As you get older, you might notice your shoulders, knees, and hips don’t move quite like they used to. Once upon a time, you could bring your knee to your chest. Now you’re lucky if you get it halfway there. Your range of motion can decrease for many reasons.
Or perhaps you’ve gotten injured and you realize you’re not able to move the same way you could before. These issues come down to your range of motion, something physical therapist orthopedists, and even personal trainers address on a daily basis. Here’s what you need to know about the range of motion, plus some ways you can start to improve it.
What Is Range Of Motion?
Range of motion is how much and to what extent joint moves, explains Michael Goldstein, a physical therapist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. He says the range of motion for any joint is determined by the limitations of the joint itself as well as the soft tissue structures around the joint, such as muscles and ligaments. Sometimes people confuse flexibility with the range of motion or use the terms interchangeably. They’re related, but they’re not the same thing. Flexibility refers specifically to the ability of muscle, tendon, and connective tissue to lengthen or elongate through a movement, according to Ryan Tibbetts, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at Texas Orthopedics in Austin. Stretching and flexibility play an important role in improving the movement.
Passive VS. Active Range Of Motion
There are two main types of range of motion: passive and active.
Most of the motions you make on a day-to-day basis are active.
Active
Think of this as the movements you make. Active range of motion is when you use the muscles surrounding a joint to exclusively power movement of the joint. An example of this would be a person actively raising their arm above their head.
Passive
Consider this assisted movement. Your body isn’t actively moving the muscles; you have help.
“Passive range of motion is when the power to move the joint comes exclusively from an external source, such as when a therapist moves a joint during treatment. In other words, if you let your arm go limp and someone else raises your arm above your head for you that would be a passive movement.
Active-Assist Range Of Motion
Though the active and passive are the primary types, there’s also a third type known as active-assist range of motion.
This is when the movement of the joint is partially powered by an external source and partly by the body’s own muscles. For example, if you lift your arm and another person is guiding your arm up while applying some gentle force at the same time that would be an active-assist movement.
Another example: If you use a resistance strap to help you stretch your hamstrings that are also active-assist.
Why You Need To Preserve Your Range
Range of motion plays an important role in various functional tasks, including reaching overhead, negotiating stairs, and rising from low chairs. Basically, when your movement becomes limited in joints you use frequently—like your hips, knees, shoulders, elbows, and so on—it’s harder to do everyday activities.
Limitations can also cause compensatory movement patterns that put increased stress on other joints, which can lead to injury.
Even if your movement isn’t limited, it’s still worth knowing about, particularly if you’re an active person.
So touching your back knee to the ground during a lunge (full range of motion) will produce better results than doing lunges where you don’t go as deep (partial range of motion).
Causes Of Reduced Range Of Motion
You know the range of motion is important. But how do you get stuck with a reduced movement? There are quite a few ways it can happen:
Aging
As we age, we lose some elasticity in our soft tissue structures, which can contribute to decreased ease of movement.
Reduced Movement
Lack of movement and poor postural positioning can cause you to lose range, in other words, if you don’t use it, you lose it.”
Injury And Medical Conditions
Other medical conditions that can cause reduced range of motion include fractures (broken bones), muscular injuries, ankylosing spondylitis (an inflammatory spine disease), and skeletal abnormalities.
Rheumatoid arthritis may also cause reduced ease of movement in the affected joints.
Areas Affected By Range Of Motion Problems
Joints most commonly affected by reduced range of motion are those impacted by sitting: the joints in the neck, upper back, shoulders, hips, and low back.
“This is common due to adaptive posture that we develop from prolonged sitting at a computer or having our head flexed and looking down at our phones. These postures can contribute to upper back tightness and poor ability to extend into an upright position. This can also impact your shoulder movement, limiting your ability to reach overhead or behind your back.
Knees, elbows, wrists, and ankles may also be affected, but this is more likely to be the result of injury or a medical condition.
How To Spot Reduced Range Of Motion
It’s worth noting there is a range of what’s “normal” for each joint, there can be quite a bit of variability from person to person too.
Looking for a quicker answer? One way to check if a part of your body is experiencing a reduced range of motion is to compare it with the other side.
Joints should have a symmetric movement. So the right knee and left knee should have similar ranges of motion.
How To Improve Range Of Motion
There are a few key ways you can work to improve your movement on your own.
If you’re not seeing progress on your own or want personalized advice and exercises, getting the help of a professional, such as a massage therapist, is a good idea.
Stretch Daily
The best way to improve this is with consistent stretching. If you think about how much time we spend sitting in chairs or on the couch, a daily effort is needed, ideally, to counteract this.
Her advice: pick a consistent time during the day to stretch, like when you first get out of bed.
Stretches can be targeted to the the area you specifically want to improve, so you might stretch your hips, shoulders, or neck.
Stay Active
Active movement is key to bettering your range of motion.
“It’s important to follow stretching up with an active motion to maintain the improvements made from a stretching exercise,” he explains.
For instance, you might stretch your rotator cuff muscles with a doorway stretch, then follow it up with an exercise that engages those muscles, such as a reverse fly with a resistance band or light dumbbells.
If you’re working on hip range of motion, you might stretch your hamstrings (for example, by touching your toes) and glutes (for example, doing a figure-four stretch), then perform squats.
Reduce Stress
“Stress causes knots, tightness, and muscle tension. It may be easier said than done, but doing what you can to keep stress at a minimum can help.
One potential strategy for de-stressing? Deep tissue massage, which can be a great follow-up to exercise and has some surprising benefits.
Call Hands On Approach
Contact us to begin your journey with us. We can help you reduce stress with a massage. If you love our work and want to learn how to help others the way we have helped you, look at our massage school options.