Mobility Vs. Flexibility: Why One Matters More Than The Other

We often hear these terms used interchangeably, but they’re not the same and knowing the difference can improve not only how you move, but also how resilient your body is.

Flexibility is your muscle's ability to lengthen passively (for instance, touching your toes in a seated stretch).
Mobility is your ability to actively move a joint through its full range of motion with control and strength (such as performing a deep squat with good form).

Mobility Matters More:
Being flexible is not important if your body can’t support you functionally through that range of motion. It’s more important that you move well! Mobility combines flexibility, strength, and motor control. It’s what helps you get off the floor with ease, run efficiently, squat well, or do an overhead press without pain.

Let’s say you do a lot of passive stretching (holding a prolonged position) without targeting the strengthening aspect… How does this translate to real life activity? It doesn’t. Here’s the bottom line, passive stretching has one purpose: it feels good; sometimes this is what our bodies need, especially if you have an area of pain or are trying to calm down something. However, without working on mobility and appropriate strengthening, it’s not going to impact the way you perform in real life activity.
Performing mobility work through your full available range of motion allows us to support our bodies optimally and is for anyone who wants to move better, reduce pain & work on longevity.