Looking to develop your mobility? Well, for the love of God, stop stretching!
Published via Gript
In my previous article, I highlighted the physiological changes that take place in the body as a result of oversitting in conjunction with declining activity levels. I highlighted which joints of the body lose their inherent mobility and which joints lose their inherent stability.
Additionally, I explained the difficulty faced by an immobile individual in maintaining a healthy body weight and muscle mass (or in losing excess body fat and redeveloping sufficient muscle mass).
I then encouraged readers to focus on their mobility issues first and foremost if they wished to address these increasingly common physiological issues of the 21st century. However, I did not have an opportunity to expand on how best to maintain or regain an individual's mobility in an attempt to offset the damage caused by oversitting and insufficient activity.
Allow me to do so now;
Upon a preliminary Google or YouTube search into addressing mobility issues, the most prominent and popular answer that will appear is yoga.
And with an answer like yoga in hand, within a few short clicks , you will find yourself a yogi-fairy-princess, who is asking you to unblock your chakras as you struggle to grasp your own bleedin' toes at the bottom of some sun salutation.
It can all seem a bit fruitless if your toes never appear to get any closer and your hamstrings continue to scream bloody murder at you.
Perhaps it's time to give yoga and stretching a rest, and consider some better alternatives.
I don't mean to burst bubbles, but your flexibility (developed or maintained as a result of stretching) doesn't mean much in terms of physical health or athletic prowess. I can tie the stereotypical 3-sessions-a-week yogi into a pretzel, but I wouldn't trust him to run a 5 kilometre mini marathon without getting a stitch. Nor to deadlift more than his bag of ethically sourced almond flower.
Yogis have always seemed to me like the wacky-waving-inflatable-arm-flailing tube man from Family Guy. Legs, limbs, and Lululemons flying about without any substantial standard of motor control, joint stability, mobility, cardiovascular tolerance, or above all, strength.
But, perhaps you feel better after yoga or stretching?
Yes, I'm sure you do. Movement is medicine, as they say. But more importantly, you probably haven't had much experience in what a good weight lifting session (which prioritises each joint's range of motion (R.o.M.) above all else) can do for your mobility, stability, muscle mass, pain levels, and posture.
In a slew of studies, the importance of lifting heavy weights through a joint's full range of motion to both develop muscle mass and improve joint mobility has been substantiated
Whereas, on the other hand, (perhaps unknown to most;) passive stretching/yoga has been proven as an inferior method if the intention of the exercise(s) is to develop joint mobility.
Unfortunately, for those partaking in yoga with the intention of developing their mobility, they will soon find that their friends who have opted into lifting weights will see far greater mobility, stability, and strength developments than they will.
If we consider the following studies, we can see that lifting weights does not, despite what most people believe, cause tightness or stiffness, but instead drastic mobility improvements in adults.
In 2005, Hess et al. subjected a group of octogenarians to a resistance training program at 80% of 1RM, three times per week; after 10 weeks of training, participants improved their performance on the TUG test (Mobility Test) by 15.7%.
Fiatarone et al. demonstrated that resistance training raised functional mobility even in people over 90 years old.
In 2006, Holviala et al. proved that both muscle power and strength are important determinants of mobility and that resistance training is a powerful tool to induce specific neuromuscular adaptations that translate into improved mobility in healthy older adults.
And finally, my personal favourite study: Greek researchers looked at 3 groups of men who trained with weights at 40%, 60%, or 80% of their 1RM or one-rep max (their maximum weight they are capable of in any given exercise). The results showed that higher intensities were linked with greater improvements in mobility/flexibility. That is, the men who trained at 80% of their 1RM were the ones who saw the greatest improvements in terms of their mobility.
What we can learn from the above is that lifting a heavy weight at roughly 80% of your maximum capacity through compound joint movements (primarily squating, hinging, pushing, and pulling) is the most effective way to both maintain and regain healthy mobility levels through the ankles, hips, thoracic spine and shoulder joint.
Moreover, we can then come to the realisation that weight lifting produces strength results, increased muscle mass, cardiovascular health, joint integrity, helps maintain correct posture, and produces positive mobility developments in the body. Whereas the same quantity of benefits can not be gained from the practice of yoga or stretching alone.
So, I hope we can agree that it might be time to give the yoga mat a roll-up and dust off the dumbbells instead.
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