Including mobility in your everyday life isn’t always easy. I’ve been lifting for over 20 years, and while I can go to the gym no problem and lift weights, I’ve just never been a fan of mobility training. I have always found it boring, so it’s always stopped me from doing it regularly. Today, I’d like to share tips on how to stay consistent with it so that it doesn’t become boring or a chore.

Know It’s a Journey

It starts with realizing that you don’t have to be perfect. The idea is to find ways to sneak it into your day. Here are two methods you can try if just getting it into your day-to-day is hard.

The easiest way - Don’t make it a workout that you have to set up. Find 1-2 mobility drills that you can do while you’re watching TV and just run through each one 2-3 times.

The still easy way - Use those same mobility drills before your workout as a primer. Instead of warming up on a treadmill or with a set of your first exercise, start by doing the mobility drills. You can even simplify this further by doing them in between sets if you are really stubborn. This will give you something to focus on instead of your phone in between, as well.

Build Off Those Habits

Once you get to a point where you’re doing a handful of drills while watching TV or during your workout, let’s see if we can expand on it. Start adding 1-2 more mobility drills until it becomes a full session. If you’re at the gym, maybe turn your Off Days into Mobility Days, where you just run through all the drills as your workout. Going to the gym can help with consistency as well, since you’re not just sitting around.

Have Variety

Now that it’s a habit, make sure to mix it up every month. As you get better at the drills, you may find you don’t need to do certain ones as much. Or maybe another issue or lack of range of motion comes up elsewhere, and you want to address that. The beauty of these workouts is that you can go from top to bottom on the body and figure out what areas you want to hit. If you’re still hitting the same spots, maybe change up the exercise to keep it fresh and move the goalpost.

Accountability

If you find you are still struggling to do it consistently, find a partner or someone you can report to. I know that for me, if someone is going to check in on me to make sure I did something, I will absolutely get it done. This could be a friend or even a personal trainer you hire to teach you some mobility routines and make sure you show up for each session. Knowing you’re paying someone can be a good motivator. There may even be a yoga or mobility class at your gym that you can do a couple of times per week.

Set Goals

It always helps to have goals. Just like how we want to get stronger in the gym each week, make a goal for your range of motion. Maybe you want to see your hips open up more, or maybe you have never been able to touch your toes. Base the goal on whatever you are trying to achieve with each mobility drill.