Static stretching vs. mobility work.

I'm trying to improve mobility/flexibility (Honestly, I'm unsure of the difference, if there is one) and I'm not satisfied with the mobility work I'm doing during Foundation One to get there. It helps, but I'd like to do more. Would I be better off doing a static stretching program, or adding in more mobility sets outside of my usual Foundation work? If the former, what program would you guys recommend?

Pretty much all of me needs the work, but if I had to pick one priority at the moment it'd be the full squat position that I'd most like to achieve. But even just with F1 I also need to work on the spine (Cat Cow, mostly the down position), hips (Swivel Hips) and compression(?) (Tuck-Ups need work there).

As far as I understand it:

Mobility: active range of motion, think of a straddle up (MN:PE 2). You need the strength + flexibility.

Flexibility: passive range of motion, using the above example, being able to sit in a pancake.

Supplementary stretching is recommended, I'm currently working heavily on my hamstring, abductors and hips as this is where I'm most tight and what's holding me back in my training. For increasing your flexibility Google PNF, it's a type of stretching where you use contracting and relaxing of the muscles to extend your current ROM and gain strength. The foundation series is actually amazing for increasing your mobility and there is a stretch course on the way.

Edit: spelling

Murray Truelove said:

As far as I understand it:

Mobility: active range of motion, think of a straddle up (MN:PE 2). You need the strength + flexibility.

Flexibility: passive range of motion, using the above example, being able to sit in a pancake.

Supplementary stretching is recommended, I'm currently working heavily on my hamstring, abductors and hips as this is where I'm most tight and what's holding me back in my training. For increasing your flexibility Google PNF, it's a type of stretching where you use contracting and relaxing of the muscles to extend your current ROM and gain strength. The foundation series is actually amazing for increasing your mobility and there is a stretch course on the way.

Edit: spelling

EXCELLENT REPLY

Mobility = The range of movement in a joint

Flexibility= The length (or elasticity) of a muscle.

Although there are separate, they work together.  If a muscle is short or tight (lack of flexibility) it can decrease the range of movement in a joint (mobility).  Both are needed.  You can use static stretching as a tool to increase your range of movement.

In those cases I promote seminars, there are some details that cannot be discussed in the course, seminar it's the opportunity to fix it and know how much you need to push a mobility element. in my opinion what showed in the courses it's a minimum. the real impressive benefit it's strive to work more and more and not achieve the least!

As much as I'd love to go, I can't afford a seminar. Still, I've been working on my mobility in the two months since this was originally posted. I haven't made much progress honestly, but I have definitely made concrete gains. I'm doing deck squats from a lower surface and getting a little closer on HS/PE1. I've also discovered just yesterday that my shoulders respond really well to 10+ minutes of doing holds of said mobility exercise; over 15 minutes I got from barely holding the edges of a 40-inch bar for 10 seconds to holding it with my whole hands for 60 seconds, hands 34 inches apart. So I'm going to try doing that as often as possible, maybe even doing longer sessions once in a while. Hopefully I'll keep some of the improvements I realise during a session.

Salivanth said:

As much as I'd love to go, I can't afford a seminar. Still, I've been working on my mobility in the two months since this was originally posted. I haven't made much progress honestly, but I have definitely made concrete gains. I'm doing deck squats from a lower surface and getting a little closer on HS/PE1. I've also discovered just yesterday that my shoulders respond really well to 10+ minutes of doing holds of said mobility exercise; over 15 minutes I got from barely holding the edges of a 40-inch bar for 10 seconds to holding it with my whole hands for 60 seconds, hands 34 inches apart. So I'm going to try doing that as often as possible, maybe even doing longer sessions once in a while. Hopefully I'll keep some of the improvements I realise during a session.

Monitor how you feel today and tomorrow. You need to consider as frequency of sessions goes up, intensity needs to come down to manage your fatigue. High frequency works well for strength and mobility training, but the amount of work for each session needs to reflect how many sessions are completed for a given time period. If both work & frequency remain high you will eventually break. I feel frequency is more important than trying to reach much improvement in one session. You will be responsible for listening to your body, everyone has a different response to the sum of both these factors.

alex87 said:

In those cases I promote seminars, there are some details that cannot be discussed in the course, seminar it's the opportunity to fix it and know how much you need to push a mobility element. in my opinion what showed in the courses it's a minimum. the real impressive benefit it's strive to work more and more and not achieve the least!

Alex, I'm glad you responded. Coach has said you've written a lot on this subject and I would like to read your posts. New to navigating this site, how do I locate them as they relate to this subject.

A great place to start for general mobility is looking at Kelly Starrett's Videos.  Focus on improving your squat, mobilizing your T-spine and overhead shoulder extension. 

Working on the wall squat with overhead extension is a great overall indicator of the above.

Now while you wont see a lot of gymnasts doing this stuff, if you can pull off the above with toes almost touching the wall, you should have great all round mobility and ready to tackle some harder stuff.

Kelly Starrett has some great material for sure. I've seen Pavel use the same exercise in a few earlier DVD's and books.