CrossFit Mobility 101: Three Common Mobility Mistakes

CrossFit challenges an athlete’s mobility more than almost any other recreational activity. Movements like overhead squats and toes-to-bars take our joints and muscles through their full ranges of motion, and any mobility limitations will rob athletes of performance.

As the CrossFit community has become more aware of mobility’s impact in the gym, it has become commonplace to see gyms give attention to optimizing mobility. But far too often, athletes make these common mistakes when they try to improve their mobility. Avoid these three mobility mistakes and make more progress.

Not Testing to Find Specific Limitations

The biggest mistake when attempting to improve mobility is not isolating the specific areas limiting a movement pattern’s improvement. Take the squat as an example. An athlete needs good hip, knee, and ankle mobility to squat to depth. But if one of those areas is limited, the others will often pick up the slack.

A common squat compensation is an athlete with stiff ankles leaning their torso forward more as they squat down. They use more hip mobility to try to compensate for their ankles. The problem is that their hips often feel tight as they squat, leading to the athlete working on their hip mobility. However, this won’t impact performance because it does not address the actual issue of ankle stiffness.

To improve your mobility, test the different muscles and joints that could be your limiting factor. Here are a few mobility test resources:

• Dissecting the Squat 
• Rack it Right 
• Analyzing the Handstand Position
• Mobility Checklist 

Not Using the Right Mobility Techniques

After assessing your mobility and determining your limitations, the next step is unlocking those stiff joints and muscles. Many CrossFit athletes spend too much time on foam rollers and other soft tissue tools.

While foam rolling may temporarily increase the range of motion muscles and joints can move through, research shows those improvements don’t last very long. Foam rolling effects also happen relatively quickly, so spending any more than a minute on target muscles is overkill.

Research shows that 5 to 10 minutes of weekly static stretching per muscle group is the sweet spot for improving mobility. Spreading that time out over multiple days per week is better than less frequent stretching.

Not Using Heavy Lifts to Improve Mobility

It is essential to recognize that stretching alone doesn’t necessarily mean the movement patterns we are trying to change will improve. Many of us have seen incredibly flexible athletes who struggle with fundamental movements like an air squat to depth.

So when working on improving mobility, a three-step process seems to provide the most significant return on your mobility work:

1. Short bouts of foam rolling (optional)
2. Static stretching to improve joint and muscle range of motion
3. Loaded movements to utilize the new range of motion into functional movements

An example of a mobility routine for an athlete struggling with ankle stiffness limiting their squat depth might look like this:

• 30 seconds of foam rolling calves per side
• 2 x 1-minute banded ankle mobilization
• 2 x 15 goblet squats with a 3-second lower

The first two exercises focus on increasing the range of motion. The goblet squat has a slow tempo to allow the athlete to work on their squat technique at a slow speed, giving them more time to implement the cues their coach has given them for their squat.

Since the above mobility routine focuses so much on active motion, it could be incorporated as part of the athlete’s warm-up before a squat strength day to improve positioning before the day’s workout.

Conclusion

Improving mobility is critical to enhancing performance and preventing injuries in CrossFit. While focusing on mobility is becoming more common in gyms, avoiding common mistakes like failing to assess specific limitations, relying too much on passive techniques like foam rolling, and neglecting to incorporate strength work can hinder progress. By carefully identifying your mobility restrictions, using effective stretching techniques, and integrating loaded movements into your training, you can make faster improvements in your mobility.

About the Author

Zach Long is a Doctor of Physical Therapy at Onward Physical Therapy, the founder of TheBarbellPhysio.com, and co-founder of PerformancePlusProgramming.com. He specializes in mobility, strength, and prehab programming for fitness athletes. He is passionate about helping athletes optimize performance and prevent injury through evidence-based strategies and expert coaching.