Mobility: How to Approach it?

Fitness, Postnatal, Prenatal

Approach To Mobility

When we feel pain or discomfort, we must approach to mobility and we may try to stretch or massage the location of our discomfort to attempt to relieve the pain. But, what if I told you that where we feel pain is maybe not the source of your pain?

When our tissues are over-lengthened or too taunt, the extra pulling can create a strain, which may equal pain. If we continue to stretch those tissues, we may only make the problem worse!

But, if something is being pulled too much, something else is probably shortened or restricted that could be released.

Let’s consider our upper back. Usually when we feel tension or pain in our upper back, it’s not because we need to stretch our upper back more. But rather, we need to release the opposite side that is shortened: the chest.

If you look in the image below, you’ll see my upper back is rounded as I hold my baby. So, my upper back muscles and tissues are being over-lengthened and stretched more taunt, while my front side tissues are being shortened or restricted.

If I release the restriction in my chest, I will better be able to stand more upright. We can do this with chest mobility routines.

Now that we have released the restriction, we then want to focus on strengthening the backside to help shorten the muscles back to their normal resting length!

We incorporate a lot of posterior chain strengthening exercises in our fitness programming!

Why do we end up with restrictions??

When we find ourselves in repetitive or recurrent movement patterns or postural tendencies, we may be contributing towards a muscular imbalance. These imbalances may involve muscles/tissues that are overlengthened or shortened, that then pull unevenly on our spine, pelvis, and other joints in our body.

As parents or caregivers, we may find that we end up in repetitive patterns: holding or feeding our babies; how we carry our kids, maybe favoring one side; how we generally stand or sit. All of these patterns can contribute towards an imbalance if not addressed with targeted mobility and strength training!

So, what to do??

Our approach is to target the shortened muscles with mobility training, and then strengthen the overlengthened side.

How can you tell which is which?

Remember that muscles only have the ability to pull, not push, so the side that is pulling the bones forward is the shortened side.

For example: if the pelvis is pulling forward, where your belly drops forward and booty pokes out, the hip flexors are PULLING the pelvis forward (shortened). This results in the glutes and hamstrings being overlengthened or too long. Then on the backside, the back of the pelvis is pulling upwards, so the lats are PULLING the pelvis up and the lats are shortened. This results in the abs being overlengthened and too long.

With this postural tendency, I would release the hip flexors and lats with targeted mobility and then strengthen the glutes, hamstrings, and abs.

When approaching mobility, focusing on usually the opposite side of where you are feeling pain tends to help the most!

Most of the time when we feel pain or discomfort due to mobility restrictions, it is because the opposite side is pulling us too far in the other direction. When a muscle pulls, it shortens. Releasing the shortened muscle can also the tautness out of the overlengthened muscle to release (and you will likely find relief from your mobility related discomfort)!

In Casey’s yoga modifications for pregnancy and postpartum course, she breaks down how to approach yoga throughout both phases. Plus there are a few yoga routines included to help you find relief from common mobility restrictions!

Yoga Modifications for Pregnancy and Postpartum Course

Understand how to approach your yoga mat throughout your pregnancy and early postpartum, as both a yogi and a yoga teacher or fitness professional.