the right decisions.

Indeed, the more you approach high RISK, high REWARD training modalities, as is the case here, all of these elements are essential.

Improve usable ranges of motion

In the event that you meet the essential prerequisites for joint mobility work with external loads, which is therefore carried out with awareness and wisdom, in other words with optimal control of your body,

That is to say with breathing, core strength, intensity and quality of execution of the appropriate movements, then YES, you will considerably go much further in your amplitudes,

Become much stronger in the extreme ranges as well as in all points of the range of motion, and gain a feeling of “length” in your ligaments and tendons!

Working on your mobility with external loads also allows you to thicken the cartilage that surrounds your joints , a sort of protective cushion around them, and the thicker it is, the more your capabilities expand.

Let's take the example of the knee, the thicker the cartilage surrounding your joint, the higher you will be able to jump and better absorb the impact of your jumps!

In short, the thicker the cartilage surrounding your joints, the less likely you are to get injured!

Be careful, these are not perfect rules of causality, but rather correlations.

Even with all the Earth-charged mobility training, you can still injure yourself by tripping on the sidewalk because you're staring at your Instagram feed while crossing the street...

The risk of injury is what is most frightening when we see people practicing this kind of slow and controlled movements with sometimes heavy loads.

Just like strength training in gymnastics, weightlifting, or bodybuilding, it takes a lot of time to master the TECHNIQUE.

How safe is it for the body? Aren't we taking too big a risk of injury?

Is it really worth the effort if we already have a level of mobility that we consider sufficient to carry out everyday tasks and enjoy our favorite physical activities?

This is what we will see in the rest of this article.

Nomad Slim
Founder of MOUVERS