What's flexibility & what's mobility?

This is a blog post from my colleague, Dr. Josh Carter, who I work with at Surf Life Physio. I have added it to this blog because it is so important to know the differences between flexibility & mobility. Hope you enjoy!

Firstly, flexibility and mobility are not the same thing. Flexibility refers to muscles and their range of motion, whilst mobility refers to joints and their range of motion.

Strength & resistance training is still one of the best ways to help improve these, but that doesn’t mean some general stretching and mobility work should be ignored!

Foam rolling is a classic method prescribed to improve the flexibility of muscles. There is debate as to how much benefit there really is from foam rolling but if you find it beneficial then that is the most important thing. There are many types of stretching around and most people are familiar with the good old static stretch. While this is ok, there are more effective techniques such as proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching, which uses a cool trick in your nervous system to increase muscle flexibility.

Mobility is slightly more difficult to improve and does depend on the part of your body you are hoping to improve. For swimmers, thoracic (mid back) mobility is hugely important. A loss of thoracic mobility predisposes swimmers to both shoulder and neck injuries. Your manual therapist (Physiotherapist

/ Massage/ Osteopath etc) can gently push on the thoracic joints of the spine but laying over a foam roller and using a tennis ball to ‘wiggle’ the joints around will improve their mobility. The other thing as previously mentioned that impacts mobility is movement! A lack of, or sustained constant postures such as sitting at school, sitting on the laptop on your bed, or standing behind a counter for hours on end can all reduce joint mobility due to a lack of variation and movement.

Both flexibility and mobility have a role in increasing the bodies (including muscles, tendons, ligaments, discs, etc) resilience or tolerance to exercise. Muscle have a specific range of motion where they are able to act most efficiently – if your body / muscles are unable to get into this position, then no matter how strong you are, you will not be able to apply that strength well. The easiest way to think about it is that flexibility and mobility allow your body to adopt a more efficient posture or position. This will mean strength is applied efficiently and in a direction that allows the body to work within its’ tolerances.