5 key exercises for mobility in your 50s

Collaborative Post | Mobility training can help ensure a better quality of life in our senior years. It’s a part of self-care. Although it’s essential, it is often overlooked. Mobility exercises need to be a part of our daily routines. We’ve got to try and avoid letting mobility and flexibility be a blind spot for us.

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Mobility exercises ensure that we are able to use the full range of motion of joints. A primarily sedentary lifestyle can cause our muscles to become tight and even lose their function. Our joints are not able to move far within the joint capsules. It makes us more susceptible to injuries.
 
Through dynamic movements, we can strengthen the muscles around the joints and increase their range of motion. These movements can help us improve our posture and reduce the risk of falls and injuries. Here are 5 key exercises for mobility in your 50s:

1. The Child’s Pose: It’s a yogic posture and its original Sanskrit name is Balasana (which translates to child’s pose/posture). It is named this way because it has a resemblance to children’s resting position. It’s quite calming and grounding. You can do it with ease. Start by kneeling down and sitting on your knees. Lean and touch your forehead to the ground while still keeping your rear portion on your heels. Let your palms face down and touch the floor. Your arms should be stretched out next to your neck and head. Then move your arms next to your legs slowly and let the palms face up. Take at least eight deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling slowly. You might want to avoid this exercise if you’ve suffered serious knee or back injuries.
   
   
2. Kettlebell Arm Bar:  This exercise is very versatile and has variations for beginners, intermediate lifters, and advanced lifters. A Kettlebell arm workout is great for enhancing the mobility of the shoulders. For this exercise. You will start by lying down on your back. Grasp the kettlebell in one hand. Keep your hand straight and ensure that you are not bending your wrist. If you’ve grasped the kettlebell in the right hand, then bend the right knee while keeping the left leg and hand straight and touching the floor. Push your right leg forward and roll on with control onto your extended side. While you roll, your right hand should still be straight, pointing to the ceiling. Let your right knee touch the floor. Your hips should be stacked by now. If possible, you can roll further to see if your body can touch the floor. Maintain the form of the hand grasping the kettlebell. Breathe normally and hold the position for a few seconds, then return to the starting position gently. Work out in a similar fashion while grasping the kettlebell in your left hand. A few repetitions on each side should suffice.
   
   
3. Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch: This is a very simple and very effective exercise. You can do this just about anywhere without any equipment. We suggest doing it outside, possibly after your morning walk, while some of that exposure to the sun helps your body produce the sunshine vitamin (vitamin D). Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Cross one arm over to the other side and grasp its elbow with the other hand. Gently pull the arm that is crossed over towards your chest. Hold for a few seconds. Repeat with the other arm. Make sure you are breathing normally. This exercise is meant to be gentle and not strenuous at all.
   
   
4. Hand Walkouts: This exercise is great for your legs, core, back, shoulders and glutes. It sounds like quite a winner, doesn’t it? Again, this exercise starts in a standing position. Then you bend, place your hands in front of you on the ground and move your hands forwards. You go as far as you can with your hands, then slowly ‘walk’ back with them and return to the starting position. This counts as one rep. Try to do at least three sets of five reps.
   
   
5. Ankle squats with pole support: In this exercise, you are going to support your bodyweight with a cane or a pole. Stand with your feet a little more than shoulder width apart, then bend your knees while holding the pole. Pretend as though you are going to sit down and almost fall over. Keep your hands clasped around the pole. Try to get your thighs parallel to the floor or even lower. Keep your abdominal and gluteal muscles engaged. Don’t dump your weight on your knees, try to keep it towards the back. Don’t strain your knees and only do as much as you are comfortable with.

 
Although mobility is often confused with flexibility, the two are quite different. Flexibility is about the passive lengthening ability of muscles or muscle groups through a range of motion. On the other hand, mobility is about the active moving ability of a joint through a range of motion. But mobility and flexibility are not mutually exclusive, they have a synergistic relationship. If you’ve never practised mobility exercises before, you can start now. The key is to start gently and move regularly.
 
 
Disclaimer: this is a collaborative post