News & Events

By Nima Nazemi, Business Development Coordinator, YWCA Saskatoon/Fitness on 25^th

Mobility refers to how well you can move, and how freely and efficiently. It’s basically the ability to move your entire body freely and correctly. It encompasses muscle strength, range of motion and endurance capacity. If you have great mobility, you are able to move functionally and efficiently with little to no restrictions or difficulty. It means having optimal range of motion. This doesn’t mean, however, greater flexibility, although flexibility is certainly an aspect of efficient mobility. Without mobility postural stability becomes compromised and so your body begins to move improperly, increasing your risk of pain and injury. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) separates mobility into two definitions: joint mobility and joint stability.

Joint Mobility: It is the range of uninhibited movement around a joint.

Joint stability: It is the ability to maintain and control joint movement or position.

Bad mobility not only means a higher injury risk, but it also means lower and inefficient performance levels during physical activity. This affects activities as light as walking to the mailbox to as intense as sport competitions. Bad mobility can even affect daily activities, such as cleaning, driving, and even showering if it’s serious enough.

There are many causes of bad mobility and the inability to move freely and without pain:

• Muscle imbalances;
• Muscle weakness;
• Tightness;
• Improper alignment and posture;
• An injury that is currently in rehabilitation or was not fully or properly rehabilitated.

YWCA Mobility Program: A Structured Approach

At YWCA Saskatoon, we acknowledge mobility as one of the main components of fitness and better well-being. We offer in-house mobility classes in the evening of Tuesdays and Thursdays using a structured approach which allows participants to focus on one area of the body for one month in order to maximise benefits from doing mobility exercises and drills. Along side in-house classes, we upload an instructive video for each class which gives you the opportunity to still take advantage from the exercises even if you can’t make it to the class.

Our unique approach towards mobility classes would offer a structured pathway to maximize both joint mobility and joint stability. Each month we focus on one particular joint/area of the body. In the first class of the month, we test mobility quantitively and/or qualitatively in that area. In all other classes of the month we teach exercises and drills using different techniques to maximize mobility in that area. The last class of the month would focus on re-testing mobility in that area so participants would be able to evaluate their progress.

IMPORTANT: You can’t expect to have your mobility improved by a few times doing mobility drills. Mobility exercises and drills must be done regularly to show results. That being said, we recommend you to participate to our in-house mobility classes (or watch our mobility videos) regularly to get the result you look for.

YWCA Mobility Program: 2021 Schedule

• January: Hips
• February: Lumbar Spine and Thoracic Spine
• March: Shoulders
• April: Knees and Ankles
• May: Elbows and Wrists
• June: Review
• July: Hips
• August: Lumbar Spine and Thoracic Spine
• September: Shoulders
• October: Knees and Ankles
• November: Elbows and Wrists
• December: Review