How to really become more flexible? Joint mobility vs. mobilization

Here is another very interesting remark from one of the listeners of the Mouvers Podcast,

The difference between joint mobility and mobilization.

I often talk about both and I realized that for some people it was still not clear, I realized this because I was often told about the gains in joint mobility.

How to speed them up?

How to get more important ones?

What I'm going to give you today are definitions of what we can differentiate between these two types of work which are linked to what we generally call flexibility , the ability to move the joints, etc.

What is joint mobility?

For joint mobility, my preferred definition is:

It is the ability to move our joints with strength and control through their full range of motion , and to be able to generate force at any point within that range .

As you notice, I use the word force twice.

A simple way to say what joint mobility works is strength training for the joints , as you have seen there is no notion of passive stretching, there is no notion of stretching, there is no notion of yoga,

That is, holding positions for a long period of time.

Conversely, there is nothing passive, everything is active .

I use my central nervous system to establish a better map that gives me the extent of what I am capable of doing, where I can go,

And which also allows me to gain range of movement by widening this mark, this map.

I expand it through active work, which means I use all my muscles actively, I contract them to move my limbs.

This is not something that you are going to do passively because by doing this work passively there will be no structural change in your central nervous system.

Your central nervous system needs to be active!

He needs to send electrical nerve messages, he needs to actively send an intention to move a limb to understand that this stress, requested regularly, will necessarily lead to an adaptation.

And this adaptation will be the gain in usable range of motion.

Conversely, if you do only passive work or stretching, it will already be temporary and you will have an amplitude which will be usable at the time but which will never remain , which will not be sustainable.

So what is important with joint mobility work is these notions of usable range of motion, active work of the central nervous system and development of strength to be able to generate force at any point of the range,

So even at the extremes, I don't want to be flexible in the average amplitude in which everything goes well.

No !

I want at the end of my split, at the bottom of my deep squat , at the top of my overhead, I have the ability to generate force, because that's what's going to allow me to get in and out of positions without risk, or with the minimum risk of injury.

Even in a sport where there is interaction and where there is an external element that wants to manipulate me against my will, that is also where I will take even less risk of injuring myself because I would have previously explored these areas myself ,

Which will no longer be danger zones , which will no longer be red zones for my central nervous system.

So he won't have to associate it with something scary, and against which I have to protect myself with rapid contractions, and therefore make me hurt myself.

What is mobilization?

Mobilization, on the other hand, would be more about loosening up the joints, relaxing , having that flowy side,

Having lubricated joints, having this active flexibility side.

You can have that with a morning routine, but in that morning routine you can also add this notion of joint mobility, this specific mobility by working on a joint, by putting a good intention and by adding a little more strength, tension and contraction in your work.

So typically if you tell yourself that your morning routine is a mobility and mobilization routine to wake up the body, to unlock your joints,

Every morning you will wake up in a body that is slightly different , in the sense that in the morning you will have a sensation that is not exactly the same as the day before.

How to organize your joint mobility session?

So of course if you have one or two huge weak points in your body, points of stiffness, pain, restriction which are often the same because you have a history of physical activity, you have an injury, you have discomfort, an area in your body that you have never worked, etc.

Obviously every morning you wake up and this feeling, this area there is always in pain, you see that in your internal mapping it is always a completely rotten area that needs to be worked on.

But for the rest, for the other joints, those for which there is not really a big difference and where you do not feel particularly good or less good, but you will see that there are mornings dependent on the position you had in bed the day before,

Maybe you fell asleep a little late, maybe you were sharing your bed with a partner, maybe you were busy with the kids, etc.

Things have happened and sometimes in the morning you wake up and the right shoulder is a little stiffer than the left shoulder , another time it could be the hips that are stiff in relation to the spine, etc.

What I often recommend is to have a morning mobilization moment .

I often offer this free mobility routine that addresses all joints.

If you have a time constraint and don't want to spend 20 hours doing specific joint mobility work,

and tear yourself away for 30-45 minutes with controlled joint rotation work like kinstretch or a lot of loaded Deep squat work, or Split squat, or a lot of gymnast-style scapula work, etc.

If you don't want to do that but you still want to work on your weak points, well you can tell yourself that in the morning you wake up, you do a sort of scan, you evaluate your body ,

If you notice that your spine is fine, but this morning your weak point is your left hip, well instead of doing several exercises to unlock your spine, you will concentrate more on your hip.

Instead of just doing a deep squat, you're taking some time to do something ultra active.

Give yourself one or two rounds of internal rotation, external rotation from 90/90 for example, or you can do Baby makers, a straddle with a roll, there are many possibilities...

But the time you saved with the spine, maybe you could have saved with your wrists.

You wake up, the handles are already soft, you've never had trouble with that, well you can save that time and just do dynamic rotations with your wrists.

You take that saved time and inject it into the shoulder, you do controlled joint rotations from the all-fours position, then you go and do internal external rotations.

You can even take a kettlebell if you have one and do external rotation, or use a barbell to do Cuban rotations, etc.

And so there you transform a little of your morning joint mobilization, this little moment of joint awakening, into specific training for your joints and so there will be a slightly more rapid evolution in the development of these weaknesses.

Even if obviously it will never replace taking the time to do a complete session on the hips, for example you take 25 minutes two or three times a week, and you set yourself a big 90/90 that you chain,

Or in your physical preparation sessions you do work with load, you try to do the Deep Squad, the Split, you work on your pistol, etc.

There you will be able to improve that because it will be a strength, and in which you will have this intention and this awareness of working at your maximum amplitudes, developing strength at the extremities to gain in its movements,

And put all your attention on breathing, respecting optimal forms, controlling your pelvic floor, opening your shoulders, etc.

No matter what you do, afterward you can do the rest of your workouts and favorite physical activities.

But it's also a way to combine a bit of the two for those who are wondering, or those who don't have the time, who don't have other sports on the side and who don't have the time to do physical preparation,

Who just want to have something to work with at home, and who want to feel like they are progressing more quickly, with joint mobility.

But the problem with this last example is that you may not feel the effects after several months, because you have become accustomed to this stimulus, and therefore it is up to you to change .

I have lots of free exercises on my YouTube channel that you can take, but it's also up to you to add a little awareness to your workouts .

That is to say that if you get up one morning, you do a joint mobilization, and well every morning you wake up the same way, if you feel that your spine is fine you can allow yourself to do less today, and take that time to put it elsewhere,

Start to integrate something more oriented towards strength training, for example, for the joints you can do work a bit like controlled joint rotation, physical preparation, or by working on your awareness during your movements.

So that's a little bit of a difference between joint mobility and mobilization, so you have a few more things to add to your vocabulary,

And you know exactly which little moments in your routines you can focus on, add or not add specific work, add or not add more repetitions, more loads, etc.

This way you will have a small personalized program without adding a new training session, without completely changing your routine and maintaining the same rhythm that you have with the children, work...

So that's the little extra addition that will also allow you to have gains without revolutionizing and without changing a lot of parameters in your day , in which case you know that you will never keep this new routine.

So here's a little tip to integrate a little mobility into your life, and which I hope will make you understand that you are free to adapt your routines, you are free to adapt the moments in which you move .

It all depends on the intention and the feeling you have, if you have also experimented for a long time with routines with specific programs that you found on the internet, things that people gave you, if these people are conscious and caring people,

Normally they tell you that after a while you have to make these tools your own and so you have to adapt all these things by personalizing them, adapting them to your feelings , etc.

The idea also of practices and respect for a discipline, a routine, is also developing these qualities which are intangible,

You can't describe to someone who is just starting out, or trying to get back into shape and health, what discipline, rigor, listening to oneself, body awareness, intuition, nuance, and finesse are in the art of training.

Why can't I train properly?

Training is an art!

Just because you have a lot of guys doing it and a lot of YouTube videos doesn't mean it's something to take lightly.

When I see someone talking to me about their job at work, I tell myself that it's rubbish, that I can do their thing in 5 minutes.

On the other hand, you're not going to do training in five minutes, so sometimes you shouldn't have the arrogance of thinking that because it's something physical it's easy, that you just have to read the program, the repetitions, the rest times.

No, it's an art.

You are not moving a machine, you are moving yourself , your entity which is composed of your body, your mind, your breathing, your heart, what you ate the day before, your emotional state, what you have done in the past, your traumas,

What your wife told you that morning, the death of your dog, your child who broke your head the day before, lots of things...

So training is an art, what I try to share and what many others try to share are keys to start, keys to continue,

Obviously, sometimes there are shortcuts, but not in a bad way, in the sense that you won't waste your time and your health on harmful practices. I know what doesn't work, so I'm going to give you some general advice.

Do that instead, and explore!

But on the other hand, don't forget that it remains an invitation to discover yourself and to explore your physicality , your relationship with the physical world, the expression of your body, your movements , really the fact of being a human being and moving your body.

So even in things that you might repeat for months there is always a way to integrate your essence, to adapt, don't be afraid to do that.

Conversely, if you do whatever you want from the beginning, you will never develop more nuanced understandings, because you do a little bit of everything, which amounts to doing anything.

But be careful, nuance…

Imposing constraints from the start is the best way to develop critical thinking and creativity .

But if I let you do whatever you want from the beginning, you will tend, like all human beings, to do easy things, things that will leave you in your comfort zone.

On the other hand, if I tell you that you will have to take cold showers and an ice bath for the next two months,

Well you're going to start saying, okay how can I make this easier, how can I improve my breathing, how can I transfer this to my work, how can I learn to meditate, to breathe...

But if you don't have this basic constraint you won't do anything .

The journey is important and should always be taken as an adventure. These are not rules. Just because I said this doesn't mean it's the ultimate truth and that you should do it without question.

It's your body, your feelings, your relationship with yourself.

So this is how we can make a difference between mobility and mobilization, how to integrate a bit of both into morning work and how to then also have a moment of introspection, a moment of evaluation.

I am my own coach , I am my own teacher, I am my own therapist , I am my own rehabilitator, etc.

You have to learn to develop this dialogue with yourself, don't do these things without awareness, and hoping that simply by repeating the task there will be gains and things will continue to improve, not at all.

Try to develop this relationship with yourself as much as possible.

In these moments, tell yourself that you are consciously choosing, you are taking the time, no one is forcing you to do these routines, so you might as well make this moment of life pleasant, interesting, and with an internal dialogue.

You won't have that moment anymore after the rest of the day, we're all busy, there are 10,000 distractions, there are kids, work, social media.

Take 15 minutes with you in the morning , discuss, exchange, touch, turn, fold, unfold, extend, contract, compress, see what happens and continue if it works.

Thank you for your attention, my Mouver!

Nomad Slim
Founder of MOUVERS