STABILITY VS. FLEXIBILITY VS.
MOBILITY VS. RIGIDITY
STABILITY – RETURN TO A POSITION AFTER A PERTUBATION – CONTROL OF MOVEMENT
FLEXIBILITY – TOTAL AVAILABLE MOVEMENT AT A JOINT – ACTIVE AND PASSIVE RANGE OF MOTION
MOBILITY –ACTIVE AND CONTROLLED RANGE OF MOTION
RIGIDITY – LACK OF RANGE OF MOTION – ABSENCE OF MOVEMENT
STRENGTH – THE ABILITY FOR THE MUSCLES TO CREATE A FORCE AGAINST RESISTANCE
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?!
Our bodies move differently depending on all of the things listed above. If your shoulders have poor stability, you will most likely have rotator cuff issues/pain and eventually will need my assistance to reduce the pain you have in your shoulder every time you bring your arm overhead. Similarly, if your shoulders have poor flexibility or mobility, you will have the same outcome.
Every joint needs to have a perfect combination of flexibility and strength. Strong enough to support your activities and flexible enough to maintain “proper range of motion” for every joint (there are normal ranges listed in anatomy books, yogi’s will probably be on the higher end of “normal” and that is perfectly safe!)
Think LOCUST :
Take your hands behind your back, interlace your fingers and come up into the posture. With the bind, which area are we moving into? If you guessed flexibility then yes, you are correct! You are using a bind as an external force to increase you back extension (and shoulder extension)
Now take your palms together but do not bind. Lift up to your fullest expression and I’m willing to put money down that you did not lift nearly as far! If you guessed mobility, then yes! This is the total active (using your muscles) range of motion you have from this position.
Stability is mainly going to be the fine little muscles in your back that help support this range of motion. The more stability you have usually the more mobility you’ll have. A great way to work on stability is to work on longer holds in postures. Aka isometric contractions: no movement in the joints but activation in the muscles. Your stability muscles tend to be your smaller, longer endurance muscles!
