I’ve been asked this question by several patients and it always leads to a great discussion. Both strength and mobility are important but for different reasons. The importance of strength versus mobility varies depending on someone’s situation. Let’s talk about why.
Strength is crucial for maintaining healthy joints, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, and warding off diabetes.Strength also helps maintain mobility.
Nearly every injury that I can think of requires some sort of strength work to recover from. Strengthening is a common treatment for most aches and pains. This is because when the muscles surrounding the joint are strong, the body can use the muscles to move instead of straining through the joint (something we call a “joint-centric” movement pattern). People with non-arthritic joint pain often move in this way. A great example is something like patellar/quadriceps tendinitis.
Strength is also a critical component in the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis. This is because our bones require loading to maintain density (Osteoporosis is a loss of bone density. Think of the bone as becoming like a dry sponge). If there is no load through the bones the body doesn’t see maintaining bone density as necessary. Our muscles surround our bones. The contractile force of the muscles over the bones is a beneficial load that tells the body it needs to maintain bone density.
Type II Diabetes can be prevented and treated with strength training as well (in addition to cardio and medical management). Our muscles store sugar as fuel for later use. In order to store this fuel, sugar has to be pulled out of the bloodstream. This results in lower blood sugar. The more muscle someone has, the more efficient their body will be in storing and removing sugar from the blood instead of allowing it to remain in the blood.
Mobility is important, but it can be unhelpful without strength or stability.
Mobility is incredibly important as we want our joints to be able to move through a functional range of motion. This is critical in post operative patients because this population will lose their joint’s range of motion if they don’t focus on gradual mobility (think: ACL reconstruction, knee replacement, shoulder replacement, rotator cuff repair, etc etc). However in an uninjured person, stretching alone is typically not enough to improve mobility. Without control of this new range, the muscle will just tighten back up. So if you’re inactive and do a lot of sitting, stretching alone probably won’t be enough for you. You need to move the muscle in a controlled manner through this new range of motion after you stretch.
The great debate is always between strength and mobility, but stability is just as crucial.
What is stability? Stability is your body’s ability to CONTROL your movements. It’s your ability to balance on one leg while reaching across your body. It’s your ability to pick up your foot and ski on one leg without crashing if you catch an edge while skiing. It’s your ability to catch yourself and prevent a fall when you lose balance. So while everyone debates between strength and mobility, make sure you don’t forget about our unsung hero: stability!
It’s all a balance when it comes to strength, mobility, and stability.
Think about trying to sign your name. Mobility is your fingers’ ability to bend enough to hold the pencil. Strength is your ability to hold the pencil without dropping it. Stability is the coordination to sign your name. Each of these have their role in our daily and recreational movements.
I’ve had patients who are very flexible but get injured because they’re very weak. I’ve also had patients with a lot of strength who develop pain because they lost mobility (though this is much less common). At the end of the day, neither one can really stand without the other. The matter of whether strength or mobility is “more important” will vary depending on the individual and their body’s needs.
In a future post I’ll discuss some active mobility exercises for the upper body versus lower body. The main thing I’d like you to take away from this: after you stretch, actively move your muscle through that new range of motion a couple of times. That’s all you really need!
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