A comment I received a few times on my recent video about training mobility was that you don’t need mobility drills if you’re weight training with full range of motion. You’ll be able to touch your toes if you do deadlift and you’ll be able to deep squat if you train squats.
Job done.
While weighted stretching can be effective and both those statements CAN be true; I completely disagree with the broader claim that you don’t need mobility training at all. Here’s why.
Firstly: if you do a heavy back squat this still doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to get into a deep resting squat with heels flat unless you’re training ass to grass AND you’re wearing flat shoes that don’t shorten your calves.
Likewise, you’ll only gain full mobility from deadlifts if you’re doing very deep RDLs or straight legged deadlifts.
Even if you’re doing both those things, most people won’t get full overhead mobility from weightlifting alone. The only bodybuilding/powerlifting adjacent exercises that can with this are pullover variations – making sure to go deep without flaring the rib cage.
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Probably not part of your current strength training routine.
Okay, we’ll just add that then. How about hip abduction and rotation? You can get that nicely with sumo squats.
Were you already doing those…?
What about forward splits? Well for that you’re going to want something like an ATG split squat.
That’s is now a lot of specific exercises that probably weren’t already in your routine that you’re having to add in. And because they’re at these extreme ranges of motion, you’re going to need to perform them with lighter weight. This is now adding a lot of extra time and effort to your routine and undoubtedly taking away from your main strength and hypertrophy goals. You’ll be exhausted before you’ve even done one working set of bench press.
OR you could just do a 5 minute mobility routine at the end of your workout or on your rest days.
And even with that elaborated weighted-stretching routine, we still haven’t done anything to address hip internal rotation, thoracic extension and rotation… There are very few traditional lifts I can think of that will target those things.
So, while weightlifting is brilliant, it is mistaken to claim that it can handle every aspect of your fitness. People who say otherwise just REALLY don’t want to stretch.
It’s not that bad, guys.
