Mobility Techniques: When, What, and Why

A look at WHEN to incorporate WHAT mobility techniques before, during, or after your workout/training and WHY.

Video Transcript

Hey everybody, Dr. Dan Dallatore from Infinite Capacity Physical Therapy.

I want to discuss mobility techniques.

There's a ton of information out there on these different techniques, but not a lot of information on how and when to use them, and how to incorporate them into your workout. So, what I want to discuss is some of the research and evidence behind these techniques, and then how to incorporate it before, during, and after your workout.

So before we talk about some of the actual techniques for mobility, I think it's important to understand the difference between flexibility and mobility.

They are not the same.

So flexibility is simply an increase in range of motion. Where mobility is the ability to effectively move through the available range of motion.

So although some of these techniques might increase our flexibility, it's going to be important to follow those up with some strengthening techniques so that we can effectively move through that newly acquired range of motion.

So the first four techniques I'm going to talk about are going to be used before a workout. These are techniques that are used with some sort of instrument in order to help with the mobility.

The first one I'll discuss is foam rolling.

So, using a foam roller has been shown in research to help increase our tolerance for stretch, and it helps increase our range of motion very short term, for about less than 30 minutes. So, what we want to do with foam rolling, is use it for about 30 to 90 seconds per muscle group to help warm those muscles up, and get them used to stretch, so that we can incorporate some other techniques.

Another mobility instrument, similar to foam rolling, is the lacrosse ball. The lacrosse ball differs a little bit, because it provides a more focal point of contact for mobility work. But, similar to foam rolling, you're going to use 30 to 90 seconds per muscle group, and it also is going to result in short term range of motion increases that last less than 30 minutes. The thing that I like about the lacrosse ball, is that you can incorporate movement with the mobility work.

Another instrument that people like to utilize during mobility work is tissue floss, or Voodoo floss. The idea behind it, is that you take the band, wrap it around the joint or muscle you want to mobilize, and then move that joint or muscle through its available range of motion. It has been shown to increase joint range of motion, and provide slight increase in performance when used prior to training. But similar to foam rolling and a lacrosse ball, it only lasts for up to 45 minutes.

Another instrument assisted mobility technique is banded stretching, like the "Samson stretch". This, just like foam rolling, the lacrosse ball, and tissue flossing, is going to result in short term range of motion increases that will need followed up with loaded movements.

The next two mobility techniques I will discuss, that again should be performed before the workout, are going to be static and dynamic stretching.

Static stretching, or stretching without movement, has been shown to increase range of motion, for again, up to 30 minutes. But, static stretches that last longer than 60 seconds, have been shown to decrease performance in both power and 1 rep max.

Whereas dynamic stretches, or stretches with movement, have been shown to slightly increase performance after a 5 to 10 minute dynamic warm-up routine. So, this can also reverse the decrease in performance seen with static stretches. And this increase in performance can last minutes after the dynamic warm-up is performed.

So to recap, the mobility techniques that should be used before a workout are foam rolling, lacrosse ball, tissue flossing, banded stretches, static stretching, and dynamic stretching. These all provide a short term window of increased range of motion, maybe increases in performance, and they increase our tolerance to stretch so we can follow these techniques up with end range loaded movements to see more permanent gains in our mobility.

Now we'll move on to mobility techniques that should be used during the workout. These are the loaded movements that are going to cause more long term increases in our mobility. They include eccentrics, and tempo work.

Eccentrics, or moving with gravity, result in long term increases in soft tissue length, they decrease our injury risk, they increase our power, and, they provide an increase in force production with our muscles in those lengthened positions. An example of an eccentric movement would be, if we're working on lat mobility, doing a supinated grip, negative pull-up, lowering ourselves from the bar to end range shoulder flexion.

Tempo work, or eccentric-isometrics, are another loaded movement into end range that will increase our time-under-tension in that end range, as well as increase our end range control.

There's also some evidence out there, for using mobility techniques such as foam rolling and tissue flossing after a workout to help increase recovery, and help decrease the intensity of delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. Just like before the workout, you'll want to use these for about 30 to 60 seconds per muscle group.

So, in summary, before our workout, we want to use mobility techniques such as foam rolling, lacrosse balls, tissue flossing, banded stretches, and static stretches for short bouts about 30 to 60 seconds per muscle group, which will help increase our range of motion, and increase our tolerance for stretching.

We want to then follow that up with dynamic warm-ups for about 5 to 10 minutes to offset any of the decreases in performance from static stretching, and to get a slight boost in performance.

We want to then follow that up with our training, with loaded end range movements such as eccentrics and tempo eccentric-isometric work for longer term tissue length increases, backed up with strength through that new range of motion... True Mobility.

And then, we can end our workout with mobility techniques like foam rolling, or tissue flossing, to help increase recovery, and decrease delayed-onset muscle soreness.

References

-          Aboodarda, S.J., et al., Pain pressure threshold of a muscle tender spot increases following local and non-local rolling massage. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2015; 16: 265. doi: 10.1186/s12891-015-0729-5

-          Driller, M., et al., Tissue flossing on ankle range of motion, jump and sprint performance: A follow-up study. Physical Therapy in Sport, 2017; 28: 29-33.

-          Behm, D.G., et al., Acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance, range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals: a systematic review. Appl. Physio. Nutr. Metab., 2016; 41: 1-11.

-          McMillian, D.J., et al., Dynamic vs. Static-Stretching Warm Up: The Effect on Power and Agility Performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2006; 20(3): 492-499.

-          O’Sullivan, K., et al., The effects of eccentric training on lower limb flexibility: a systematic review. Br J Sports Med, 2012; 46: 838-845. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2011-090835

-          Pearcey, G.E.P., et al., Foam Rolling for Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness and Recovery of Dynamic Performance Measures. Journal of Athletic Training, 2015; 50(1): 5-13. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-50.1.01