5 Mobility Exercises to Prevent Running Injuries
If you’re a runner who keeps up with everything experts recommend to prevent injury, you’ve likely heard about a form of movement called “mobility exercises.”
Even if mobility is a new term to you, it’s something sports medicine doctors, physical therapists, and any providers focusing on movement have long emphasized as important. And it’s not just for runners, but all athletes—or anyone, really, who moves their body and hopes to stay strong and injury-free.
Mobility exercises (sometimes called “mobility work”) are designed to increase the range of motion of a joint, says Samantha Smith, MD, a Yale Medicine primary care sports medicine specialist.
“The joints are the points of motion in our body. So, any time we move, we don’t want a limitation because of a stiff joint. This can happen for many reasons, including inflammation of the joint or just because we haven’t been using it, which could cause the soft tissues around it to tighten,” Dr. Smith explains. “A muscle injury or tightness can also affect the joints. Likewise, if the ligaments aren’t being used, they can become less pliable.”
Everyone can relate to waking up in the morning and feeling stiff or tight, Dr. Smith adds. “And you can feel the difference between that and how you feel after your body is warmed up from exercise, where you have more freedom of movement,” she says. “That is the goal of mobility work—to give your joints that freedom instead of having them be a source of restriction and to potentially prevent muscle strains and joint soreness.”
Below, we talk more with Dr. Smith about mobility exercises and share a few to try at home.
Do mobility exercises include stretching?
Mobility work can include activities such as yoga and stretching—both static (holding a specific position) and dynamic (gentle repetitive movements), explains Dr. Smith.
“If you think of dynamic stretching as something you do to prepare your body for a run, then static stretching is about increasing the length of a specific muscle group because it might be tight,” she says.
Mobility exercises, Dr. Smith adds, can be done before a run, after a run, or on a rest day. “You can think of them as a form of recovery,” she says. "Perform mobility work in addition to your usual routine, rather than having it replace a warm-up or cooldown."
Is mobility the same as flexibility?
While mobility and flexibility are related, there is a key difference, Dr. Smith says.
“One way to think about it is that mobility is specific to joints, and flexibility is specific to joints and muscles. Someone can have great hip mobility, for example, but not have the muscle flexibility to do a split,” she says.
How often should you do mobility exercises?
As with all exercise, the best kind is the one that you can find time for, Dr. Smith says.
“The worst thing is to do nothing,” she says. “If you can fit in five minutes of mobility work a few times a week, it will have a positive benefit.”
