How to Self-Assess Your Mobility to Help Avoid Injuries
Is your body moving the way it should? Many people don’t realize the importance of mobility training until stiffness or injury limits their ability to move freely. By the time discomfort sets in, it’s often too late to prevent long-term damage. But with proactive mobility training and self-assessment, you can catch these issues early and protect your joint health. This article offers a step-by-step guide to identifying mobility limitations, helping you improve your range of motion and prevent injuries before they happen.
By understanding your mobility limitations, you can address them and prevent injury down the road. Below, we’ll cover a comprehensive self-assessment for mobility, along with targeted mobility tests for key joints like your neck, shoulders, spine, hips, and ankles.
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The Importance of Mobility Training
Mobility training isn’t just for athletes or those recovering from injuries. It’s crucial for anyone who wants to move better, avoid injuries, and stay active. Mobility involves the ability of your muscles and joints to move through their full range of motion efficiently and without restriction. If mobility is compromised, you’re more likely to experience stiffness, pain, and even injury during everyday activities or workouts.
By incorporating regular mobility exercises into your fitness routine, you can improve your posture, enhance joint health, and prevent long-term issues like arthritis or chronic pain. The best way to start? A simple Self-assessment for mobility to determine where your mobility is lacking.
Mobility Tests for the Beginners
Starting on your mobility journey begins with understanding your current range of motion. These straightforward mobility tests will help you assess key areas of your body, providing valuable insights into your mobility limitations and guiding you toward targeted improvements.
Global Mobility Test: The Overhead Squat
The first test you can perform is the overhead squat, which gives you a snapshot of your overall mobility. Here’s how to do it:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Raise your arms overhead, extending them as far as you can.
- Keeping your arms overhead, squat down as low as possible while maintaining balance.
Ideally, you should be able to squat until parallel while keeping your arms aligned with your torso. If you find that your arms fall forward or you struggle to maintain a straight line from your hands to your hips, this is a clear sign that you need Mobility training.
The overhead squat assesses multiple joints simultaneously, including your shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles. It’s a great way to get a quick understanding of your global mobility. If you notice limitations, Mobility exercises are essential to restore proper movement and avoid injury.
Neck Mobility: Cervical Extension Test
Next, we’ll break down joint mobility, starting with the neck. Cervical extension, or the ability to tilt your head back, is one of the first ranges of motion that desk workers tend to lose. Poor neck mobility can lead to headaches, neck pain, and tension in the upper back.
To test your neck mobility:
- Stand or sit upright and slowly tilt your head back, looking up toward the ceiling.
- Ideally, your head should tilt back to a parallel position with the ceiling or floor.
If you can’t reach that range, or if you feel tightness or discomfort, it’s a sign that you need to work on your neck mobility. Desk work and prolonged sitting can cause stiffness in this area, but with proper mobility exercises, you can restore range of motion and reduce pain.
Shoulder Mobility: Shoulder Flexion Test
For shoulder mobility, we focus on shoulder flexion—the ability to lift your arms overhead without compensating through your spine. Shoulder mobility is crucial for many upper body movements, including lifting, pressing, and daily activities like reaching.
To test shoulder flexion:
- Stand with your arms at your sides and thumbs pointing forward.
- Slowly raise your arms overhead, aiming to keep your ribs down and spine neutral.
- You should be able to create a straight line from your hands down to your feet.
If you find that your arms fall short of this straight line, or if you compensate by arching your back, you may have shoulder mobility restrictions. Mobility training can help correct this imbalance, improve your posture, and prevent shoulder injuries.
Spinal Mobility: Thoracic Rotation Test
Hip Mobility: Hip Flexion Test
Ankle Mobility: Ankle Dorsiflexion Test
