Mobility or Strength?

I had to ask this question to myself today as I was training with a new athlete. We where showing the front squat and had him do a few reps, and saw instantly that his ankles and knees caved. For most in the strength and conditioning sector you would start thinking of what is really going on. Mobility or strength? So does the ankle need strength or more range of motion, do the hips need more range of motion or do they need to be stronger? That is the main question. Let me break it down as easy as I can.
You need to know that the body is made up of many joints stacked on top of each other, starting at the bottom with the ankle joint going all the way to the shoulder and cervical spine. Starting at the bottom we will look at the Ankle, Knee, and Hip.

Ankle- inherently the ankle needs to have more range of motion than most people think. The ankle is a very complex joint that needs to be able to move around to give the force production, the force absorption, and the mobility for daily activity. Many think that strength is needed because someone rolled an ankle, more time than not mobility is needed in the joint because it is not moving correctly. The use of incorrect shoes, having flat feet, or having a structural issue can be reasons for not moving correctly.


Knee- The knee joint is the total opposite, the knee is meant to be stable, and most know this if they have torn any ligament or cartilage in their knees. The ACL, LCL, PCL, are all ligaments that help to stabilize the knee joint, yet they are only strong enough to hold so much. Know this is where it gets tricky, the ligaments are strong enough to hold great amounts of force, but when other joints are not in alignment ( ankle, hip ) they cause unwanted and forces that the ligaments in the knee where not made to handle. There are great strength programs for the knee, strengthening the VMO, and other things, yet this is not the key to stability. You always need to look at the joints above (hips) and below (ankle) for the answer. If your knees cave in like my new athlete, check the hip and the ankle and you will find your answer.



Hip- The hips are meant to be mobile, most of the time the hips are not mobile enough for everyday movement or correct movement. However not having correct muscle activation can cause incorrect movement. In the case of the hip in my new athlete he has sub par glute medius strength, how do I know this? I tested it :). We will show a video next post on this. This muscle has been over looked in many things, it is responsible for helping keep the hip in correct alignment for better positioning. When this muscle is not working correctly, the knees could turn in like my new athlete.


All this too say that if you test your athletes right when you start training you can see these things and train to correct them before they get out of hand. Next post we will talk about testing the athlete and what to do, and I will record him so you can see what I am talking about.