Are your major joints functioning well?

A representation of our major joints in the upper part of our body

Konnichiwa

Let's talk about the difference between flexibility, mobility & stability and which ones are needed to help our 7 major joints function.

We all want to be flexible right? but what does it actually mean? Simply put flexibility is about your muscles and muscle groups being able to move, without contracting, through an unrestricted range of motion. Quick example, your shoulder. As you’re reading this try to move your shoulder in as many directions as possible. How’s your range of motion?

Mobility has got to do with your joints and whether or not they're able to move due to the contracting and relaxing of muscles and tissues around them, through a range of motion. Like your finger joints or your elbows. Not so fun fact, if your joints can move quite well but you’re still experiencing pain, that’s considered bad mobility. Good mobility = pain free.

Stability is about your body's ability to return to a certain position or state after it has been disturbed or thrown off. The important part is whether or not it can maintain that equilibrium.

So, what do your major joints need?

Starting off with the wrists. Because we use them in our every day activities, they need to be supple and flexy (flexibility) and they need to be able to return to their original position after use (stability) like when you hi 5 someone. Quick tip on how to prepare your wrists to be able to function well: Put pressure and weight on your wrists in all directions. Start of light and as they get stronger you can increase the load. 

Moving up to your elbows. This is a hinge joint that is extremely prone to injury so it requires a lot of stability. When the muscles around your elbow are stiff and tight they negatively impact your joint’s range of motion so in order for this joint to function well you need to loosen and tune the muscles of your arm but more importantly the muscles surrounding your shoulder blade as that will then have a trickle down effect. Because the muscles in your lower and upper arms are linked to your elbow, if you do shoulder or wrist exercises after you tune those will help strengthen your elbow too. 

Next we have our beloved shoulder which is supposed to be the most mobile joint of your body but because of the stressful world we live in this, unfortunately, may not be the case. Your shoulders require a lot of tlc. They have to move around in all kinds of directions so they need mobility and because they do all that moving and have so much attached to them they need to be really stable (stability). Flexibility does come in to play with your shoulders but it’s more so needed in the major muscle groups around them like your pecs and lats. A great way to prepare your shoulders to function well is by loosening those big muscle groups. Once you’ve loosened and tuned your muscles and you’re looking to strengthen your shoulders resistance exercises are great as well as hanging. Plain ol’ passive hanging.

We now get to our poor poor spine that’s probably hunched over day in and day out. Your spine is quite literally the backbone of your body and like your shoulders your environment plays a big role in whether it functions well or not. When you’re stressed out and tense so are your muscles which causes you to lack mobility - mobility is something your spines desperately needs. When it comes to your spine, flexibility and mobility go hand in hand. A good example is the cat cow that’s done in yoga. So how can you achieve ultimate spinal flexibility and mobility? Look for what your spine is attached to and tune those areas. So that will be your pelvis, your ribcage and your head (see the image above for a visual representation). Effective tuning methods would be the pelvis walk, tuning your pelvic floor, massaging in between your ribs, loosening your diaphragm and tuning your upper back.

Now if you go all the way down your spine and look on either side of your pelvis you’ll find your hips. As we’ve heard in the bone song “the thigh bones connected to the hip bone” which creates the hip joint. It’s a beautiful ball and socket joint that moves around a lot. When something moves around a lot it needs to be mobile so it requires mobility. With mobile hips comes the need for flexibility. Your hips go through a lot. They basically carry the weight of your whole upper body. Thank goodness for your pelvis which cradles everything so nicely. There’s a lot you need to do for your hips because if your hip joints can’t move properly the rest of your body is NOT moving properly either. What you should do every day is the pelvis walk. If you’re having trouble with this movement try loosening the muscles around the joint first and then go and do all the exercises I recommended previously for your spine. Contrary to popular belief your hip joints aren’t used to just open and close your legs. You use them when you sit down, stand up and walk by lifting your legs forward and kicking back so regular hip tuning is extremely vital. 

If you’ve been experiencing hip pain and nothing has been helping schedule yourself a private session and I’m personally going to help you work through that pain so you can feel better, move better and live better (use code PVT20 to get 20% off your first private session).

Speaking of all that movement, how are your knees feeling? If they’re feeling a little temperamental they’re probably lacking stability which is what your knees crave. It turns out they’re the most vulnerable joint of your lower body. How often have you been walking and your knees just buckle or you’re sitting and you can’t stand up because your knees are like uh uh, I’m tired, not today… well, same. Just like your elbows, loosening and tuning the muscles around your knees will make it so much easier for you to be able to stabilise them. Those areas would be your hips and ankles. You can do an ITB massage & release, tune your ankles, tune your toes (I love this one), you can also practice balancing on one leg and doing calf raises.

If you’ve made it this far then kudos to you because you’ve ingested a lot of information but you’ve finally made it to your final major joint, your ankle. If you’re sitting there thinking “-sigh- my ankles just give in all the time” you’re not alone, especially if you’re hyper mobile. Just like your wrists, your ankles need both flexibility and stability but unlike your wrists your ankles are supporting the weight of your whole entire body so every time you walk or run you’re putting immense pressure on the joints. That’s right joints with an ‘s’. Your ankles are superstars and there’s actually a lot that you can do to help them perform well: toe tuning, tendon massages, instep massages, calf massages and practicing your flexion and extension. Once you’ve done all that, just like your wrists, you can gradually start increasing the load on your joint in all directions. 

If you’d like me to break this down for you in person or personalise it to fit your body’s specific needs, schedule yourself a consultation or private session where we can move at your pace and l’ll share all my body tuning secrets with you! (As many secrets as I can fit into an hour)