Have you lost mobility without realizing it? 4 quick tests to find out, and how to get it back with Pilates Linfodrenante

Most people think that mobility is lost with the years.

“I’m getting old, I wake up and I ache all over.”

“The years are starting to make themselves felt; I never used to have back pain.”

Let me reveal a secret to you… Mobility is not lost with the years. It is lost with habits.

The good news is that just as you lost it, you can also get it back.

In this article I tell you:

“I can’t touch my toes, I have bad mobility.” How many times have I heard this phrase? Too many. Let’s clarify a few things.

Mobility and flexibility are often confused, but they are two different things.

• Flexibility is the ability of a muscle to stretch passively. When you bend forward and try to touch your toes keeping your legs straight, you are testing your flexibility.

• Mobility is the ability of a joint to move actively through a full range of motion. I know, put like that it sounds a bit scary, but it is easier than you imagine.

So, in a few words to distinguish them: flexibility is passive, mobility is active.

In everyday life, it is mobility that makes the difference.

You do not need to touch your feet with straight legs. You need to move correctly, to fasten your bra without shoulder pain, to climb stairs without knee pain, to carry the shopping home without back pain.

Mobility is not lost because you age. It is lost because you stop moving, or rather, you stop training it.

The life we lead nowadays certainly does not help:

• Hours sitting at a desk, in the car, on the sofa. The hips stay in the same position all day. The flexor muscles shorten. The lower back stiffens.

• The shoulders stay closed forward for hours while you work at the computer or look at your phone. The upper back loses the ability to rotate.

• The neck is stretched forward to stare at screens. The cervical spine becomes inflamed and locks up.

• The ankles lose mobility because we never flex our feet enough.

• And training often makes the situation worse: those who do cardio, do cardio and nothing else; those who train at the gym rarely think about mobility.

The body is intelligent: it adapts to what you do (or do not do) every day.

Before improving mobility, it is good to understand our starting point.

Today, do these 4 simple tests.

Can you touch the wall with your knee? If you cannot, the mobility of your ankle is limited.
Repeat on both sides.

Have you done the 4 tests? How many did you pass?

Try to work on your weak points, but do not forget to keep working to maintain your mobility too.

Do not take it for granted.

Remember that mobility decreases when you stop using it.

The lymphatic system (the one that drains excess fluids, eliminates toxins, supports the body’s defences) does not have a pump of its own like the heart. It moves only thanks to muscle contraction and breathing.

But most of the lymphatic stations (the “filtering points” of the lymph, where a group of lymph nodes takes care of cleaning it before it continues to circulate) are found near the joints. Above the collarbone, behind the knees, at the junction of the thigh with the groin, under the armpits.

Do you know what this means?

It means that if your joints are stiff, the lymph struggles even more to move through its transit stations.

The equation is very simple.

It is exactly for this reason that in Pilates Linfodrenante mobility and drainage always work together. They are not two separate things. They are two sides of the same coin.

To understand how the lymphatic system works in detail, read “DIY lymphatic drainage: the 6 points to activate every morning in 2 minutes”

In Pilates Linfodrenante we rarely do stretching.

But in every single session, we work on mobility.

And the surprising thing is that we work on it while toning the muscles.

And so it is even more effective.

Let me explain.

If you want to improve, for example, the mobility of the upper back, you have to make sure the pelvis is still. Because if the pelvis moves, it means we are moving with the lower back and not with the upper back.

For this reason, many of the exercises for the upper back we perform when the abs are active.

The active abs stabilize the pelvis and the upper back can move “on its own.” And mobility can improve.

As they say… two birds with one stone!

On the app you will find several Journeys and specific classes to improve mobility:

• Pilates Linfodrenante®: my method that combines toning, lymphatic drainage, and lymph-draining mobility. Intermediate level, without equipment.

• Pilates Linfodrenante® Beginners: if you have never done Pilates before or have very reduced mobility and want to start from the basics.

• Postural and Mobility and Joint Wellbeing classes: two sections of classes entirely dedicated to mobility, lasting between 10 and 25 minutes.

Here are my suggestions:

• If you have poor hip mobility, try: Free hips, sculpted legs

• If you have poor back and shoulder mobility, try: Mobility upper body

• If you often have back pain, try: Postural Pilates back and hips

• If you have wrist pain, try: Healthy wrists, release and stabilize

• If you have neck pain, try: Goodbye neck pain

• If you are always at the desk, try: Lymph-drain at the desk

• If you have little time: 10 minutes to reset your posture

Joint mobility is not a question of age, of “being born a plank,” or of being genetically unlucky. It is the result of what you do (or do not do) every day.

If you are always sitting, in front of a computer or phone, or on the contrary if you do physically wearing and very repetitive work, you will need a few extra precautions to keep your body at its best.

But getting your mobility back (or improving it) is one of the best things you can do for yourself, to live a long time, well, and to always feel young, regardless of age.