{"id":15476,"date":"2025-06-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scienceinsport.com\/sports-nutrition\/?p=15476"},"modified":"2025-06-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T00:00:00","slug":"why-mobility-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scienceinsport.com\/sports-nutrition\/why-mobility-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mobility Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

A warm-up is an essential part of any workout, preparing your body for exercise or activity and can make a huge difference in your body’s efficiency, performance and results. However, warming up should be more than a few stretches before you get stuck into the main action. A comprehensive pre-workout mobility exercise routine will help prepare your muscles for movement and improve your range of motion, meaning you can get more out of your exercise or activity. A warm up is also vital for injury prevention.<\/p>\n

Why Do We Warm-up?<\/h2>\n

The clue is in the name. A warm-up will gently raise your body temperature so that your blood can flow more freely to your muscles. You can achieve this with some light cardiovascular activity in combination with some mobility exercises. These combined gentle forms of exercise will increase your body temperature just enough to get your heart pumping and loosen up your muscles and should not feel strenuous<\/p>\n

After doing some mobility and light cardiovascular work to get warm, you may want to add some stretching. Stretching does not suit all people pre-exercise but if you do like to stretch pre-exercise focus more on dynamic movements and make sure you\u2019re adequately warm as stretching a cold muscle can lead to damane. Static stretching is more advisable after you work out when your body temperature is already quite high, and you need to rest and cool down.<\/p>\n

Dynamic Pre-Workout Mobility<\/h2>\n

A good warm-up should prepare you for the exercise you\u2019re about to undertake. To do this you need to replicate many of the movements which form part of your main workout or activity to get your joints, muscles and nervous system ready. This helps to improve flexibility and reduces the risk of injury.<\/p>\n

Rotations<\/h2>\n

There are a wide range of warm up mobility exercises to choose from. Your chosen type of warm up will largely depend on the type of training or activity you are planning to do, and there is also a large element of personal preference. You will know what works best for your body and what helps you to feel fit and ready for exercise!<\/span><\/p>\n

A common movement in most pre workout mobility sessions is rotations, particular of 3 key joints and body parts:<\/span><\/p>\n