Improving Mobility for Pain-Free Movement
Welcome to sunday coffee, a 5-minute newsletter sent out every Sunday morning highlighting 1 key idea around holistic wellness, why you should care, and 3 ways to start implementing it into your life.
sunday coffee, vol. 2
9/3/2023
When I was 21 years old, I went up for a rebound during a basketball game and got hit in the air. When I landed on the toes of my right foot, my ankle rolled and swelled to the size of a small watermelon. I had an injury that every athlete fears; the dreaded high-ankle sprain.
It took about 9 months to fully recover - and truly it hasn’t been the same since. I still have to be careful when I play basketball as it’s more sensitive to rolling again now, and it was the source of a lot of pain when training for my first Ironman 70.3 in 2021.
But that injury was a blessing in disguise.
When it happened, I was at the peak of my bodybuilding days. I weighed 225 lbs (the heaviest I’ve ever been) and was lifting for 1-2 hours everyday.
I was extremely strong, but my training was only focused on building muscle. I didn’t focus on cardio and I almost never did any mobility work. As a result, I developed a whole lot of muscular imbalances + scar tissue buildup across my body that led to chronic pain for a few years after this.
Then the high-ankle sprain happened, and it made the pain a whole lot worse. I didn’t enjoy lifting or moving as much anymore for a long time.
That injury forced me to look at my body differently. I couldn’t just plow ahead only focusing on one thing, I had to look at it holistically.
Mobility work not only helped me fully recover, but it made me realize that it’s the key to living without pain. That tightness in your hips, that pinch in your shoulders, or that lack of stability in your ankles? You can work on fixing it, it’s not something you have to live with forever.
And the way you work on it is by prioritizing time to work on your joints mobility.
Mobility Work
Lifting builds your strength, cardio builds your endurance, and mobility work helps you live and move pain-free.
There are 4 main areas in our body where a ton of ligaments, tendons, and muscles meet to help us move. Obviously there are more than just 4, but today we’ll be focusing on the 4 that most people seem to have tightness, pain, or imbalances in.
Those 4 areas are your:
1) Knees
2) Hips
3) Shoulders
4) Ankles
Below we’ll discuss some common issues in each of these areas, along with some exercises you can start doing today to help improve your mobility and get back to a pain-free lifestyle.
Note: for the purposes of this newsletter, I specifically focused on exercises that can be performed without any equipment, so that you can start working them in today. That being said, some of the best mobility exercises I know do involve bands for resistance, but we’ll save those for installment 2 of this.
1) Knees
Common Issues:
Knee Pain: This issue frequently arises due to various factors, such as osteoarthritis, the gradual wearing down of the knee's protective cartilage, or ligament injuries caused by sudden twists or impacts. Overuse of the knee joint, especially in sports or physically demanding activities, can also lead to knee pain.
Limited Range of Motion: Limited knee joint mobility may develop as a result of untreated injuries, inflammation, or muscle imbalances. In some cases, it can be exacerbated by prolonged periods of inactivity or incorrect movement patterns.
Mobility-Improving Exercises:
Quad Stretch: This exercise helps relieve knee pain by stretching the quadriceps muscles and increasing flexibility in the knee joint. You can perform it kneeling, standing, or against a wall.
Kneeling quad stretch
Seated Leg Raises: Leg raises are effective in improving knee joint range of motion and strengthening the surrounding muscles, providing better support and stability to the knee. Sit down with one foot on the ground - or elevate yourself through your arms and opposite leg, and raise your leg up while keeping it straight with your toes flexed up.
Seated Leg Raises (try 10 on each leg)
2) Hips
Common Issues:
Hip Flexor Tightness: Prolonged sitting and a sedentary lifestyle can cause hip flexor muscles to become tight and inflexible, leading to discomfort and limited mobility. Poor posture just makes this worse.
Hip Impingement: Hip impingement often results from structural abnormalities in the hip joint or overuse, causing pain and restricted motion, particularly in the front of the hip.
Mobility-Improving Exercises:
Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch: Stretching the hip flexors is crucial for addressing tightness and improving hip mobility. It counteracts the negative effects of prolonged sitting and helps maintain a healthy range of motion. Get onto one knee and lean your weight forward through your hip on the opposite leg.
Standing Hip Circles: Hip circles enhance hip joint flexibility and reduce stiffness. They also help in relieving discomfort associated with hip impingement by encouraging fluid movement within the joint. Basically, stand with your feet shoulder width apart and make circles with your hips to stretch them out.
3) Shoulders
Common Issues:
Shoulder Impingement: This condition often develops due to the compression of tendons and bursae in the shoulder joint. It can be a consequence of poor posture, overuse, or muscle imbalances, leading to pain and limited shoulder mobility.
Frozen Shoulder: Frozen shoulder, also known as adhesive capsulitis, typically occurs gradually and involves the thickening and tightening of the shoulder joint capsule, resulting in a progressive loss of motion.
Mobility-Improving Exercises:
Shoulder Rolls: Shoulder rolls help in maintaining shoulder joint mobility and preventing impingement by promoting fluid motion and reducing muscle tension. Let your arms hang naturally by your sides, and Imagine drawing large circles with your shoulders, moving them up, back, down, and forward.
These can be performed sated or standing
Wall Angels: Wall angels are excellent for enhancing shoulder mobility, as they encourage the shoulder blades to move through a full range of motion. Stand up against a wall and move your arms slowly through a full snow angel motion to complete one rep.
These can be performed sated or standing
4) Ankles
Common Issues:
Ankle Sprains: Ankle sprains frequently occur when the ligaments that support the ankle are stretched or torn. They are commonly a result of sudden twisting motions or uneven terrain, causing instability and pain.
Achilles Tendonitis: This condition develops due to overuse and repetitive stress on the Achilles tendon, often seen in activities like running or jumping. It leads to pain and stiffness in the back of the ankle.
Mobility-Improving Exercises:
Ankle Circles: Ankle circles are a simple yet effective exercise for maintaining ankle mobility. They help prevent stiffness and improve range of motion. Exactly as they sound, sit or stand and make slow circles with your toes, moving through your whole range of ankle motion.
Elevated Calf Raises: Calf raises strengthen the calf muscles and Achilles tendon, reducing the risk of Achilles tendonitis and providing better support for the ankle joint. It’s important we do these on an elevated surface like a step, so that we give our ankle the ability to go all the way down, not just up.
Tip: try these on one leg to improve balance.
Getting Started
The beauty of these exercises is that they don’t require a ton of time or equipment. Most of them can be done in just a few minutes from the comfort of your home.
So how should you work them in?
Try them periodically throughout your day at home or at the office. Andrew Huberman calls this ‘exercise snacks’, where you do small spurts of exercise throughout your day, and the research shows it’s very effective. So the next time you take a 5 minute break during work or need to stretch your legs, try 2-3 sets of 10 for each of the exercises that we discussed above. For stretching exercises, try a 60 second stretch 2-3 times.
Mobility work is a key aspect of all of my training these days. It’s helped me heal from pain that I thought I’d have forever and it’s improved both the quality of my movement and the quality of my life. I hope it helps you do the same 🙂
Thanks for reading, please share with a friend if it helped you!
Dane