Mobility is the active range of motion of our joints. Having sufficient mobility helps us to stay injury free and allows us to perform exercises optimally. For example, in a squat, we need ankle, knee and hip mobility to allow us to get low enough to challenge the muscles while maintaining alignment that keeps us from getting hurt.

Having a good level of mobility can be part of ensuring that we’re targeting the muscles that we intend to during an exercise. If we don’t have enough wrist mobility for a plank, it can be difficult to align the shoulders over top of the elbows and wrists, meaning that the muscles around the shoulder joint are doing a lot of work, instead of our core muscles.

Is mobility the same as stretching? Not really. Stretching is generally focused on creating length in our muscles and flexibility. Mobility work is more dynamic, and focuses on the movement patterns in our joints.

Try today’s 14 minute, full body mobility routine to test and self-assess your starting point. We will complete this routine on Day 10 after diving into specific joints of the body, taking a closer look at each component.

Use the worksheet to rate yourself and make notes about what you experienced.

Download Worksheet