4 WAYS TO UPGRADE YOUR MOBILITY TRAINING, PART TWO
To recap, mobility is the product of motor control, joint function, position, and stability. In Part One, we looked at two mobility-training upgrades that improve motor control and joint function—CARs and joint mobilization.
In today’s post, we continue on our quest to move past simplistic, outdated notions of flexibility with two more techniques that address some other often overlooked components of mobility.
Positional Activation
Most forms of mobility work by making changes to local tissue—be it stretching a joint capsule or massaging a tight muscle. But local tissue conditions are often just a reflection of upstream function somewhere else in the body.
This is especially true when we look at muscles and joints that are geographically further away from the midline of the body. For these distal structures, normal function is predicated on the relative position and stability of midline structures—like the rib cage, pelvis, and spine.
When axial structures lose optimal position, say by becoming overextended, it alters the length and tension of all the muscles that are attached to them.
Take your hamstrings for example, which attach to both the backside of the pelvis (proximally) and the knee (distally). If your pelvis tips forward and down in the front, then your hamstrings must lengthen because they’re being pulled upward in the back.
When you go to bend forward, or lift your leg—both of which require the hamstrings to lengthen more—you’ll feel tight or restricted because your muscles are already in a stretched position and don’t have any more “slack” to give.
This is where positional activation activities come in to help restore normal length-tension in the muscle. When we contract an over-lengthened muscle in its mid-range position, it has a shortening effect on the muscle fibers, which, in turn, pulls the outer edges of the muscle’s attachment sites closer together. This normalizes length, which in turn decreases tension and allows the hamstrings to “relax.”
This hamstring activation drill from the Postural Restoration Institute is a great way to begin to unwind the postural position described above.
Place your feet on a wall, hips and knees both bent at 90-degrees—like you’re sitting in a chair. Pull down on the wall by contracting your hamstrings, lifting your tailbone off the floor and pushing your knees towards the ceiling. Hold the contraction while breathing out deeply—like your trying to blow up a balloon—bringing your lower back towards the floor. Repeat for 5-6 breath cycles.
PAILs and RAILs
Another primary tool from taken from Functional Range Conditioning is the concept of Progressive (PAIL) and Regressive Angular Isometric Loading (RAIL). These drills marry stretching and isometric training—a type of strength training in which the joint angle and muscle length don’t change during contraction; think wall sits or plank holds—to create larger, usable ranges of motion.
The use of isometric contractions during end-range stretches does two things—physiologically speaking—really well.
First, it allows us to override a mechanism called the Myotatic (stretch) reflex. It works like this: when you stretch a muscle it stimulates little sensory receptors called spindle cells that, in turn, set off a chain of neurological events that culminate in a muscular contraction to resist the stretch.
Second, it builds strength—via increased recruitment of motor units—and induces tissue adaptations—via hypertrophy—in the newly minted ranges of motion. Those are just fancy ways of saying that when you contract a muscle really hard it gets progressively better at contracting and bigger over time.
The net result is an expanded usable range of motion that better spans the strength-length curve.
To perform the above drill, assume and hold a 90/90 stretch position for approximately 2-minutes. Draw air into your belly and begin to push your leg into the ground with progressive force for 15-30 seconds. As you relax, actively pull yourself deeper into the stretch position and hold for 2-minutes.
Conclusion
The movement system is influenced by many factors—stability, motor control, position, and joint mechanics—and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Taken together, these four drills will help you to expand your options for dealing with range-of-motion limitations and unlock your potential for better movement.
4 WAYS TO UPGRADE YOUR MOBILITY TRAINING, PART TWO
To recap, mobility is the product of motor control, joint function, position, and stability. In Part One, we looked at two mobility-training upgrades that improve motor control and joint function—CARs and joint mobilization.
In today’s post, we continue on our quest to move past simplistic, outdated notions of flexibility with two more techniques that address some other often overlooked components of mobility.
Positional Activation
Most forms of mobility work by making changes to local tissue—be it stretching a joint capsule or massaging a tight muscle. But local tissue conditions are often just a reflection of upstream function somewhere else in the body.
This is especially true when we look at muscles and joints that are geographically further away from the midline of the body. For these distal structures, normal function is predicated on the relative position and stability of midline structures—like the rib cage, pelvis, and spine.
When axial structures lose optimal position, say by becoming overextended, it alters the length and tension of all the muscles that are attached to them.
Take your hamstrings for example, which attach to both the backside of the pelvis (proximally) and the knee (distally). If your pelvis tips forward and down in the front, then your hamstrings must lengthen because they’re being pulled upward in the back.
When you go to bend forward, or lift your leg—both of which require the hamstrings to lengthen more—you’ll feel tight or restricted because your muscles are already in a stretched position and don’t have any more “slack” to give.
This is where positional activation activities come in to help restore normal length-tension in the muscle. When we contract an over-lengthened muscle in its mid-range position, it has a shortening effect on the muscle fibers, which, in turn, pulls the outer edges of the muscle’s attachment sites closer together. This normalizes length, which in turn decreases tension and allows the hamstrings to “relax.”
This hamstring activation drill from the Postural Restoration Institute is a great way to begin to unwind the postural position described above.
Place your feet on a wall, hips and knees both bent at 90-degrees—like you’re sitting in a chair. Pull down on the wall by contracting your hamstrings, lifting your tailbone off the floor and pushing your knees towards the ceiling. Hold the contraction while breathing out deeply—like your trying to blow up a balloon—bringing your lower back towards the floor. Repeat for 5-6 breath cycles.
PAILs and RAILs
Another primary tool from taken from Functional Range Conditioning is the concept of Progressive (PAIL) and Regressive Angular Isometric Loading (RAIL). These drills marry stretching and isometric training—a type of strength training in which the joint angle and muscle length don’t change during contraction; think wall sits or plank holds—to create larger, usable ranges of motion.
The use of isometric contractions during end-range stretches does two things—physiologically speaking—really well.
First, it allows us to override a mechanism called the Myotatic (stretch) reflex. It works like this: when you stretch a muscle it stimulates little sensory receptors called spindle cells that, in turn, set off a chain of neurological events that culminate in a muscular contraction to resist the stretch.
Second, it builds strength—via increased recruitment of motor units—and induces tissue adaptations—via hypertrophy—in the newly minted ranges of motion. Those are just fancy ways of saying that when you contract a muscle really hard it gets progressively better at contracting and bigger over time.
The net result is an expanded usable range of motion that better spans the strength-length curve.
To perform the above drill, assume and hold a 90/90 stretch position for approximately 2-minutes. Draw air into your belly and begin to push your leg into the ground with progressive force for 15-30 seconds. As you relax, actively pull yourself deeper into the stretch position and hold for 2-minutes.
Conclusion
The movement system is influenced by many factors—stability, motor control, position, and joint mechanics—and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Taken together, these four drills will help you to expand your options for dealing with range-of-motion limitations and unlock your potential for better movement.