Did you know that mobility can tell us a lot about our body's overall health? Your health, including how well you recover from injuries and take care of yourself, plays a pivotal role in setting achievable fitness goals, and can have a major impact on your range of motion (ROM). And then of course, there's also the importance of exercise to improve fitness and increase flexibility.
Manage injuries
Unfortunately - being unfit is enough to have a greater likelihood of injury and reduced ROM. Muscle strength can make a major impact on preventing falls and protecting joints. However, sometimes injuries are inevitable! Especially if you are someone who is very active, then you may be exposed to more situations that can lead to injuries. Once you've become injured, it is important to rest. Better yet, have a good night of sleep. When you go into deep sleep, growth hormone heals damaged cells and tissues, helping to speed up your recovery.
Next, incorporate some careful movement, since it can help you heal by restoring your fascia! The fascia is the complex matrix that surrounds all organs and muscles in the body, and provides support. A healthy fascia is one that is moved and stretched on a regular basis, and it can either become more flexible, allowing you a greater range of motion, or hard and stiff, preventing you from moving freely. It's important to think about this for longterm recovery as the fascia can have an impact long after the rest of the body is healed.
Quickly lower inflammation
Following an injury, you may also target joint inflammation by using anti-inflammatory medicines, getting a massage, or even using an at-home ultrasound machines. While these are temporary options, they can help to lower inflammation and pain, which may otherwise hold you back from doing the exercises needed to heal. It can also be helpful to cut inflammation early on since sometimes it can become chronic if left unchecked, further limiting mobility.
Eat whole foods
You might be surprised to consider food as a way to increase your mobility! A poor diet can exacerbate joint inflammation, and limit movement. The macronutrients found in whole foods, including vitamins E, A, K, and D can effectively lower this inflammation. Since a lot of what we eat today is processed, by some estimates up to 70% of what we eat in a day - it can take an honest effort to add unprocessed nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables to our diets! Just think about avoiding foods that have already been changed, or that include additives and preservatives, as an effective way to help lower your joint inflammation, allowing you to move better.
Notice how you feel
If you already exercise regularly, eat loads of whole foods and set aside enough time for sleep, and you're still experiencing limitations to your mobility, then you may consider the possibility of an underlying health issue. Some health issues may not be so obvious and can show up in indirect ways, like in our joints, skin, hair and energy levels. It may be even less apparent in individuals that appear healthy and live well. So, if ever you feel that something's not quite right - listen to your gut and take steps to identify the issue. But if you feel fine, then you might consider building stronger muscles!
Muscle strength
Oftentimes when people think about flexibility they imagine stretching, however muscle strength is an under looked component of flexibility. You've got over 600 muscles in your body, alongside tendons, ligaments, joints, and fascia. Muscle weakness can cause everything from strained ligaments and tendons, to bad joints, and hardened fascia - and when muscles are weak, your body protects itself by limiting ROM.
Weak muscles can't support the joints as well as strong ones and sometimes an imbalance in muscle strength may cause also one muscle to overpower or overcompensate for another resulting in joint misalignment. Over time this friction can create wear and tear in the joints, also known as arthritis. Since the body is incredibly skilled at protecting itself, you might even consider it beneficial to have a lower ROM until your strength is sufficient!
Range of motion limitations for most people
Sitting makes our muscles weaker and it poses a unique set of challenges. One study about sitting discovered that a whopping 65% of students ended up with bad posture from sitting after high school - so that's most of us! When we sit our core muscles become incredibly engaged, working hard to keep us upright, while our leg muscles go limp. Our core muscles can become exhausted and begin to cramp up until slouching inevitably occurs. This causes upper body weakness and spinal issues. Our leg muscles also become weaker and hamstring and calf muscles can even shorten over time from being immobilized and bent. Since optimal muscle length is required for power, shorter muscles, whether from hunching or bending requires a combination of stretching and strengthening exercises to be corrected.
There are many different ways to combat weakness from sitting and some effective methods include hamstring and calf stretches combined with lunges. As for the upper body, heart opening postures like cat/cow stretches and crunches can improve strength and even prevent neck pain. Another very helpful tool is to just take breaks from sitting by getting up and going on regular walks throughout the day which can stretch out the legs and reset the spine back to its natural position.
Range of motion limitations for athletes
If you're an athlete you're actually at greater risk of developing severe muscle imbalances. Overworking certain muscles with repetitive moves that are often required for sports can mess with the harmony of the body. Over time, unequal pulls from antagonistic muscle pairs cause joint wear and tear, and greater risk for injury. The best way for an athlete to improve performance and prevent injuries is to incorporate full body strengthening and stretching exercises, which is significantly harder than for the average person. This comes down to having some incredibly strong muscles, and the rest of the body needing to play catch up.
Target your weakest muscles to increase range of motion
The best way to target muscle weaknesses and increase flexibility is to use your body in its full ROM. This is accomplished in sports like martial arts, yoga, pilates, or dance, especially since these activities engage the muscles in dynamic movements that require significant synchronization of the body. You will notice very quickly where your limits are or when something feels incredibly difficult when moving the body through its full ROM. If an exercise feels hard or nearly impossible to do, then that's where you need to focus. The more you move in a variety of ways, the more that you can become in touch with what your body needs more of to perform at it's best, and to develop the strength needed for greater ROM!
So, what about yoga?
Yoga is an epic blend of balance, strength, and flexibility! Balancing poses, like tree pose, may challenge small stabilizer muscles that may be hard to target otherwise. Stretching, such as stretching the backs of the legs in downward dog, can bring shortened muscles back to their optimal length for power. Strengthening exercises, like chaturangas can help to build better full body strength. Yet, the greatest benefit of yoga is that it is accessible, and no matter where you are in your fitness journey you can find variations and then progress from there!
Enjoy yoga with Crk
If you're new to yoga then the best place to start is with Crk Yoga kits. You'll get a mat, a set of blocks, and a yoga mat carrying strap. All of the yoga mats you'll find are made of natural materials like cork and natural rubber, and are backed by an SGS-certification. Crk also provides free yoga and pilates videos so that you can get started from the comfort of your own home! 💪🧘
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