The Difference between Mobility & Flexibility (& how to know which one you need)

I used to foam roll and stretch every night……..but still never got more ‘flexible’ or ‘mobile’.

I never even knew the difference between the 2 words. I used them interchangeably as I thought they meant the same thing.

I WAS consistent. I WAS dedicated. I DID trust the process……..but nope, barely anything to show for it. Still couldn’t touch my toes for example. Whereas now I can do the front splits on demand

My range would slightly improve in the moment after the foam rolling & stretching, but it seemed to just reset the next day.

But we are told to foam roll, to stretch, this is how you increase your flexibility/mobility right?

What do I know, they are the experts?

So that’s what I did.

I know you need to be consistent, and that transformations don't happen overnight, but after 10 years of trying, and one period of around 9 months where I was being VERY CONSISTENT…….I knew this just wasn’t working

Then you can think…….is it me? Is it MY body that’s the problem? Are the experts right when they tell me all these diagnosis and issues wrong with my body? That there is nothing I can do to overcome my chronic pain and injuries?

But I am a stubborn bastard, and a curious cat. I couldn’t help wondering how some other people aren’t like me? How these others guys I see online went from tin man to mobility man? I am determined, I am consistent, so why isn’t it happening for me?! I don’t get it

But now I understand why. Hindsight is always 20/20, and I can see with crystal clarity why I never got progress back then.

In combat, they say to take the high ground to have an advantage. I’m on that high ground now in terms of mobility knowledge, and I see everyone down on the open planes getting slaughtered like I was. With no clue of where to go.

My aim with this article is to throw down my rope and get you to the high ground. To have the knowledge you need to start finally making progress with your mobility.

Why am I telling you my experience?

Because I want you to LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES.

My past pain can equal your future PROGRESS.

When I took OWNERSHIP and FOLLOWED THE RESULTS…..I found out the truth

This is the path to the truth and progress in anything.

How do I keep moving forward and get progress in mobility, strength, mindset, business and life? Because I follow that strategy now. I take ownership for where I am currently, and I follow the results of people who have overcome the current problem I am facing. I am a different person each year, learning so much.

Deceiving yourself leads to stagnation and resentment

Follow the results leads you to enlightenment and empowerment

Your choice

Mobility & Flexibility are DIFFERENT

Just so you are clear:

• 10s stretches does not = flexibility

• yoga is not = mobility

• bouncing into different positions before a match does not = flexibility

You could go on with so many examples that are not correct. But let’s just cut to what IS true:

Flexibility = PASSIVE range of motion

Mobility = ACTIVE range of motion

There is a BIG difference. And by the end of this newsletter you will understand.

I can see now that I was just training ‘flexibility’ with my stretches on the floor. But even then, the way I was doing it does not align with the science on the human body. So I was just doing flexibility....but not even doing it right haha.

Christ, 10 years of that eh? And I’m sure you are probably the same.

I’m not surprised - as we listen to the authority in each situation (a coach of a football team who is probably someone's dad, or a physio who is not mobile themselves).

But once I finally understood this in detail, I knew I had the blueprint to get mobility in any part of my body. And you can too.

Ok so let’s dive into the flexibility and mobility in more detail with some examples so you can fully understand it

Flexibility = PASSIVE range of motion

This is the range of motion that your body can be moved into PASSIVELY (aka through no muscular contraction of your own, but someone or something moving you)

This would be like when you are lying motionless on a table and a physio lifts up your leg to test your hamstring flexibility. YOU are not ACTIVELY moving your leg…..THEY are moving it for you. This is your passive flexibility range.

Mobility = ACTIVE range of motion

This is the range of motion that you can ACTIVELY move into by YOURSELF. Through YOUR OWN muscular contractions. NOT somebody or something moving your body for you.

To keep the same example as above, it would be like you lying on a table, and you have to actively lift up your leg towards your head as much as you can while keeping it straight. Where you stop - this will be the limits of your ‘mobility’ in 'hip flexion'. This is ‘active range of motion’ because YOU are moving your own leg.

If you are thinking about it and realising that your ‘flexibility’ is always more than your ‘mobiltiy’……then you would be correct.

You CANNOT have more mobility than flexibility. Flexibility is a PRE-REQUISITE to mobility.

In other words, if you can’t move there passively (with someone/something moving you), you won’t be able to move there actively (with your own muscular contractions - this is harder)

What you will find is that you have a certain flexibility range for each muscle, and a mobility range. And the flexibility will always be bigger. The mobility will lag behind then to different degrees based on loads of factors (injury history, movement diet, your training, lack of mobility training etc).

So for example lets say you have 80% flexibility on the table test for the hamstring, the mobility test could be 40%, 50% or whatever. Could also be 20%, or it could be 80% too (unlikely). But what we know for sure is that it will not be over 80%. If you can’t move there passively, you can’t move there actively

Few more quick fire examples to ingrain the difference in your brain:

• Martial artist

- Doing a hamstring stretch on the floor passively (flexibility)

- Doing a headkick ACTIVELY using their own muscles to pull the leg into the air and USE the hamstring flexibility (mobility)

• Dancer

- Doing a hamstring stretch on the floor passively (flexibility)

- Doing a jump split in mid-air and ACTIVELY moving her legs into the splits through muscular contractions and USING the hamstring flexibility (mobility)

Cue everyone testing their flexibility and mobility levels in their hamstrings hahaha

That’s what I would be doing anyway.

Not that we know what they ARE……why would we need one over the other?

We have sharpened the blade, now let's see how we should WIELD it.

WHY you might need flexibility or mobility

We can keep it pretty simple here. I’ll give example’s of where you might need to improve one over the other, or both together.

1. If you are very tight in certain areas and just want to relieve that tension, and not necessarily use it actively in sport/activities…….then you need more FLEXIBILITY in that area

2. If you are pretty flexible and can be moved into deep positions on the table or floor, but struggle to use this in daily life & sports/activities…….then you need more MOBILITY

3. If you are tight & stiff and struggle to do daily tasks or sports/activities, chances are you need to improve BOTH your flexibility and mobility

HOW to improve flexibility & mobility

I will not discuss methods here (you will see why in the next section discussing what the ‘best method is’)

I will just give you the science and PRINCIPLES OF THE HUMAN BODY that you need to follow. You can then achieve this through many different methods if you are aligning with it.

Flexibility:

• To improve passive range of motion, the science says we need to hold the stretch for around 2 minutes (yes you read that right - 2 MINUTES. Not 10s here and there like we all do)

• You need to think of this like strength training, you don’t go to the gym for the first time and bench 80kg….just like you don’t start flexibility properly now and go for 2 minute stretches. It’s the same as the gym example - you aren’t PREPARED FOR IT YET……but you can be in time

• You need to follow the same principle of PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD with your stretching and flexibility training

• So you can break that 2 minutes up into 30s x 4 for example. 4 sets x 30 seconds hold will get you up to the 2 minute mark

• Like any stats/number etc, don’t take it to be gospel, but you get the point

• So aim for 4 sets x 30s (each side), just go 70% into the stretch, (not 90% and feel like your hamstring will snap)…and BREATH AND RELAX into the position for the 30s

• Your brain is PROTECTING YOU with this tightness (explained here - The ACTUAL reason you are tight & stiff). So we need to show the brain safety and we can start to do this through deep breathing and feeling safe in the position.

• This will take time like anything else. Think of your flexibility training like strength training and it will keep you on the right track (need to be consistent and takes months/years to get to really high levels, need to use progressive overload, there is no quick fix)

• For example on the pancake (got shoulders to floor on the pancake position years later - video here), I was doing 5 minute stretches by the end of it. I had worked up to those levels. But I had to start of with shorter ones like everyone else and worked my way up with the amazing power of SMALL GAINS over time

Mobility:

• To improve active range of motion, we need to ACTIVELY CONTRACT our muscles in that range of motion.

• We can do this through isometrics, through eccentrics, through concentrics (these are different types of muscle contractions). Or we can do it through full-range movements

• Whichever method we choose, we need to TRAIN OURSELVES TO BE ABLE TO USE THAT RANGE ACTIVELY. There is no other way around it

• As Charles Poliquin said - “You only gain strength in the range it is trained”

• If we want to be able to actively use our range of motion ourselves, we need to be strong enough to do so

• For example with a headkick: I need hamstring flexibility, but I would also need to be strong enough in my hip flexors to be able to ACTIVELY pick up that leg and USE the hamstring flexibility to do the headkick. Just having flexible hamstring doesn’t mean you can do a headkick, it just means you can display that flexibility on the floor

It can be useful to think of it like this:

Mobility = flexibility + STRENGTH

It’s not fully accurate but it was very useful for me on my journey (in fact none of this is - but that's not going be useful to you at this point in your journey haha. I’m meeting you where you are at, just like what was done for me. It’s the best way forward, it's too complicated & confusing otherwise).

Think of it like: flexibility is having ACCESS to the new range of motion.

Then to get ‘mobility’ and be able to use this new range of motion, we have to get STRONG there.

If that makes sense for you, run with that.

Then you can identify what ranges you need to open up for your sport (flexibility)

And what ranges you need to get strong in and be able to actively use those ranges (mobility)

Which is the ‘best method’

I’m sure this question is running through your head.

We want to make sure we are not wasting time and that we are focusing on the BEST METHOD.

But the reality is that it’s not that simple. There is no ‘best method’. Best method for what? For who? for what sport? For what purpose? This is us looking for endedness again.

There are different approaches & methods to improve flexibility compared to mobility. And there are some methods that can improve both together, but it can have some drawbacks.

There are many different ‘methods’ out there for each. It’s important to understand that there is no ONE BEST METHOD. They are just TOOLS, and you need to use the best tool for the job, period.

Getting into this “yoga is the best”, “FRC is the best”, “gymnastics training is the best” etc etc……it’s essentially dogma. This usually happens when we get success with ourselves from a certain method and then we become emotionally attached to it an push this as the ‘best way!’ (been there, done that haha. FRC4 lyfeeeeeeeee).

But now I see the bigger picture. Once you take the high ground and use panoramic view, you can analyze it critically. John says yoga changed his life, Jean says gymnastics only worked for her, Jeremy said yoga is bolox and gymnastics fucked him up, but FRC fixed him, and he only recommends that.

See the problem here? It’s all just PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. Personal experience that leads into dogma. It’s coming from a good place trying to help people, but we aren’t the same as everyone else. We have different injury history, movement diet, sports/activities, lifestyles, different levels of mobility & flexibility etc

So whats a better approach? Following the principles of HUMAN BIOLOGY over any specific system. They are all just tools. Use the right tool, at the right time, for the right person, to get them the results they want. That’s IT. Period. Leave the ego & dogma out of it.

I don’t want to be the ‘FRC guy’, the ‘splits guy’ etc etc…..I want to be the RESULTS guy. The person who gets people the results they want with their body, through whatever method suits them and their current situation. And that's what I do. I use a combination of different methods.

This is where you always have to come back to Bruce Lee, as he fucking nailed what we need to do in this information age with endless content coming out our ears with each one claiming to be THE BEST:

“ Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own” - Bruce Lee

Amen to that. And that’s what I try to do

There’s a reason I finally got success with myself and why I do with clients

Because I understand how the human body works and the process to follow to ACTUALLY improve flexibility & mobility

3 Actionable Takeaways:

1. Understand the difference between Mobility & Flexibility

• They are NOT the same

• Flexibility = Passive range of motion

• Mobility = Active range of motion

2. Identify which one you lack

• You may lack flexibility

• You may lack mobility

• You need to identify the main limitation

3. Train to get the flexibility & mobility you need for sport/life

• Get a program to improve the flexibility & mobility you need

• This will differ from person to person, depending on your sport/activities

• If you lose it again through injury, you now have the roadmap to get it back

Client example:

Leanna Cassidy (Yoga Teacher)

It's common in yoga to address mainly just the 'flexibility', but not necessarily 'mobility'. Focusing more on stretches (flexibility), focusing less on having the strength to be able to actively move into certain positions (mobility).

See Leanna's full review here.

MY WEEK:

Education:

• Current Reading: The Denial of Death (didn't read any again - Mark sort your shit out! Read 1 page a night minium next week. Roger that.)

• Podcasts

(Modern Wisdom Podcast #548 - Tim Harford: Why is thinking clearly so difficult?)

(The Game with Alex Hormozi #459: 13 Things I wish I learned)

(The Game with Alex Hormozi: "Noone can outwork me" Keynote Speech

Business:

This week's client testimonial was Mark O'Sullivan! One of my first ever clients. One of the OG's. Read his full review & story here.

Personal:

Fun this week:

• Friday: Out for some pints with friends.....which turned into shots, a nightclub.....and me doing an Irish goodbye and getting food and the bus home. Yep....sounds about right haha

Training:

Strength:

- One arm chin up session Monday

- Upper push session Tuesday

- One arm chin up session tomorrow (Sunday)

That was it! Not much training this week. I'm in the transition period between stopping Jiu Jitsu for now, and replacing it with conditioning and more upper body. Next week I'll aim for 6 sessions (4 upper body - 2 OAC, 2 Upper push. 2 conditioning - rogue bike)

I'm on the tail end of a hangover, editing this newsletter before I send it off. All done now. Time for a shower, order a takeaway, and finish watching the Lord of the Rings - The Rings of Power. Back to being healthy and my routine tomorrow.

Realise that its what you do 80% of the time that MATTERS. Yeah I drink, I eat shit, I doss, I do all stuff that you do..........but I'm still moving forward each year in things I am passionate about like mobility, strength, mindset, business, life.

Would you rather get to the top of the mountain quicker?

Or make it to the top of the mountain at a later date and actually have ENJOYED THE JOURNEY up the mountain?

We each have to answer that for ourselves. It will be a spectrum, and it will change at times through different seasons of your life.

Anyway, I'm fucking starving haha enough talking. I'm thinking of that crispy chilli chicken & egg fried rice. Mark OUT.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Don't Settle,

Mark