If the strongest people in the world are stretching...

I heard Coach Sommer say something along the lines of: "if the strongest people in the world are stretching their asses off, then why aren't you?", I think it was on the Tim Ferriss show. I believe it was referring to olympic lifters?

My questions is: How does mobility translate into strength? I get that it's impossible to display strength if you can't move in a range of motion, and so if I were a kickboxer, it would be important to have the mobility for high kicks, so I can safely practice kicking faster/harder.

..But I have never heard of any power-lifters or strongmen doing "hard" stretching or advanced mobility work, Could they benefit from increased mobility?

 

Mobility is the combination of flexibility and strength, you can be very flexible but weak (people that only do passive stretching) or strong but very inflexible (people that only apply strength in a short Range Of Motion). If a powerlifter adds mobility to the workout can apply more strength in a wider ROM, but the thing is they don't do wide movements so they don't use mobility at all.

The strength of muscles is proportional to its resting length. the more a muscle shows a restriction in the resting length the less the strength it can shows. also is necessary understanding that the strength is exerted through specific direction and kinematics patterns. if you exert strength on a bad motor schema that can be altered by tissue restriction, then the performance will never be the best effort, NEVER.