Exercise

Mobility / Strength / Endurance

Mobility

More than flexibility or stretching, mobility is the ability to move your joints in a multitude of directions with control and strength. This exercise is foundational to all other movements as it creates strength in connective tissue and increases range of motion.

Mobility is often overlooked by more exciting movement (like strength training or endurance training). If you are prone to put mobility training off, you are more likely to get injured and discouraged by your training. Incorporate mobility training into your routine for longevity of movement.

Incorporating mobility training into your exercise routine could look like:

Myofascial release using foam rollers, balls, other massage tools
Joint rotations of all the major joints of the body (elastic bands and dowels can be added for support)
Flow - moving from one pose to another
Challenging unweighted range of motion (for example, lunges/squats with knees far beyond the toes, walking on the edges of the feet, small pushups from the palm of hand to fingers

Strength

We do strength-training in order to minimize weakness in the body. It is most fun to do when you have a skill or goal in mind for that strength to work toward.

Strength-training exercises should be selected by looking at what the weak link is in your kinetic chain. When you do a movement you’re trying to coordinate, whether it’s a sport or just a general daily
activity, your strength training exercises should be selected to strengthen the places where you collapse and some of the energy gets lost in the flow of whatever movement you’re working on.

If you want to do a pushup, you’ll want to evaluate the weak parts of your body that are needed to do the movement. Off the top, you may think your arms and chest. However, a solid core, engaged legs, a mobile and strong shoulder girdle, and supportive back are all a part of the movement. As you progress with exercises to push yourself off the ground, each of these areas will grow stronger at different internals. You must supplement other exercises to build strength along the entire kinetic chain.

Endurance

This should really be the ultimate level once mobility and strength have already been built into your body. Endurance is the ability to do the same repetitive movement over and over again.

If your knee collapses inward every time your foot hits the pavement in a run, you have not built up the strength to prevent the collapse. There’s weakness. If that weakness is allowed to manifest without doing strength-training to make up for the weakness or mobility to help recover from the strain it puts on the rest of the body, then injury is nearly 100% guaranteed.

Endurance training is what has been broadcast for years as being the form of exercise that is most needed for healthy. While it’s true that cardiovascular stimulation is important for heart health and circulation, it’s not going to help you if you’re laid up with an injury! The image of a person sweating profusely is what most of us think of when we think of exercise but endurance can also be found through activities like:

Walking
Jumping
Dancing
Group sports (like soccer, basketball, tennis, etc)
Skiing
Skating
Swimming

In the end, endurance is an important part of the exercise trifecta at The Agile Lifestyle, just be careful that it’s not the ONLY movement style that you do and that you’ve prepared your body for it well.

The Agile Lifestyle