10 High Value Mobility Exercises

What follows are what I would call high value mobility exercises - movements that yield immense physical health benefits per second of time and calorie of energy invested.

Please note that you should feel free to modify such exercises to suit your circumstances. For example, if you can't be on all fours to mobilize your wrists, you can do the same movements standing with your hands against a wall.

If you can't go down very far with a basic squat or Cossack squat, please remember that there is value in every inch of movement, so even moving a few inches at a time is worth the effort.

Controlled Articular Rotations for general priming:

Wrist Mobility (can be done standing with your hands against a wall):

Cow-Cat for Scapular and Spinal Mobility:

Rocking Cobra for Spinal Mobility:

Inverted Cat Stretch for Spinal Mobility and Shoulder Flexion:

Swivel Hips for Hip Mobility:

Basic Squats for Hip, Knee, and Ankle Mobility:

Cossack Squats:

Active Hamstring Stretch:

Basic Hanging and Swinging for Shoulder Mobility:

If you cannot support your full body weight while hanging, you can hang from a stable overhead object with your feet on the ground to provide a controlled stretch for your shoulder joints.

If you have any questions about any of the movement patterns above, please feel free to write to me at benkim@drbenkim.com.

For an overview of exercise progressions that you can work at to improve your mobility and balance in a systematic way, please feel free to visit our Mobility Exercise Progressions page here:

Mobility Exercise Progressions

For some suggestions on how to set up a simple workout area at home, please feel free to view:

Suggested Resources for a Home Gym