Mobility For The Everyman: How 15 Minutes Could Improve Your Life

News Flash: Mobility work is here and it’s here to stay.

Sure, it feels like a car is backing up over all your vital muscle groups, but it WORKS.

I’ve written about ways to become a better athlete previously, but there’s a similar, simpler and even more effective way to improve your life – whether or not you’re an athlete.

This is what it looks like:

And there are a ton of benefits to mobility work, foam rolling, myofascial release or whatever you prefer to call it:

Here are the highlights:

• Foam rolling can help alleviate muscle soreness and increase range of motion and muscle activation post-exercise.¹

• Myofascial release can decrease post-workout fatigue and allow extended workout time & volume.²

• Myofascial release may improve arterial stiffness and reduce cortisol levels post-exercise.³

By the way, this link is gold if you want to geek out on mobility work.

So, if you’re a gym rat and spend all your time hitting the weights or training, it’s pretty clear that you’re doing yourself a disservice by ignoring mobility work.

But here’s the thing about mobility…it’s not just for athletes…

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Mobility For The Everyman: Why It Matters To You

Even if you’re not in the gym everyday, you’re still putting your body through a daily workout.

All day, every day you are mashing your body into terrible, unnatural positions. Driving a car, hunched over a computer, sitting down all day, carrying a weighted backpack from class to class or trying to wrangle kids outside for a walk.

You’re contorting your body into all sorts of positions and not allowing for any recovery to take place or any time to treat your body right.

Mobility work gives your body time to push back to that optimal operating state – in as little as 15 minutes a day.

Just like paleo pushes you back to eating food that your body can process more naturally, mobility work pushes your body back to the positions and functions that it naturally should be able to do in the first place.

By working on your mobility, you’re able to return your body to those natural positions, increase range of motion, improve strength and decrease pain that you might have grown accustomed to as part of every day life.

This means stronger muscles, less pain and easier movement through your day-to-day life.

Even if you’re not Lebron James, Usain Bolt, Tom Brady or Ronaldo, you can get some major benefits from adding a mobility routine to your day-to-day life.

More Great Mobility Resources

If you’re looking for more good resources on mobility, stay tuned to the blog. In addition, check out these other good resources around the web:

• Kelly Starret MobilityWOD. Kelly is to thank for the surge in focus on mobility over the last 5 years. MobilityWOD & his book Supple Leopard are two of the main resources that people point to as the “Bible” for mobility.

• Kate at FitForRealLife. I met Kate earlier this year and immediately enrolled in her Unbreakable Body course. She knows her stuff and is a great Yin to Kelly’s Yang in the world of mobility.

• MoveWell – Your Personal Mobility Coach / (available for iOS). I built MoveWell because I had to rehab from an injury that broke me physically and mentally. I’ve got 2 routines coming to the app in the next couple weeks and even more coming this summer. All of them can be done in less than 15 minutes – with some simple tools you probably have around the house.

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Grab your foam roller, get on the floor and bust out some mobility work this afternoon. Do it for a week and feel the difference, I dare you.

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If you need a mobility tool to get started, here’s my verdict on the best foam roller available.