The importance of mobility within weightlifting
By Charlotte Cook - Personal Trainer
Mobility is defined as the range of motion at a joint making it an essential factor in lifting weights effectively.
How to Improve Range of Mobility?
Always warm-up before you train, this should include; a pulse-raising activity that gets your blood pumping, a section that focuses on warming up the muscle groups you’re about to train (for example if you’re going to train legs - 10 bodyweight squats, 10 alternating lunges for 3 rounds) and some stretching to loosen the muscle fibres. You should also make sure you cool down after training with a light walk or cycle and some stretching.
You can also use a foam roller or a ball as this will help to release any pain or tension between muscle fibres, classes like yoga and MELT are good for focussing on muscle recovery and getting rid of aches and pains that could be associated with a poor level of mobility.
Three ways better mobility will improve your weightlifting...
- Range of Motion – a better range of motion means you are more likely to have better form and complete the full movement meaning the muscle fibres are stretched adequately during the exercise, and both the concentric and eccentric contractions are fully completed therefore building more muscle and increase in strength.
- Fluid Movements – keeping your exercises fluid (no pause at the top or the bottom of the movement) increase the time that your muscle is under tension and therefore rest is minimised throughout training sessions. Change in tempo is also great for muscle gain, for example; on the concentric contraction (shortening) count 2 seconds and the eccentric contraction (lengthening) count to 4 seconds.
- Decrease in Soreness/Joint Pain and Reduce Risk of Injury – good mobility will help loosen tightness within the joints which lowers your risk of injury as less strain is going through the tendons which will also reduce any pain.
