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Joint Mobility vs Joint Coordination
Joint mobility work is practically mainstream these days—everybody’s doing it. Even you, right?
What’s the next step? Let’s fine-tune this a little bit. As you move your joints through a range of motion quickly, the larger muscles initiate the movement and propel the joints through the circles and stretches.
Is that really how you want to do this?
I don’t think so. More reps done faster is not the answer to poor joint mobility or sloppy movement in general. What you want to do instead is give your body the opportunity to learn good joint coordination, and for that you need to slow down… a lot.
If you think you’re going slow, cut the speed in half again. Really give your brain a change to re-learn all the nooks and crannies of your joint motion.
There are two main roadblocks to good mobility of a healthy joint:
- Coordination via brain-to-joint connection (the neurological factor)
- Tight muscles
Using quiet, slow, gentle movements with your eyes closed allows you to discover what’s holding you back. If you make a circle at a joint and the action is jerky, shaky or you feel like part of the circle is missing, that’s lack of coordination at that section – the brain has forgotten how to access area via the nerves. Slowing down and calmly repeating the motion—waiting out any shakiness—will smooth out that circle, and joint coordination will be regained, often in a matter of minutes.
Tightness is addressed with slow small movements, too; in this case you’ll use the gentleness to find the tightness. When thinking of tight muscles, we generally think of whatever major muscle group is near the joint, but it’s often something much more subtle, and you won’t find it with fast movements or prime mover stretches.
There will often be a tiny muscle causing a glitch, and in that case it’s not a matter of stretching the heck out of it, but merely using your head to find it and invite it into the action. It’s not stiff or short; instead, it’s more like… dormant.
Another great tip for working joint mobility: Think bones and skeleton, not muscles.
Ponder that for a minute: Think skeletal movement.
Lift both your arms and flop them around a bit. Stop a sec, and think of the bones moving, not which muscles you have to pull and push. Now flop them around again. The movement got a little freer, easier, didn’t it?
Joint mobility is working the joints of the skeleton, using the brain first, muscles second. Instead of working to make the muscles do what you want, try to make your joint movements as smooth and effortless as possible.
That’s where good joint coordination will come from, and from there your optimal joint mobility will appear.
on July 9th, 2009 at 12:57 am
Hi Laree. Joint mobility i have been doing thi chi in the morning nice and gentle.Its good way start the day.
on July 9th, 2009 at 7:14 am
As a Feldenkrais teacher, I’m often frustrated by the limited perspective of most personal trainers and exercise therapies. You have broadened the conversation, and the possibilities. If faced with “stabilize” or “mobilize” as the only choices, no wonder people fail to reach their goals! Bringing in the possibility of “coordination” opens up the rest of the spectrum, where stabilization and mobilization are happening in dynamic, not static, states.
Thanks for a great article.
on July 9th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Very kind of you, MaryBeth. I appreciate your SomaQuest blog also!
http://somaquest.blogspot.com/
I’ll tell you, as an industry we’ve come SO far in the past few years the old is barely recognizable. Most of what we used to do is wholly unacceptable, and that in just maybe five years, surely less than ten.
Laree