The Fitness Pyramid? Try the Fitness Circle Instead.

Maybe you’ve seen that pyramid chart- the one that has mobility on the bottom, stability in the middle, and strength on the top? 

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That chart has a place. It’s important to develop stability and mobility before you go hitting after those big strength goals, no argument there. But can we add some nuance to this conversation? 

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I’m having more and more conversations with clients who think they need to leave mobility behind to get strength, or that the stronger they get the less mobile they’ll be, or that stability work is “easy beginner” stuff they will eventually move beyond. All of this is straight up WRONG. 

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A more accurate chart puts these three elements of your training on an equal playing field, contributing horizontally one to the other in a dynamic cross-current at ALL points in your training timeline. 

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🎈Stability = Mobility. An unstable joint has less range of motion and more muscular inhibition than a stable one.

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🎈Mobility = Strength. It takes building tons of muscular strength to move actively through your end range, as any contortionist will tell you 🤣.

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🎈Stability = Strength. Just like an unstable joint doesn’t access its full mobility, it doesn’t access its full strength either. This has to do with certain muscles getting overstretched and weakened in unstable joints, while others get adaptively shortened and rigid. Neither are a great recipe for using your strength to its full effect. 

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The over-under? You never get to a magical land where you leave any of these training elements behind. Even as you start working on bigger strength goals, it’s important to keep working on refining your stability and mobility goals just as much. If you’re a mobility focused human, great! Strengthening and stabilizing are a big part of accessing that. The good news is, no matter what you’re doing, all three of these elements are involved- secretly you’re always practicing all three. It’s all a matter of your focus. That 300 pound deadlift is just as much a mobility exercise as that oversplit is a strength one. 

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What do you think? Are you going to play with re-framing your relationship to strength, stability, and mobility in your workouts?