Healthy Habits: Mobility Exercise

In this article, we clarify the definition of Mobility vs. Flexibility. We look at the main benefits of Mobility Exercise on healthy aging and longevity. We also introduce popular modalities incl. Yoga and Pilates you can start to build a Mobility Exercise habit yourself.

This is one of those trendy keywords that seem to come up on fitness blogs and social media over the past few years. Is it the same as flexibility, or something totally different? Let’s explore.

NOTE: Pilates, Yoga, Preparation And Recovery, and Core Training type Workouts in your Apple Health app counts towards your Mobility Habit in the Healthzilla app.

What is Mobility Exercise?

You’re quite likely to have an idea of what flexibility is. Or at least, what lack of flexibility looks like. Can’t touch your toes? That’s it. So clearly flexibility means increased range-of-motion for your limbs. How do you increase flexibility? Stretching. We have a whole article on that to read up on here.

Now when it comes to Mobility, it seems to cover a pretty wide spectrum of exercise and recovery related modalities. Terms like “stability”, or “core”, and even “functional strength” come up often. The unifying theme here though is around movement, as the term itself implies.

So we can define Mobility as your ability to use your body’s natural range-of-motion.

So depending on where you are in terms of your starting point, a pretty wide range of modalities may be needed to use your body effectively. Yes, you may have a 500lb bench, but can you even lift your hands above your head? So strength isn’t mobility. God forbid, foam rollers may even be involved!

So why do it? Why not just use the time to bust out some extra reps on the squat rack?

Research on the benefits of Mobility Exercise

First and foremost for those that exercise, what Mobility gives you is the ability to keep exercising. Avoiding injuries ideally, but also improving your ability to recover and rebuild after the inevitable pulls and tears that come with decades of workout-related stress.

Avoiding mobility limitations

What you want to avoid is called “mobility limitations”, i.e. the point-of-no-return when it comes to living life as you would think of it. One definition is that you can no longer climb 10 stairs unaided, or walk more than a quarter-mile. Rollators, wheelchairs, and deathbeds follow. This is typically linked to a lack of muscle function from age-related atrophy. [ study link ]

Range-of-motion and exercise

The most important thing you can do for healthy aging is exercise. One study claims most mobility (measured as range-of-motion) metrics were significantly improved with 5-years of exercise done three times a week. It’s worth noting that not all metrics improved, including shoulder flexion, which implies more specific mobility exercises would help. [ study link ]

Strength training and longevity

One of the major effects of aging past 40 is the decrease in key hormones that maintain and build muscle. Combined with lack of exercise this can lead to sarcopenia which is literally muscle decay. To avoid this, one study recommends maintaining strength training into advanced age. That’s hard to do if you can’t move at all, so again mobility underlies key aspects of healthy aging. [ study link ]

The “Centenarian Olympics”

One great way to think about was put forth by Dr. Peter Attia in what he refers to the “Centenarian Olympics”, which is a sport that he invented and is actively training for. The idea being that gym heroics don’t count for anything at 40 if you can’t get out of a chair at 80. So we’re aiming for quality-of-life here, well into advanced age. Basically, staying out of the wheelchair as long as humanly possible.

Methods and programs for Mobility Exercise

For people who are used to repetitive exercises like running or lifting weights, mobility training can be quite fun to explore. There are dozens of modalities and hundreds of individual exercises to explore. They will all do the job of developing your core strength and joints in different ways. Anything is better than nothing applies here more than ever! These are easy to do in front of the TV, and you don’t even need to break a sweat.

Sets: Do as many exercises/rounds as you feel.

Don’t go to exhaustion, and stop if you feel pain in any joints like knees, neck, or back!

Yoga and Pilates

Your local Yoga and Pilates classes incorporate a broad spectrum of both flexibility and mobility exercises, so that covers all bases with some additional mindfulness practice built-in.

The Big Three

A very simple yet effective program that you can add to your existing gym routine as a warmup and/or cooldown is called “The Big Three” by Dr. Stuart McGill of Waterloo University. Just three movements done properly can do a lot towards preparing you correctly for heavy weights, and develop your core stability to endure. Check out a detailed overview and videos here.

The Supple Leopard & Mobility WOD

One of the OGs of Mobility that put it on the map as a trend was Kelly Starrett with is book The Supple Leopard and his Mobility WOD site (since rebranded to The Ready State). They maintain a great collection of useful Youtube videos on Mobility exercises.