Mobility Blog – Undoing the knots – Week 10
There are two important things a lot of individuals do not apply in their training routine: mobility
and stretching. Sometimes when we get to the gym, all we want to do is immediately train because
you’re all pumped and excited. But, the truth is, skipping these two things will not help with your
training, and will not help you improve your physique and overall health. Furthermore, some may
have experienced stiffness and reduced range of motion after intense training cycles.
Before we start getting into what to do during your ‘mobility and stretching’ routine, first, we must
understand what is mobility. Mobility refers to ‘the ability to move freely and easily’. It is evident
that our flexibility naturally decreases as we age, but that does not mean we individuals will not be
able to perform different exercises as we get older. The famous biblical saying “Your body is a
temple (…)” can be applied to your fitness success. You should treat your body as a temple. Just like
nutrition, eating nutritious food will make you feel good. And in this case, applying mobility to your
daily routine will help you relax your overtrained muscles, untie your muscle knots, assist in the
prevention of injury, and most importantly, improve your overall flexibility.
In my personal experience, I was the type of person who would not care about doing stretches
before and after my exercises until one day I started to feel my hip bone and knee joint clicking. I
was quite worried as I thought it was due to genetics since my grandmum had an osteoporotic
problem on her hip. And this was something that scared me since I was already squatting heavier
weights. After a consultation with my physiotherapist, I found out that I had the Iliotibial Band
Syndrome (also known as the IT Band Syndrome). The clicking sensation of my knee joint and hip is a
result of the ITB tightening and snapping across the joint during running. I was in the Track and Field
team before university, and was never diligent with my stretching, and that explains a lot.
“Mobility should be a proactive approach, not a reactive one.”
It should always be automatic that you apply a stretching routine in your training regime. No matter
how tight or not your muscles are, mobility should never be a reactive approach. Some people do
not realise the probable issues that may arise after your cardiovascular exercise or weight training
that they immediately disregard the importance of mobilisation.
Mobility can be divided into three different parts: soft tissue work, stretching, and joint mobilisation.
1. Soft Tissue Work – This refers to self-myofascial release (SMFR) which treats the skeletal
muscle immobility and pain (in other words, your tight muscle knots!). You know that feeling
of being sore after an intense workout week? We believe these stubborn knots are best
treated with tools such as the foam roller, massage sticks, and lacrosse/tennis/hockey balls.
However, sometimes SMFR is not as effective for some individuals. An individual who has an
injury like I do (the ITB Syndrome) needs the extra help from a trained chiropractor,
physical/massage therapist that are able to deal with issues related to sports injuries. Other
than relaxing these muscles, applying SMFR to your workout routine (before or after
training) will help improve blood and lymphatic circulation.
2. Stretching – The most common types of stretches we encourage you to focus on is the static
and the proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching. Static stretching refers
to the basic movements that stretch out specific target muscle to the point of mild
discomfort, in a lengthened position (ranging from 10 seconds to 60 seconds). It is the most
common type of stretch as it remains effective and relatively safe. PNF stretching focuses on
isometrically contracting and relaxing the specific tight muscles. We recommend checking
out Kelly Starrett for his tips on PNF stretching.
3. Joint Mobilisation – This focuses on mobilising your specific joints. Joint issues can
negatively impact your compound exercises especially your squats. Having my ITB syndrome,
joint mobilisation is crucial for me. The main goal is to increase extensibility of a joint
capsule by breaking up adhesions and/or stretching the capsule itself. Kelly Starrett explains
the technique of mobilising your joints that involves using stretch bands that distracts the
specific joint. However, you should also be cautious if you feel like intense discomfort or
especially, are very prone to dislocations.
Below are the different mobility exercises for the most common tight and overused muscles:

T-Spine
Smash
Extension
predominantly massages the
bottom of your ribcage to the
base of the neck and the top of
the scapula (mainly hitting the
rhomboids and the trapezius). It
will improve your normal posture,
stable shoulder position, global
extension, and thoracic extension. To begin, wrap your arms around your chest and position
the roller at the base of your ribcage. Roll and make sure you pull the soft tissue and the
scapula out of the way so that you can target the motion segments of your back. To create
an extensive force, arch your back, making sure to target all the necessary areas, by sliding
downwards and upwards.

Olympic Wall Squat with
External Rotation improves
flexion and external rotation.
When doing this stretch, you
must remember to contract
and relax, making sure you
feel the stretch on our lateral
hips. It creates a lateral distraction (this refers to the PNF stretch) at your hip. This will
definitely help you fulfil a full range of motion in your squats. To increase aggressiveness of
the stretch, try getting your butt as close to the wall as possible, and making sure to pull
down your knee towards the wall.

Banded Overhead Distraction improves
your external rotational capacity. This is
also a type of PNF stretch, which focuses on
contracting and relaxing. To do this, hook
your wrist through the band and grab,
making sure your palm is facing upwards.
Keep your arm locked in an externally
rotated position. Create the tension by
sinking in your hips back and lowering your
torso towards the ground. With your arm
externally rotated in the overhead position,
contract and relax and try to distract the
shoulder into new end-ranges. Once you
are comfortable, start exploring into stiffer areas.
There are a lot of other mobility exercises that you can do depending on your needs. Always
remember to apply this into your training routine before you regret it in the future. I personally aim
to do mobility at least 15-20 minutes a day and this actually benefits my training.
If you have any questions about specific muscles you would like to work on, do not hesitate to ask
the Fitness Team. We are always happy to help.
Exercise resource: Becoming a Supple Leopard by Dr. Kelly Starrett