The Best Flexibility and Mobility Exercises
Flexibility and mobility are often overlooked elements of fitness, yet they play a crucial role in performance, injury prevention, and overall movement quality. Whether you’re warming up for a heavy lifting session, improving your range of motion for functional strength, or simply looking to move better in everyday life, understanding how to approach stretching and mobility effectively is essential.
In this article, we’ll break down how to improve mobility and flexibility, common mistakes to avoid, and practical ways to integrate mobility training into your workout sessions.
What’s the Difference Between Flexibility and Mobility?
Flexibility and mobility are often used interchangeably, but they’re distinct concepts that play equally important roles in your physical health and movement.
Flexibility refers to the ability of your muscles to stretch and lengthen. For example, when you reach down to touch your toes, it’s the flexibility of your hamstrings that determines how far you can go. Flexibility is primarily about the muscle’s capacity to extend through its range of motion.
Mobility, on the other hand, is about the range of motion in your joints and how well your body can move through that range in a controlled and stable way.
Both mobility and flexibility exercises are essential for optimal movement and physical performance. Together, they help prevent injuries, improve posture, and enhance your overall athletic performance. By focusing on both, you can build a body that moves with ease, reduces its risk of injury, and has a greater ability to recover.
What Are Mobility Exercises?
Mobility exercises are, quite simply, joint mobilisation exercises. They mobilise your joints and improve the range of motion and control around your joints. Unlike static stretching, which focuses on lengthening muscles, mobility stretches and exercises are more dynamic and involve active movements that help strengthen the muscles and tissues supporting your joints. These exercises often mimic the movements and motions you’ll go through in your workouts - as well as everyday life - so that your body is efficiently prepared. Common examples include controlled joint rotations, dynamic lunges, and stretches with additional movement such as cat-cow or arm circles.
We spoke with Strength & Performance Coach, Nick Garcia, to get a better understanding of what we need to consider when incorporating mobility exercises into our training programmes, and how we can go about increasing and improving mobility.
1. The Importance of Time Under Stretch
“First of all, it is super important that you spend enough time in the position you want to improve the flexibility of, and not just hold it for 10 seconds. The holds should be in excess of 45 seconds to see any significant change, because anything less than 45 seconds isn’t going to give you any changes in your long-term flexibility.”
2. The Role of Breathing in Mobility & Flexibility
“The breath is so crucial and an integral part of mobility and flexibility work. We use our breathing to try and calm everything down and to regulate the nervous system, so that we can get into deeper ranges and lengthen the muscles and tendons that we want to stretch. As we go deeper into the stretch and it gets tougher to mobilise certain parts, we can exhale to relax and ease into the stretch in order to maximise it.”
3. Full-Range Movement for Joint Mobility
“When trying to improve the mobility of a joint, we want to do mobilisation exercises that take the joint through full range. Using the example of a shoulder circle, just doing shoulder circles nonchalantly where you’re not taking it in its full range of motion through the shoulder won’t actually improve or ready the shoulder for what it’s about to do. If there’s no full range of motion, there’s no proper mobility work happening. The joint has to go through its full range of motion to see an improvement in its mobility, in addition to being warmed up for your upcoming workout.”
4. Relaxing vs. Pushing Through a Stretch
“It’s worth noting that there are times when we need to push through stretches, and times we need to relax through stretches. You don’t always have to force yourself through every stretch. Sometimes relaxing, exhaling and letting go is the way that you’re able to calm the nervous system down enough to allow you to get deeper into those stretches.
However, there are times where it might feel a bit resistant, so we can use an external force like a resistance band or kettlebell to drive more into the stretch. Adding this external force is ok as long as it’s controlled, not overloaded too much, and not too heavy. Be mindful that if it’s your first time doing a stretch, then don’t overload it with an external force - work your way up to this to increase your mobility and flexibility over time.”
Think of yin yoga as an example, which is a slow-paced, meditative practice that involves holding passive stretches for extended periods (typically 3-5 minutes) to target deep connective tissues and enhance flexibility, as well as promote relaxation. When we push too much – and not just in stretching, but in life generally – our nervous system stops us from going further as it perceives danger. Yin yoga is a great representation of slowly allowing ourselves into a position and holding it for an extended period, for the body to then feel safe to go further into the stretch over time.
5. Stretching With Intention: Why Are You Doing It?
“When you’re doing any mobility, flexibility or stretching, it’s good to be clear about what your intention is and what you’re trying to achieve. For example, if it’s to get ready for the exercise you’re about to endure, then you want to take the joints through full range and make sure you’re going deep into the position and exposing yourself to the full range of which you can push through.
We don’t necessarily need to hold stretches when we are preparing for an exercise, we just want to make sure the body is warmed up and able to go into a position -such as a squat or overhead press - with weight added. Longer holds and static stretching should be used when the goal is to increase flexibility and improve muscle length over time.”
Start to think about different stretches for different times, for example more mobility and active stretching is beneficial before a workout, whereas longer and more passive stretching is great post-workout.
6. Integrating Mobility Into Your Training
“Mobility training doesn’t have to exist in isolation, it can be incorporated into your existing workout routine. If you have a squat, deadlift or overhead press, incorporate a mobility workout into the start of those sessions to warm up and build up the intensity of the exercises. Take your body through the full range of motion of each exercise without the load, so that your muscles and joints are ready for what they’re about to go through with added load.”
7. The Role of Breathing in Mobility & Flexibility
“The breath is so crucial and an integral part of mobility and flexibility work. We use our breathing to try and calm everything down and to regulate the nervous system, so that we can get into deeper ranges and lengthen the muscles and tendons that we want to stretch. As we go deeper into the stretch and it gets tougher to mobilise certain parts, we can exhale to relax and ease into the stretch in order to maximise it.”
Go-To Stretches for Mobility & Flexibility
There are a few must-do stretches for mobility that Nick incorporates into both his and his clients’ workout programmes, often combining more than one move at a time.
“Combination movements are the best mobility exercises, because the body is connected in so many ways. The body has a fascial sling system, which is a network of interconnected muscles, tendons, and connective tissue that work together to create movement, stability, and force transfer across the body. If we can stretch a whole sling at once, then we can not only kill two birds with one stone, but we will get way more from the overall mobility and stretching than we would if we were isolating and stretching just one muscle.”
Thoracic Rotations
“Most people don’t incorporate thoracic rotations into their workouts, but they’re great to add in to improve spinal mobility, shoulder health and posture. They also help to combat internally rotated shoulders, which many of us find ourselves with (hunching over a desk or tech device will do it). Partner these with some chest opening or overhead shoulder flexion moves to open up the shoulders and spine at the same time.”
Pigeon Pose Variations
“I’m a big fan of different variations of the pigeon pose to open both the side and the back of the hip. You can also include rotations here to get some more thoracic and spine mobility, as well as get into the lats through an extended forward reach.”
Rear & Front Foot Elevated Split Squats
“The split squat movement with either the rear or front foot elevated really allows you to sit deeper into the position, and enables you to open up through the hip flexor of the back leg. Add in a side bend too which will give you a lateral stretch, hip opening and quad stretch all in one.”
Flexibility and mobility training isn’t just about stretching, it’s about moving better, performing better, and preventing injuries. Whether you’re warming up for a workout or working on your long-term flexibility, understanding how and when to apply these techniques is key.
By incorporating mobility drills and intentional breathing into your routine, you can build long-lasting improvements in not just your mobility, but also your strength and overall performance.
Find Nick on Instagram here, and visit his website here.
Our August retreat with Kayla Marie is the perfect blend of fitness, movement and mobility. A yoga and group fitness coach for over 10 years, Kayla runs her own CrossFit affiliate, CrossFit for the People, and helps people find their strengths through movement. Find out more here.
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