London Health and Fitness

MOBILITY VS FLEXIBILITY —

You train for better strength, endurance, and cardio, but when was the last time you took the time to help your body move better? Mobility and flexibility can often be overlooked as they may not be as fun as other aspects of fitness. Lifting a barbell overhead or picking up clothes off the floor both rely on these two variables, so you shouldn’t lack either.

Sometimes used interchangeably, it’s important to know that mobility and flexibility aren’t the same, though they do share some similarities. Knowing the difference between them can help you better understand why they’re important and how you may be able to improve them.

What Is Mobility?
You probably hear it a lot: “work on your mobility.” Although it may not be as fun as throwing a heavy barbell around, mobility is essential to be able to move the barbell and your body properly. How well you’re able to move your body freely is defined as mobility. Or, more specifically; “mobility is the ability to take your body through a range of motion, before being restricted, with control,” or “Mobility is having strength within your flexibility.”

Why Is Mobility Important?
Mobility is beneficial in the gym, but it’s also beneficial when you throw a ball, walk up the stairs, and sit down and stand up from a chair.
Mobility is essential to our overall quality of life, especially as you get older. Your ability to move without restriction or pain means that we can comfortably perform daily activities and strength train. “If your body isn’t moving through its natural movement patterns, you’re setting yourself up for an injury (that would be prevented with a little focus on your mobility),”.

An estimated 59% of adults ages 60 years or older and 75% of adults 80 or older have mobility limitations when it comes to simple tasks like walking or climbing steps. (1) So, practicing mobility through regular physical activity can help reduce your risk of developing limitations now or as you get older.

What Is Flexibility?
When you think of flexibility, you may imagine someone doing a split. You might even be able to do one yourself or at one time had been able to do one.

“Flexibility refers to a connective tissue’s (muscles, ligaments, tendons) ability to temporarily elongate,”. Your connective tissues are like finger traps; the amount of material doesn’t actually change, you can’t lengthen it (it’s physically impossible to lengthen a muscle, because the ends are attached to the bones at a joint), but you can contract it.

Even if doing a split isn’t on your list of goals, maintaining flexibility in your connective tissue can help you avoid an injury in the gym. Hamstring injuries specifically are one of the most common injuries in sports, but having flexible hamstrings may put athletes like sprinters at a lower risk of a muscle strain.

Why Is Flexibility Important?
“Flexibility is also important because when your body is restricted by inflexibility, and you can’t move through your natural range of motion, pain can occur,”. That means that your everyday life activities like getting out of bed, sitting to use the toilet, bending down to get a book, or reaching for a cup in the kitchen cabinet can become more difficult.

Poor flexibility can affect your health as much as it can affect your movement. Poor posture, decreased blood flow, and limited supply of key nutrients to your joints are all associated with a lack of flexibility. (4) So, if you can’t touch your toes, it may be causing more issues than you think.

Differences Between Mobility & Flexibility?
Although related, mobility and flexibility aren’t one and the same.

Mobility Is Dynamic
Dynamic movement means your muscles are lengthening and shortening while the joints are also moving. Your muscles and joints work together to move your body through a range of motion, and practicing mobility can help you move better and easier. Think of when you’re doing arm circles. This commonly-used upper body warm-up uses the shoulder joint to rotate the arms and can help prime the arms and shoulders for an upper body day.

Flexibility Is Passive
Flexibility is passive, meaning it’s a person’s ability to move their connective tissue with the help of another person or tool, while their muscles passively allow the movement to happen. Typically your passive flexibility is greater than your active since there is an external force helping your muscles stretch. Think of an active chest stretch. You can stretch your chest muscles by holding your arms like a goal post and retracting your shoulder blades, but you can stretch them more by placing one arm on a wall and leaning forward.

Mobility Requires Strength
The biggest difference between mobility and flexibility is that in order to move a muscle through its range of motion with control (mobility), you need strength, which is why mobility is the better indication of how well and efficiently we move. Flexibility is one part of mobility. But strength, coordination, and body awareness are also elements at play.

Increasing your flexibility through stretching may help improve your blood circulation and decrease DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness).

Similarities.....
Even if mobility and flexibility aren’t synonymous, they do have things in common. If not practiced, you can lose both your mobility and your flexibility, potentially putting your body at a higher risk of pain, injury, and limited function. Old age is a common reason to lose either, but it can also be due to injury or lack of exercise. Hitting the weights and doing regular cardio can be beneficial for your overall health, but it’s also important for any kind of movement.

Whether you add mobility into your routine through an online video series, foam roller, or by focusing on dynamic warm-ups, what’s most important for improving mobility and flexibility is doing a little bit everyday. So, the next time you have five minutes to spare, stretch out and move your muscles. Your body will thank you.

I ruin lives, but in a positive way lol 💯🏆👏🏿🤴🏿✨️🦍

What are hip thrusts good for?

The hip thrust exercise targets the gluteus maximus, which is the biggest muscle in your body. It also activates the hamstrings, quadriceps, and adductors. Working on developing this muscle, can help to improve your overall lower body strength, size and power, through training hip extension.

FORM FAILURE VS BAD FORM IN EXERCISE

What is the difference between Form Failure and Bad Form???. Form Failure is different from Bad Form. Form failure: Proper form or technique for repetitions can no longer be maintained. Additional repetitions cannot be performed using proper form. Whereas "Bad" form means your ex*****on is either unsafe, inefficient, or both. Dangerous, right? Well, probably. This doesn't mean you'll get hurt, but it does increase the odds. And we now need to consider the safety concerns and risks/benefits involved with exercise, among other things.

When determining repetition maximum, form failure should be used. Training past form failure can cause joint and muscle injury and should never be attempted. Beginners should train to pre-failure or tempo failure, while focusing on maintaining proper form. Muscle failure causes Form failure.. you start off with great from, the longer you exhaust your muscles, your form starts giving out. For your form to fail, your muscles fails first and really you shouldn't keep pushing on a bad form. Because that's where injury happens.

When the athlete has reached initial failure (i.e. fails to perform a further repetition), rather than ending the current set, the exercise can be continued by making the exercise easier (switching to another similar exercise e.g. pull-ups to chin-ups, switching to another (correct) form of the same exercise, switching to lower weight) or by recruiting help (from a spotting partner or by involving another body part). The athlete may also choose to use the rest-pause method or other advanced techniques.

💯🙏🏿

Leg extensions are a key exercise in strengthening the patellar ligament and quadriceps attachment for the knee. This exercise focuses on strengthening the quad alone and, therefore, strengthens key attachments for the knee joint at the same time.

There is a common belief that leg extensions can be harmful for your knees. But in my opinion, it is a good exercise for people with knee problems as they are performed while seated, reducing the impact on the knee. However, it is advisable to reduce the weight load and focus on the squeeze instead. Also, if you are recovering from any leg injury, it is best to consult a doctor before embarking on this form of exercise.

LEVELLING UP ●●●

To build upper body muscle fast, you need 3 things: A killer, full upper body workout routine; proper nutrition, including protein and a slight calorie surplus; and the right recovery time in between your workouts. If you want your upper body muscles to grow, you have to subject them to the right stimuli. That means doing strength-training workouts, ideally twice a week, this is superior to once-weekly training for hypertrophy.

There are several mechanisms by which strength-training can prompt your muscles to grow larger and stronger. These include mechanical damage caused by challenging lifting sessions; metabolic fatigue, or working your muscles to the point they briefly run out of the fuel needed to contract; and maximizing the amount of time your muscles spend under tension. But just working out isn't enough: Your muscles get stronger as they rebuild during the rest periods between workouts, so always give each muscle group a full rest day before you work it again — more if you're still significantly sore.

Finally, your body needs a slight caloric surplus, all the nutrients from a healthy diet, and adequate protein to build muscle. A daily protein intake of 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kg of body weight is enough to maintain and build muscle mass. Once you have your nutrition, self-care and general lifting strategy worked out, what kind of exercises should you be doing?.

FIRST POST OF 2023 ● Accident almost happened at the end, why?. My Bar slipped and spotter almost lose focus. When you spot a buddy at the gym, you must stay focused until the lifter is done and out...

2022 Repetitions Complete‼️✨️

2023 Let's get it‼️📶✨️🏆
..And, of course the New Year Resolution folks officially kicks off 😵‍💫🤪🤯

Wishing you an incredible, happy, successful and a healthy New Year.

Spend time with people you love and have a fantastic 2023

London Health and Fitness

Let's burn some rubber

Finally after 5 months, I picked that thing off the ground 🙌🏿 lol‼️‼️‼️. 🦍🏆🤴🏿. Dreaming for better days, I be pleading 🥺 😌 🙏🏿🙏🏿📶✨️🆘️🤐

He said 15 reps??, we gonn give him 15 reps lol.

Let's us help you make your Health and Fitness Goals a reality ✨️🥇⛔️📶💯. Impossible is nothing.

CHALLENGED ● I have been in and around the fitness industry for about 20 years. I have trained with hitters, bodybuilders, gymnasts, runners, cardio freaks, fitness buffs and etc. But, I can categorically tell you that I've never been challenged like I did with this guy. Yes, I've worked out and feel, yeah‼️that felt good but I've never worked out with anyone and feel damn I feel the burn lol. But Blac»K«night Prince Agballah::.Vincent brought his A-game and it was worth it. Looking forward to see you lads soon. The hardest bloodline ever is 💯🤴🏿🦍🖤🏆🆘️📶🇬🇧.

Heavy Lifting season 💪🏿 🙌🏿, well, maybe not 10 plates hahahaha 😆 😜 😅 but still heavy nonetheless.

LEVELLING UP ●●●

To build upper body muscle fast, you need 3 things: A killer, full upper body workout routine; proper nutrition, including protein and a slight calorie surplus; and the right recovery time in between your workouts. If you want your upper body muscles to grow, you have to subject them to the right stimuli. That means doing strength-training workouts, ideally twice a week, because a November 2016 analysis published in the New Zealand journal Sports Medicine showed this to be superior to once-weekly training for hypertrophy.

There are several mechanisms by which strength-training can prompt your muscles to grow larger and stronger. These include mechanical damage caused by challenging lifting sessions; metabolic fatigue, or working your muscles to the point they briefly run out of the fuel needed to contract; and maximizing the amount of time your muscles spend under tension. But just working out isn't enough: Your muscles get stronger as they rebuild during the rest periods between workouts, so always give each muscle group a full rest day before you work it again — more if you're still significantly sore.

Finally, your body needs a slight caloric surplus, all the nutrients from a healthy diet, and adequate protein to build muscle. In a position stand released by the Intn'l Society of Sports Nutrition in 2017, they note that for most people, a daily protein intake of 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kg of body weight is enough to maintain and build muscle mass. Once you have your nutrition, self-care and general lifting strategy worked out, what kind of exercises should you be doing?.

Start with a list of upper body exercises, but don't be shy about mixing in different exercises every 2months or so. That'll maximize your gains as your body is forced to adapt to slightly different stimuli, and reduce your risk of overuse injuries too. Aim for 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions for each exercise, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As your muscles get stronger, you can always add more sets to maximize more gains.