An Easy Mobility Plan for Stiff Middle-Aged Dudes

Mobility is use-it-or-lose-it, and most modern dudes don’t much use it. Your body lets you get away with that in your younger years. By midlife, it shows up as a creaky, stiff body and in tweaks and strains that take a lot longer to heal than they used to.

For most of my 20s and 30s, I didn’t think much about flexibility and mobility. Once I got into my 40s, though, I realized I couldn’t afford to ignore that side of fitness anymore.

After a decade of heavy barbell lifting and nearly two decades of working a desk job, I felt as stiff as a piece of plywood. It sometimes felt like pieces of dry leather were rubbing up against each other beneath my skin. That stiffness caused me problems. I had tight shoulders that I impinged just putting on a backpack and my suit jacket. I had tight hips and hamstrings that I tweaked playing pickup basketball with my kids.

I realized that if I wanted to enjoy the second half of life, I needed to spend some time working on my mobility, not just my bench press and deadlift. Also, if I wanted to keep bench pressing and deadlifting (two things I really enjoy!) into my 50s, then mobility work was going to be essential.

So I went to my physical therapist, Chris Contois, and asked him to help me put together a mobility routine I could do before workouts. Chris is a fellow powerlifter and a middle-aged dude himself, so he understands why this stuff matters. He’s also seen plenty of middle-aged guys show up at his clinic with tweaks that come from a lack of mobility.

Below is the protocol he came up with for me. It’s two mobility programs, with six exercises each that you perform before your lifting workouts. One you can do on upper body days and another you can do on your lower body days. You can also do all twelve of them together in a single session.

Each program will take about 10 minutes. You might be thinking you don’t have time for that, but ask yourself, “Would you rather spend 10 minutes a day doing this little mobility routine or take weeks off from activity to nurse an impinged shoulder or a pulled hammie?” You don’t have the time not to take the time.

To do this program, you’ll need a long loop resistance band, a box or bench, a pull-up bar, and a PVC pipe or broomstick. I’ve linked a video demo for each exercise. Describing them in text is kinda hard.

The Lower Body Mobility Program

Run through these in order. It should take about 10 minutes, maybe a little longer the first few times while you figure out the band setups.

1. Banded Ankle Knee Drives

Stiff ankles can cause you problems in your knees and back. Suppose your ankle can’t bend enough to let your knee travel forward when you squat; your lower back can round to make up the difference. That’s not good.

Reps: 10 per side, pausing for 2 seconds each time your knee is all the way forward.

2. Split Stance Ankle and Knee Mobility With Hip Flexor and Hamstring Stretch

This one strings three stretches together into a single flowing movement.

Reps: 10 per side, holding each position for 2 to 3 seconds.

3. Banded Lateral Hip Distraction With Internal Rotation

Internal rotation is turning your thigh inward in the hip socket, and it’s the hip movement lifters tend to neglect. Without enough of it, the bottom of a squat can feel bad, man.

You can do this on the ground or with your leg up on a box. As you move in and out of the stretch, Chris says to keep your foot and ankle still and let the movement come from your hip. Keep your hips in a neutral position instead of sitting back.

Reps: 10 per side, pausing for 2 seconds at the end of each rep.

4. Banded Hip Distraction With External Rotation

This one works your hip in the opposite direction from the last one. It’s basically pigeon pose with a band.

Chris’s main pointer for this one is to actively drive your hip back toward the band while you pull your body forward and away from it, rather than just sitting there. You’ll feel a deep stretch in your glute and the outside of your hip. Do it with your leg on a box if you don’t have the flexibility to do it on the floor.

Hold: 45 seconds per side.

5. Russian Baby Maker Hamstring Drill

This one might go by another name (you’ll often see it called a squat-to-stand), but whatever you call it, it gives you a good stretch in your hammies. This is one of my favorites.

Reps: 10, pausing for 2 to 3 seconds at the bottom and the top of each.

6. Downward Dog to Upward Dog Flows

If you’ve done any yoga, you know these two poses. Downward dog hits your calves and hamstrings. Upward dog arches your spine back and stretches the front of your hips and chest. A great one to get that spine feeling nice and loose.

Reps: 5 rounds, holding each pose for 3 seconds.

The Upper Body Program

Same as the lower body program. Do them in the order outlined. This one also takes about 10 minutes.

1. Cervical CARs

CARs stands for controlled articular rotations, which is a fancy way of saying you slowly move a joint through the biggest circle it can make. Here, the joint is your neck. If you spend your workday staring at a screen as I do, your neck doesn’t get moved around much.

Reps: 3 slow circles clockwise, then 3 counterclockwise.

2. PVC-Assisted Lat Stretch

Your lats run from your upper arms down to your lower back. When they’re tight, they keep your arms from getting all the way overhead, which can make pressing a barbell, or even putting on a T-shirt, hard to do. Another of my favorites.

Reps: 8 reps, hold for 3 seconds at the bottom.

3. Stick-Assisted Shoulder Internal Rotation and Extension

When you reach back to slip your arm through a backpack strap, your shoulder rotates inward and extends behind you. If your shoulders aren’t mobile, that’s a recipe for an impinged shoulder. Consider this your anti-impinging-your-shoulder-while-putting-on-a-backpack-drill. If you don’t have a stick, you can use a towel.

Reps: 5 per side, holding each one for a full breath.

4. Box- or Bench-Assisted Dead Hang

We’ve talked about the benefits of hanging from a bar. It stretches your lats and gets your shoulders all the way overhead. The dead hang is a great exercise to treat and prevent shoulder impingement. If your grip strength isn’t good yet, you can rest your feet on a box to take off some of the weight.

Hold: 3 hangs of 30 seconds each.

5. Thread the Needle to Sprinkler Stretch

This one gets your upper back rotating. When your upper back is stiff, your lower back ends up having to twist, which can lead to a strained lower back, the bane of every middle-aged man’s existence.

When you’re doing this drill, reach for a spot you can’t quite get to, which Chris says gets you the most out of the stretch.

Reps: 8 per side.

6. Scorpion Pec and Shoulder Stretch

The scorpion is usually a lower body stretch, but this version puts the focus on your chest and the front of your shoulder. If you bench a lot, as I do, you’ll probably feel this one, and it feels good.

Reps: 5 per side, holding the stretch for 2 slow breaths.