Moving around doing your daily chores, playing sports or running around after your kids all might feel intuitive and it is often not until sometimes things go wrong can these second nature activities become difficult. It is the complex balance between flexibility, mobility and stability that are vital to the functioning of our bodies that play a key role in this.

Whether you are recovering from an injury, have a chronic condition or just want to move more freely, osteopathy looks at the flexibility of tissues, mobility of joints and stability of posture and movement to help guide tour treatment and management to help get you feeling and moving better.

Flexibility 

Many people often think that flexibility is only important for dancers or gymnasts or people that are into yoga, but in reality flexibility is important for everyone. Flexibility refers to your muscles, tendons and soft tissues ability and capacity to lengthen effectively. It allows you to perform certain movements but also reduces tension and prevents compensatory strain from developing. For example, people who are office workers and sit for extended periods often have inflexible hip flexors which can lead to lower back pain and changes in walking style.

Osteopathically, treatment supports flexibility with the utilisation of hands on techniques to relax muscles, reduce myofascial restriction and increase blood flow to help increase flexibility. Your practitioner might also provide you with some at home stretches to help increase the flexibility of areas that might require it.

Mobility

Mobility and flexibility are closely linked and often confused. The biggest difference between mobility and flexibility is control. Flexibility is the passive ability of tissues, whereas mobility is the active ability to move your joints through their full range of motion. An example of this is a dancer can do the splits, which is flexibility, but can they do a high kick, which is mobility. For the average person, a more realistic example might be you can pull your knee to your chest, but can you lift it up with your own strength? This also shows how strength plays an important role in mobility. When training mobility, you are looking at getting the difference between flexibility or passive motion and active motion to be as small as possible. 

Mobility requires healthy joints, muscles and neurological control. When we lack mobility, compensatory patterns often stress other areas of the body. Looking at how a joint moves both in isolation and as a larger movement pattern helps identify restrictions that may need to be worked on. Training with some strength through different ranges of motion is a great way to help increase functional mobility and reduce the risk of injury.

Stability 

Stability refers to the body’s ability to control movement and maintain alignment, especially during motion. Stability ensure the body can remain aligned and supported while you conduct different activities. Think leaning over to pick up a bag of shopping, or reaching up to put a mug away or stepping around that giant puddle on the ground!

An important thing to note is that strength doesn’t equal stability. Stability involves coordination and timing, including the neurological system, and not just pure muscular strength. Your body must recruit the right muscles, at the right time, in the right order. If we don’t have stability, flexible and mobile joints, especially shoulders and hips can become unstable and lead to injury or issues. Stability is also important in load bearing joints such as the ankle. Have you ever sprained an ankle and it just seems to keep getting re-injured? Stability could be your missing key!

In the clinic, your osteopath may look at where your body is lacking stability whether that be through the core, hips or breathing mechanics, treatment may help with neuromuscular control and when combined with at home exercises can help to improve stability and this overall function and confidence in movement. 

Tying them together 

Flexibility, mobility and stability don’t exist in isolation. They are interrelated and tie back to the osteopathic principle that structure and function are interrelated. When there is an issue with one area, other areas often suffer as well. Tight muscles may restrict joint movement, which can destabilise a movement or poor stability and control may lead to altered mobility through the hips which may cause muscle tightness.

Osteopathy utilises a whole-body approach to movement and function to help restore balance to flexibility, mobility and stability to help support your body in the long term.