What is mobility? (and how do you keep it)

How is this going to increase your mobility when you become dependent on it?

What do you think of when I use the word mobility? I'll bet most people think about scooters.

If you watch enough TV you will see ads for products that are suppose to help keep you mobile. Some of them even highlight that they are free. (Nothing is free) Use it long enough and it will cost you your independence from it.

When I see these ads I think about the phrase use it or loose it. If you get to the point where the only way you can move is to be sitting on this, you aren't going to be getting any stronger. I promise you that you will become weaker the longer you use it.

If you no longer ask your legs to work, they will become weak enough that they won't want to work.

If you would ask me what mobility is my answer would be like this: Mobility is the ability to move your body any way that you ask it to move. It can be trained just like strength and endurance. It can also be lost just like them.

What can you do to keep your mobility? I have covered the basic principles here.
Neck Mobility, Shoulder Mobility, Hip Mobility.

Keeping a basic level of strength will help keep you mobile. Strength is the foundation and without it, your mobility will be challenged.

Combine mobility exercises with strength exercises and you can remain mobile for as long as possible. (and they can help you avoid having to rely on scooters, walkers and wheelchairs)

 

 
 


When I use to visit my father in the nursing home, I would see the residents sitting in their wheelchairs and wonder how many of them didn't need to be there. If only they had worked on the mobility and strength levels in the decades before they ended up there.

What are you doing to make sure you keep your mobility? Losing it can happen to anyone.

 Below is what I am doing.

My four favorite whole body exercises.

#1 Squats

#2 Split Squats

#3 Bent Knee Deadlifts

#4 Straight Legged Deadlifts