What is the Difference Between Flexibility and Mobility

The main difference between flexibility and mobility is stretching and strengthening.

Flexibility is the total range of motion you can access, usually using an outside force to help you get deeper. Sometimes that outside force is you pulling yourself deeper into a stretch, and other times the outside force is someone pushing you deeper into a stretch.

Imagine that I am assisting you in a stretch. You are lying on your back with one leg lifted and I'm pushing on your foot and leg to get you more of a stretch. The force I'm applying is pushing your leg closer to your upper body. The more flexibility you have in your hamstring, the closer your quad is getting to your chest. This would be a stretch in your hamstring as it lengthens.

Flexibility represents the ability of soft tissue to passively stretch. A passive stretch is as described above, when you use force to stretch deeper or further into a stretch.

Mobility represents the joint’s ability to actively move through a range of motion. Simply put, mobility is how much range of motion you can access and control on your own.

Using the same position and movement as an example, you are lying on your back and lifting one leg in the air. How far you can lift your leg and how close you can get your quad to your chest will represent your mobility. You are using your quad strength to move the limb and hold it at your end range.

With flexibility, you are using an outside force to get deeper into a stretch or to access more range of motion, and with mobility, you are using your muscles to access more range of motion.

That's one of the reasons I always say that mobility training is strength training.

If you are a visual learner, I made a YouTube video going into detail and showing examples of what I described above.

Is Mobility Better than Flexibility?

Something to keep in mind is that you can be flexible and have poor mobility.

Just because you can passively stretch a muscle into a deep position doesn’t mean you can control your muscle in a lengthened position.

Anyone can get deeper into a stretch by forcing your body or limb into a certain position, but the benefits come with how much range of motion you can create using your muscles.

When you stretch a muscle using a passive or static stretch, you are temporarily lengthening the tissue, but as soon as you release the stretch, the muscle returns to its original length.

You also create weak spots, or micro-tears in the muscle when you passively stretch a muscle for an extended time. Imagine that you are stretching a plastic grocery bag. You pull on it and it does lengthen but gets weaker and eventually rips.

Mobility has more benefits than flexibility because it teaches your muscles how to be strong and active at the new length. It’s more effective than stretching because it’s based on movement and motor control.

When you strengthen your end range of motion and control the muscle at that end range you will be able to access that new range of motion in the future.

You can use mobility to improve your range of motion immediately after exercises but flexibility won’t have the same results.

You can use mobility exercises to get a better range of motion in your shoulders before an upper-body workout.

You can use mobility exercises to get deeper into your squat.

But passive stretching will negatively affect your exercises so it shouldn’t be part of a warm-up routine.

Remember that joint range of motion is king. Move using strength, control, and stability, and you will move better and feel better.

What are the Best Ways to Improve Mobility?

There’s a huge misconception that grinding on a foam roller for 3 minutes at a time on each body part is mobility work. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.

Soft tissue work, or foam rolling can aid in mobility work but foam rolling on your own isn’t going to do anything but feel good in the moment.

That’s because foam rolling is neuromuscular, not muscular. In other words, it’s creating a connection between your body and your brain. The same goes for thera-guns, lacrosse balls, and other mobility tools sold to be a magic bullet to improved mobility.

These methods do not break up adhesions, increase blood flow, or increase muscle length. Pressure from a lacrosse ball or foam roller impacts the sensory nerves in your muscles responsible for sensing things like pressure and temperature.

When you put a muscle through that stimulus you are raising the threshold for a period of time which allows a certain amount of relaxation in the muscles when the stimulus is no longer applied. That’s why it’s important to follow up your soft tissue work with strengthening exercises on the muscles you just targeted.

I suggest doing soft tissue work as part of a targeted warm-up that way you will use the muscles in the workout afterward and that’s how you get the most benefits.

You could do soft tissue work followed up by resistance band work as part of a warm-up—or soft-tissue work followed by dynamic stretching.

Sometimes if I’m short on time I will just do soft tissue work and get right into my workout.

So if I’m doing an upper body workout I’ll do soft tissue work on my pecs, lats, and traps as my warm-up and then get into my workout. If I’m doing a lower body workout, like Romanian deadlifts, I’ll do soft tissue work on my hamstrings and glutes as part of my warm-up and then jump right into my training.

Soft tissue work has its place, but remember that doing it on its own without following it up with strengthening, is basically a waste of time.

Wrapping Up

I used to be a big advocate for static stretching until I started to understand the difference between flexibility and mobility. I also noticed that a lot of the students I worked with when I was teaching yoga would tell me that no matter how much they stretched they never felt their range of motion would improve.

This is what led me to give up on static stretching and focus on my mobility. I use mobility for warm-ups before a workout and I do it in my downtime while watching TV at home.

The activities I enjoyed doing, like handstands, pull-ups, Spartan races, partner acro, and acro yoga, got easier.

I stopped having my clients static stretch after their training sessions and no one’s flexibility or recovery suffered.

It’s been four years since I’ve static stretched and two years since I’ve done a cool down after a workout. Like my clients, my flexibility and recovery haven’t suffered one bit.

So the next time that you want to spend 5 or 10 minutes after your workout foam rolling or static stretching, don’t. You’ll be a lot better off getting back home to your family or getting a head start on something that you enjoy doing more.

If you aren’t sure what exercises to do to improve your mobility you can download a free copy of my full body mobility eBook by filling out the form below. In the eBook, you’ll get an upper-body mobility workout and a lower-body mobility workout. Each comes with exercises, reps, and sets that you should do to get the most out of it.