Joint mobility: one-to-one online training

Flexibility is passive range. It is how far a muscle lets you stretch when your hand, a support or gravity helps you.

Mobility is active range. It is how far you can move a joint with your own muscles and still control it.

An example. Lying on your back, you can pull your leg almost to your chest with your hands. This is flexibility. But if you lift the straight leg without hands, it goes only half the way. This is mobility. The difference between them shows where your body doesn't have enough strength and control.

For daily life and sport, mobility is more important: it protects the joints and makes movement easy. So in sessions we also teach the muscles to control the new range. You hold a leg or an arm at the end position, move slowly through the full range, and move your weight in a deep squat or lunge.

Most often we work on three areas:

• Hips. Almost everybody who sits a lot has stiff hips. When the hips don't move well, the lower back and knees get too much load.
• Shoulders and shoulder blades. Work at the laptop "closes" the shoulders. If you can't lift your arm up without arching the back, you need mobility work.
• Upper (thoracic) back. It is responsible for turning and bending. When it is stiff, the neck and the lower back do the movement instead.

When we need, we also work on the ankles. They are important for squats, running and balance.

Simple self-checks you can try now:

• Hips. Go into a deep squat with your heels on the floor. If you can't do it without support, or your back gets very round, your hips and ankles need mobility.
• Shoulders. Stand with your back against a wall, press your lower back to it and lift straight arms up. If your hands don't touch the wall, or the lower back comes away from it, the shoulders and upper back need work.
• Upper back. Sit on a chair, cross your arms on your chest and turn to each side. If one side is different, or you turn less than 45°, it is a reason to train rotation.

In the first session I do some tests with you: deep squat, lunge, arms up against a wall, turns of the upper body, balance on one leg. This is a coach's check. It shows which joints limit your movement and what we train first.

In every test I look not only at the range but also at the quality. Does the lower back help the movement, do the knees go inside, do the left and the right side move the same? These details show me where to start.

After that you get a personal plan, and you know which exercises to do every day. Once a month we repeat the tests, so you see the progress, not only feel it.

• Desk work. Eight hours at the desk make the hip flexors short and the upper back stiff. Short daily routines change a lot. More on the Posture and back page.
• Running, cycling, lifting. When hips and ankles move better, your technique gets better and the joints get less load.
• 40+. With age mobility goes down faster if you don't train it. Regular work helps you keep moving easily.
• After an injury, with your doctor's clearance. For the knee and the shoulder I have separate programs.

How to know it's time to work on mobility? Movements that were always easy now need effort. It is hard to squat down, to turn around in the car, to reach a high shelf or to get up from the floor without support. The earlier you start, the faster easy movement comes back.

A session is 50 minutes on video: warm-up, active mobility exercises, stretching and strength work in the new range. Between sessions you do a short daily routine for 10–15 minutes. For mobility, doing it regularly is the most important thing.

An example routine for someone who works at a desk:

1. Hip circles on hands and knees: 5 slow circles with each leg, both directions.
2. Upper back turns lying on your side: 8 on each side, your eyes follow the hand.
3. Wall slides: 10 times, the lower back stays pressed to the wall.
4. Deep squat with support: go down slowly 5 times and stay at the bottom for 3 breaths.
5. Lunge on one knee with the arm up: 30 seconds on each side.

Sessions are in Russian or English, at a time for your time zone.

• One "Stretching & joint mobility" session: €50 for 50 minutes.
• Personal training for a month: €180 for 4 sessions, and I update the plan every week.

For mobility a good rhythm is one session with me every one or two weeks and 10–15 minutes at home every day. All formats are on the Prices page.