How mobile are you? Looking at the UK’s inactivity crisis, it seems that perhaps we’re not mobile enough.
Most adults spend around nine hours a day sitting, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Staring at our phones gives us tech neck, hunched over our laptops causes poor posture and only around a quarter of us get the NHS recommended 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. We are becoming an increasingly static society.
But movement is essential for our bodies, especially as we age. Research shows that around 30% of adults over 70 have difficulty walking, getting up from a chair or climbing stairs, and mobility is the most frequently reported type of disability in the UK. People with limited mobility are more likely to fall, experience chronic disease, care home admission and die.
For younger people, staying active into middle age is key to preventing these problems. “Staying active enough to carry out daily activities as we age is one of the biggest, yet often overlooked, contributors to quality of life,” says sports scientist and fitness expert Emma Storey Gordon.
So should we take on gruelling ultramarathons or dive headfirst into an ice bath? Thankfully, fitness experts don’t think so. Instead, we should focus on mobility exercises, which is why TikTok is full of videos from fitness influencers demonstrating various mobility drills, with even Sir Andy Murray extolling their importance.
Mobility drills may not sound sexy, but unlike most fitness fads, they don’t require expensive equipment or a state-of-the-art gym. Skip the ice and get started with a series of simple exercises designed to improve joint mobility.
One person jumping on the mobility bandwagon is Glasgow-based personal trainer Adam Richardson, whose new book, “How to Build a Body That Lasts,” is focused solely on mobility training.
Mobility drills vary in difficulty and complexity, from simple neck rolls to more challenging “glute bridges” (lying on your back with your pelvis thrusting towards the sky) and side planks. Many people tend to skip these because they’re not the most exciting movements.
I’m a fitness junkie who’d rather burn through some heavy split squats than lie on a mat and expand my rib cage 45 minutes before work, but as someone who spends most of the day sitting in an office panicking about a stiff neck, I know it’s time to get some basic grounding.
I booked a session with Richardson, which starts with a simple forward bend, bending your body to touch your toes. It’s so easy. It doesn’t feel hard, and you won’t break a sweat, but Richardson says the exercise strengthens your hips, spine, hamstrings, and glutes (collectively known as the posterior chain), helping to reduce your risk of injury.
“Touching your toes is not a prerequisite for health,” he explains, “but being able to bend over and pick something up off the floor without worrying about straining your back says something about your body.”
We then move onto familiar yoga staples like Downward Dog, which helps strengthen the shoulders, forearms, and wrists, and Cobra Pose, which stretches the torso and abdominal muscles on the floor. These are so easy I’m happy to admit I’m not breathing properly.
Down Dog Yoga Exercise Helps Strengthen Shoulders, Forearms, and Wrists
“We spend so much time sitting that our rib cage becomes restrictive,” says Richardson. “Breathing more intentionally can help release tension and increase flexibility.”
The fitness industry’s staple hip rotation exercise, the 90/90, is much harder. When your right hip makes a nasty popping noise, you scream and feel like 81 instead of 31. You’ll be praised for your “strongest tabletop,” but this exercise, which creates a flat tabletop with your stomach and targets your shoulders, wrists, glutes, biceps, and abs, will have you shaking within 40 seconds. It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Tabletop exercises target shoulders, biceps, glutes and abs
The most humbling moment came when Richardson asked me to do “the world’s greatest stretch” — a deep lunge that stretches your entire body and tests your strength. It’s a mobility-building move that personal trainers tell you to repeat five times before every workout, but I often skip. I regret this now, because my upper back is tight and I have trouble rolling my elbows to the floor. But after a few repetitions on each side, it gets easier.
The so-called world’s greatest stretch: a deep lunge with one arm on the mat and the other arm raised toward the ceiling.
Of course, a few forward bends or downward dog are not a panacea that will solve all your health woes. Mobility training is different for everyone and should be part of an active lifestyle and heart-pumping exercises. Like all fitness trends, the bottom line is the same: the more you move, the better you feel.
After my sessions with Richardson, my body is less stiff, my joints are less clicking, and my technician neck is more supple. As with any area of fitness, it takes consistency to really see results, and while I won’t be giving up my sweaty 7am cardio anytime soon, I’m pretty much sticking to my commitment to make time for mobility exercises every day. I’m glad I didn’t have to take an ice bath.
