Have you spent tons of time sitting in a stretch position only to achieve it maybe right at that time but not be able to maintain it? Maybe you’ve never even reached a flexibility goal despite spending lots of time in that position.

Can you do the splits? Can you do a standing split? Why not?

This is where the differences between FLEXIBILITY and MOBILITY come to light.

Flexibility: The ability to passively attain a range of motion or to be able to place your body into a position with an outside force.

Mobility: Strength THROUGH full range of motion or the ability to actively achieve range of motion without the use of outside force.

The outer most ranges of motion are going to be the weakest because we don’t usually prioritize them. We are constantly working the middle ranges general exercise/daily life. End range of motion is also where most injury occurs, so it not only looks cool – its actually very important for injury mitigation to be able to produce strength in all ranges of motion.

There are a variety of methods to achieve these goals, but one in particular from a system called FRC or Functional Range Conditioning has been one of the more effective and truly systematic ways to achieve this.

The exercise is called PAILS & RAILS which uses a sequence of passive stretching followed by isometric contractions at end ranges in both directions to not only improve flexibility but STRENGTH through the range of motion to increase the mobility of the joint.

Do you need to improve your mobility?

What is something you’d like to work on?