1. Do you have the mobility to get into the position required by your activity?
For example, if you’re a powerlifter, can you squat to the depth required for competition and maintain the posture required to keep the bar on your back? Or, if you’re an Olympic lifter, can you drive the bar directly overhead during the jerk? If you’re deadlifting, cleaning, or snatching, can you get into the start position without excessive rounding of the spine? If you work in the garden can you kneel down to the ground and get back up without pain? If you swim or play tennis then can your shoulders move through the overhead position needed for a swim stroke or a tennis serve?
Why is this question important? If one joint doesn’t have enough mobility for your chosen movement, then you’re still going to perform the movement somehow. The poorly moving joint(s) will steal movement from your healthy joint(s). If that happens then it’s a set-up for pain and weakness as the victimized joints and tissues will be overstressed and your ability to move will be compromised. That ain’t good! If you can restore range of motion to those limited joints then you’ll feel better, move better, and you’ll be stronger.
2. Can you control the mobility that you have?
Can you control your knees at the bottom of the squat, or do your knees crash inward suddenly? During a lunge, can you step out and come back home in control, or do you lose balance during some portion of the movement? While bench pressing, dipping, or pressing, do your elbows stay in alignment or do they flare and wiggle around during some portion of the lift? During any lift, are you in control of the weight or is the weight controlling you?
I compare poor movement control (aka motor control) to a door hanging on loose hinges. The door can still open and close but the door bangs around, the hinges and the wall sustain damage, and eventually, the door falls off. Similarly, if you’re not controlling your limbs then your joints and connective tissue will take a beating and eventually you’re going to hurt.
Lack of control is often seen at the end-range of motion. (End-range is where you feel a big stretch.) If you follow the work of physical therapist Gary Gray, then you may know end-range as the “transformation zone.” That’s where a limb stops and changes direction. For example, think of a weightlifter at the bottom of a squat before he/she drives back up. Or think of a baseball pitcher or a quarterback with his arm cocked back right before he brings the ball forward. Two dynamics are at play at end-range.
First, we don’t spend a lot of time at end-range of motion. End-range is where our nervous system has the least experience and thus the least ability to control our limbs. It’s sort of like being in an unfamiliar city and not knowing how to navigate.
Second, we have the fewest number of cross-bridges available for muscular contraction at end-range. Fewer cross-bridges means our muscles can’t generate as much force as they can at mid-range. That makes it more difficult to control end-range
Ask yourself these two questions as you workout and move through your day.