Improve your full-body mobility in just 20 minutes with this no-equipment stretching routine

Start off your day with some energizing and low-impact stretching for improving your mobility

Woman stretches out her back for increased mobility
(Image credit: Getty)

Everyone can benefit from building and maintaining good mobility in their bodies. Mobility is strongly linked to your joints, so if you want to be able to move freely without pain and avoid injury then having a greater range of motion in your joints is favorable.

A lot of people assume that mobility exercise is only essential when you're older but it makes more sense to work on this as early as possible to make life easier when you're older and weaker. Plus, if you are into other exercise such as weight training with some of the best adjustable dumbbells, then increasing your mobility can be a great aid for enhancing your performance.

This short mobility routine is led by Fitness KayKay, a personal trainer who specializes in helping people develop functional fitness. Functional fitness focuses on exercises that mimic everyday tasks to help better your muscle strength, coordination, balance, and flexibility. These are all important components that help get you to be more mobile.

After this 20-minute full-body mobility session with Fitness KayKay you will feel recharged and more equipped with helpful exercises for improving the range of motion in your joints.

Before trying out her routine, get yourself one of the best yoga mats to support your bones as you move through the sequence of stretches and movements. All of the exercises are performed slow and controlled, but are nearly all floor-based, so an extra layer of padding will add to your overall comfort while completing this session.

Watch Fitness KayKay's 20-Minute Mobility Routine

Each exercise aims to stretch out your muscles and joints helping to recharge your body. If you want to start your day feeling more ready for the day ahead of you, whether your day looks more physically demanding or requires sitting at a desk all day, this sequence of movements will leave you feeling more energized and less tense.

KayKay also recommends using this workout on an active rest day, this is a good idea if you often feel like your muscles seize up after a workout. It's also a good idea to work on using one of the best foam rollers on your muscles after a workout.

No matter what other forms of exercise or sport you enjoy doing, including mobility-based training into your regime, will pay off. Perhaps you regularly run and have all the right gear to help avoid injury such as the best running shoes for men or running shoes for women yet still experience niggles and pain in your ankles, knees, or hips. When you have an improved range of motion you then avoid putting too much pressure on just one area of the body such as one of these joint areas. 

The same applies to weight lifting. You might find you experience wobbles or significant pain in your joints when squatting or deadlifting with a barbell and your body could benefit from increasing its mobility and freedom to move in a greater range of motion. 

Moreover, if you don't think that you get enough vitamin D from sun exposure or your diet, this can even affect your mobility. Research has found that older adults with lower levels of vitamin D had an almost two-fold higher risk of developing a mobility disability. As well as engaging in mobility exercises you can also be taking one of the best vitamin D supplements every day.

Jessica Downey

Jessica is an experienced fitness writer with a passion for running. Her career in journalism began in local news and she holds a Masters in journalism. Jessica has previously written for Runners World, penning news and features on fitness, sportswear and nutrition. 


When she isn't writing up news and features for Fit&Well covering topics ranging from muscle building, to yoga, to female health and so on, she will be outdoors somewhere, testing out the latest fitness equipment and accessories to help others find top products for their own fitness journeys. Her testing pairs up nicely with her love for running. She recently branched out to running 10Ks and is trying to improve her time before moving on to larger races. Jessica also enjoys building on her strength in the gym and is a believer in health and wellness beginning in the kitchen. She shares all of this on her running Instagram account @jessrunshere which she uses for accountability and for connecting with like-minded fitness lovers.