Social media isn’t typically a place that rewards subtlety. But Jacob VanDenMeerendonk, DPT, went viral last year with a video of just three simple moves: He reaches one elbow overhead while sitting cross-legged, then swings one leg behind him and leans over the other, then presses his chest up into a version of upward dog. The short mobility sequence, meant to be done before bed, drew more than 10 million views. And he’s not alone in seeing followers flock to mobility work. “There's a lot of influencers that usually just did, you know, bodybuilding, their shirts always off like a fitness model, but then all of a sudden they break it down and they're like, ‘But you need to do your mobility,’” says Dr. VanDenMeerendonk.
Fitfluencers and desk workers alike are finally acknowledging mobility as an essential ingredient of a well-rounded fitness routine, right up there with strength training, cardio, and flexibility. Defined as a joint’s ability to move actively through a range of motion, mobility has long been part of modalities like yoga and Pilates. Think of the spinal mobility involved in a cat-cow or thread-the-needle. Even an old-fashioned squat challenges ankle mobility; a lunge works hip mobility. What’s new is the amount of attention and intention given to this fitness pillar. Because as our lives have grown more stationary and our bodies more stiff, mobility training offers the kind of gentle relief our achy joints crave.
As our lives have grown more stationary and our bodies more stiff, mobility training offers the kind of gentle relief our achy joints crave.
Interest has been ramping up since we were first sent home at the start of the pandemic, and the pace has only picked up. Searches for “mobility exercises” and “mobility training” increased by around 50 percent on both YouTube and Google in the past year. Les Mills tells us they’ve seen a 38 percent increase in the views of their mobility sessions since October 2021. Obé shares that it’s seen increased participation in the platform’s mobility classes, with about half of the brand’s subscribers now regularly tuning in to them, while Crunch Fitness reports 40 percent of its members taking mobility classes. It’s something we’ve noticed at Well+Good, too: Traffic to our top mobility-focused stories this year was 15 times what we saw in 2021. Over on YouTube, nearly 250,000 of the views on Well+Good’s channel in 2022 were for videos with the word “mobility” in the title.
“There's definitely been an increase in desire [for mobility work] from clients lately,” says personal trainer Bianca Paige Vesco. “I think everyone's starting to realize how good it makes them feel, and how much easier it makes both exercise and life.”
The Experts Take
Jacob VanDenMeerendonk, DPT
Physical Therapist
“Since the pandemic, I’ve started seeing people coming into my clinic, asking about mobility work. It's really been such a buzzword, especially on social media. One of the reasons why I hopped online and did a lot of stuff on social media was because I saw it done incorrectly—people just kind of doing static stretching, and that's about it. And so I wanted to bring light and understanding as to how we implement it in daily routines and how we do it correctly.”
Gyms and fitness platforms are evolving to meet this heightened demand. Glo shares that it’s doubled the number of mobility classes it offers in the past year. Tempo has been adding about 100 mobility classes per year since 2020, and recently hired two guest coaches to create even more in 2023. Life Time has had so many people asking for this type of training that it’s launched a whole new class that will be rolling out to all of its health clubs in 2023. The Crossfitter-beloved app ROMWOD (which stands for Range of Motion Workout Of the Day) rebranded as Pliability in September, with a note from its managing partner that it’s “your improved HQ for mobility + recovery.”
Yet as brands hop on the mobility train, how they use the term can sometimes get a bit murky. If you search “mobility” on YouTube, you’ll come across many stretching videos that creators have branded with the word, despite a focus on muscle flexibility, not joint range of motion. “Stretching and yoga are not mobility,” says trainer Charlee Atkins, CSCS, who holds certifications in both yoga and mobility (the second most popular type of workout on her platform Le Sweat TV). “Sure, there are elements of mobility that exist in stretching and yoga classes. Still, mobility is about control and working through full ranges of motion joint by joint, typically under tension or by creating tension. Stretching is passive, and I liken yoga to a series of movements targeting many joints at once.”
But what’s behind this mobility boom? Multiple trainers interviewed for this story told us that their clients are experiencing problems like back pain at younger and younger ages—even as early as their 20s. “With so many people working from home, probably in a non-ergonomic set-up, they don't have to at least walk to their car or through a parking garage, right?” says Danny King, a top trainer at Life Time. “It's the least amount of movement we've ever taken.” And we’re becoming tighter and stiffer for it.
Fitness experts also report that Gen Z is popularizing a gentler approach to exercise. “I’m seeing younger consumers rebelling against the hustle culture of wellness, not as enthused by beat-your-body-up workouts,” says Rina Raphael, author of The Gospel of Wellness.Jackie Mills, chief creative officer of Les Mills, adds, “Younger people have a much broader idea of how they can use exercise, a better understanding of how to look after their bodies.” Their approach focuses more on how fitness can help us feel better, rather than using it to make us look “better.”
And for something decidedly unsexy, mobility work offers pretty immediate gratification along those lines. Within just a few minutes, you can actually feel tension relax—at least for a little while. “And the more frequently we do it, it starts to stick a little bit more,” says King.
Given all this, it’s no surprise that the mobility wave only seems to be rising. Peloton and Alo Moves both say they will be launching more mobility workouts in 2023. Obé is planning to increase production of its “Prehab Mobility + Activation” express classes. Crunch Fitness will add a new class called Ground Level that combines mobility training with core work in January 2023. Stick Mobility, a training program that uses a long pipe to improve range of motion, says it’s trained 500 new coaches in the past year, and expects another 100 or so to be certified by the end of 2022.
“I definitely think there will be an increase,” says Vesco. “People wanna get stronger. People want easier lives. People wanna build healthier, more bulletproof bodies. And mobility is such a huge piece of that equation.” ✙
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