7 Daily Habits That Will Increase Mobility

Dr Handicap - woman doing yoga

Many people require the use of a disabled parking space because their level of mobility is so restricted. Disabled parking permit usage has skyrocketed in tandem with people reporting mild to extreme mobility issues. In the modern world, many people are living sedentary lifestyles that seriously curtail their mobility. Desk jobs, lack of exercise, bad quality furniture, lifelong slouching habits, smartphone-induced bad posture – all of these modern habits reduce mobility. So in order to save yourself from pain and bad health, and perhaps even at some point jettison your handicap parking permit, it is wise to do some daily work to increase mobility. Here are seven daily habits that will help you do just that!

Practice Yoga

A regular yoga practice will increase mobility and improve flexibility, as well as making you stronger, fitter, and more generally healthy. Doing yoga a few times a week (or, even better, as a daily habit) will gradually stretch and strengthen your joints, muscles, and tendons, and after a few months of practice, the results will become noticeable and inspiring. You will be substantially more mobile and will likely feel more comfortable and completely in your body than ever before. Most yoga studios in the U.S. will have a disabled parking space very close by, too. No excuses!

Do A Morning Mobility Workout Routine

The most straightforward way to increase mobility is to do a mobility WOD (workout of the day) every morning. Mobility workout routines tend to be different from flexibility workouts; the stretches for mobility tend to be dynamic moving stretches, aimed at increasing the body’s functional range of motion and improving its positioning in the various functional positions we typically adopt as we move and work in the world. There is a huge number of great mobility workouts available for free online. An excellent place to start is Kelly Starrett’s YouTube channel.

Sit Up Straight

Slouching and walking with a hunch are behaviors than typically lead to a lack of mobility. When the body spends a lot of time locked into unhealthy, crimped positions, energy and blood flow get blocked, muscles fuse and tighten, tendons shorten, and joints seize up. The body becomes these bad positions and its mobility and functionality suffer accordingly. To avoid this unhappy fate, always try to hold a good posture. Maintain a straight back, sit up high like an emperor on a throne, walk tall with your chest out and belly in. It turns out your mother was totally right when she said “don’t slouch!”.

Lift Weights

There is a notion floating about in the ether that weight training makes people bulky and chunky and less mobile. This is one of the two most common misconceptions about weight training (the other being the typically female fear that “if I lift weights for a few weeks I’ll  suddenly look like Arnold Schwarzenegger”). In reality, weight training, if done correctly, will increase mobility (and getting as muscular as Arnie would take multiple lifetimes’ worth of training for any merely mortal human). When you lift weights that are not too heavy and not too light (Goldilocks weights), and you use a full range of motion, your body not only gets stronger, but it also gets healthier and more mobile. Most neighborhood gyms have a handicap parking space close at hand. So start pumping iron, folks, and watch your mobility levels soar!

Have Sex

Sexual intercourse can be a deep meditation for the body and mind. Moving your body in symphony with somebody else’s in a deliberate and mindful fashion is excellent practice for becoming more fully in control of how your muscles, sinews, and joints move. Sex increases blood flow, heart rate, and stamina, and promotes the excretion of lots of lovely endorphins. A regular “sex practice” is great for your health and will certainly help to increase mobility levels.

 

Pulverize Your Knots

Painful muscular knots can cause a person to move gingerly and stiffly, defending themselves against the spurts of pain that accompany moving “through” the knots. Moving in this curtailed manner for weeks, months, or years on end can drastically reduce a person’s mobility. So getting your knots pulverized is a great way to restore lost mobility. You can go to a masseuse who specializes in deep tissue massage, or you can treat yourself by rolling on a lacrosse ball or foam roller on a daily basis. Getting rid of your knots can be a painful process, but the rewards, in terms of mobility, energy, and just feeling more comfortable in your own body, are totally worth it!

Dance

Daily dancing is great for your health in numerous ways. Hitting the tiles (or the pine boards of a dance studio, or even just your bedroom floor) in a vaguely rhythmic fashion, to music, at least once every 24 hours will hugely improve your physical and psychological health. Throwing shapes, slappin’ your bare feet on the floor, doing the Monster Mash, getting in a few minutes of frantic twerking, and even swaying back and forth while holding your lighter in the air (the equivalent of very slow cardio!) – all of these things, when done regularly, will help increase mobility. So get dancin’, folks!