Mobility vs Stability: Bellingham’s Full Body Approach to Health, Wellness, and Physical Therapy
Mobility is simply the freedom to move through full range of motion. Stability is both strength and motor control. Most who do a lot of strengthening and have full range of motion but still struggle with pain often have motor control deficits or an inability to move optimally and control that motion through full range.
A balance of both joint mobility and stability are important for preventing injury, however, the specific needs for each joint can vary. Generally, joints that are more mobile require greater stability and vice versa. Individual needs can vary based on the activity of choice and natural connective tissue elasticity. It goes both ways on the extreme ends of the spectrum…for example, some are hypermobile in general and need global stability. A gymnast is going to have different needs than a dancer, or a crossfit athlete, or a mountain biker, or a pickleball player…and so on. While individual needs can vary, clinically there are some general truths that apply to most. The body has joints that tend toward stability and therefore we need to work to keep them mobile, while the next joint above or below typically tends toward the opposite, more mobile, and we need to work to maintain muscular support. Below is a list of what joints typically benefit from working on with corrective exercises:
Foot - Stability
Ankle - Mobility
Knee - Stability
Hip - Both
Lumbar Spine - Stability
Thoracic Spine - Mobility
Scapula - Stability
Shoulder - Both
Lower & Middle Cervical Spine - Stability
Upper Cervical Spine - Mobility
This isn’t always the case and a thorough evaluation is important to ensure you're giving your body the correct approach, but as a generalization there’s truth to this. At Empower Physical Therapy we treat the whole person as the site of pain is often not the source of pain. All the time we see stiffness in the ankle lead to knee pain, or stiffness in the hips lead to low back pain, or stiffness in the upper back lead to neck, shoulder, or low back pain. Motor control deficits in the foot and hip can cause foot, knee, hip, and low back pain. The area of pain is almost always treated, but we’ll take it a step further and address all of the possible connections to your pain experience. If you’re interested in getting out of pain for good and optimizing your movement, we’d be happy to help!
