The first two are obvious and the third is my pet peeve!
NOT DOING IT
This is likely too obvious, but seriously how many people do some sort of mobility every day? Almost no one. Even though I preach and preach working on your range of motion there are still days where I don’t make the time to work on my tight areas. Mobility is truly an area where doing something at all is much much better than doing nothing. Don’t think “I would only stretch for three minutes so what is even the point.” Those three minutes each day will have a massive compounding effect compared to doing nothing everyday.
NOT DOING IT FOR LONG ENOUGH
Tied to the easy mistake of not doing any mobility is not doing it for long enough. Yes, like I said doing it at all is going to be much much better than doing nothing. But if you want true change in a joint’s range of motion most research shows you need to hold the stretch for at least two minutes. One of the biggest reasons for this is the amount of time it takes to relax fully into the stretch.
MAKING IT BORING
Mobility doesn’t have to be boring! I promise! No, for real, it doesn’t have to be boring. Most of the mobility our athletes do leads them to breaking out in a sweat. It is hard work that takes focus. We incorporate these drills and variations into our workouts just like other exercises. One simple method for making it more engaging is resisting the stretch you are practicing and then relaxing into a deeper stretch afterwards. Try doing a few reps of this with each joint/muscle you are focusing on.
