This mobility exercise requires no gym equipment and tests how well you’re ageing in a few seconds

Flexibility isn’t just about being able to touch your toes. It’s about how well you can move your joints through their available range of motion and, perhaps more importantly, whether you can control your body while you’re doing so. And that becomes increasingly important as we get older.

While strength and cardio tend to steal the longevity spotlight, maintaining good mobility can help us keep doing the everyday things we often take for granted, from getting up off the floor and climbing stairs to simply moving around without feeling ‘creaky’.

So, when I came across Women’s Fitness and Transformation Coach Jürgen Sternad demonstrating a slightly unusual mobility test on Instagram, which he claims only 1% of people can actually do, my competitive spirit lit up. Naturally, I had to give it a go.

The good news? I can do it. The slightly less good news? It was much harder than it looked.

What is the exercise?

At first glance, the move looks pretty fun and, when broken down into steps, somewhat straightforward. However, it requires a combination of hip and ankle mobility, balance, coordination and lower-body control, which is probably why it feels trickier once you actually attempt it.

And while I’d take that ‘only 1% of people’ statistic with a fairly large pinch of salt, the exercise itself is a useful test of how well your body moves.

As a personal trainer, I’m a big believer in maintaining strength as we age, but mobility – especially dynamic mobility – deserves a place in our training too. After all, there’s little point building a strong body if you can’t move it freely.

Good mobility can also have a knock-on effect on how well you perform during exercise. Think better squat depth, a more natural running stride and joints that can move comfortably through their available range of motion.

It can also help support overall joint and muscular health, while maintaining the kind of movement and balance that could help reduce your risk of falling and leave you better able to get yourself back up if you do.

Can you do this exercise?

You can practise mobility pretty much anytime, anywhere, which is one of the reasons I like this move. You don’t need any equipment, a gym or even much space – just a few minutes and a little patience.

Can’t do it yet? Break the movement down into steps and keep practising. Will Harlow, an over-50s physio and Founder of Lifelong Mobility, recommends doing 10 minutes of mobility every morning, regardless of age, and especially if you’re over 50.

According to Harlow, this can help “loosen stiff areas, reduce aches and injury risk”, while helping you continue to move freely as you age.

How to do it

• Stand with your feet wide and lower into a deep squat. This will open up your hips, test your ankle mobility and stretch the adductors (also known as your inner thighs).
• With control, drop forward onto your knees, keeping your chest high and core tight.
• From here, tuck your toes under and slowly lower your body backwards towards the floor, opening your hips and stretching the quads as you go.
• Once you’re lying back on the floor, raise your arms overhead, touch the floor, then use your abs to lift yourself back up into a kneeling position.
• Tuck your toes under again and use your quads, core and a little momentum to roll back onto your feet and into your deep squat, then stand all the way up.

Did you do it? If not, use it as information and start training your mobility with intention.

Can mobility help you age better?

Most of us don’t need harder workouts. We need more balanced workouts that test and improve our movement skills.

And I feel it. As we get older, mobility can start to slip, particularly through the hips and back. Muscles and connective tissues can become stiffer, joints can lose some of their available range of motion and movements that once felt effortless suddenly require a little more thought and effort.

Balance can take a hit too, as can confidence in how our bodies move. That’s why I like exercises like this one. Getting yourself from the floor to standing might not look particularly impressive, but you’re asking your hips to move, your core and lower body to work, and your balance and coordination to pull everything together and get the job done.

Of course, doing this exercise every morning isn’t literally going to ‘slow down ageing’. But regularly challenging your mobility, balance, strength and control can help preserve the physical qualities that keep you moving freely and independently as you get older.

And that, in my book, makes this little mobility challenge far more interesting than simply earning yourself a place in the elusive 1% club. Because these are the movement skills we tend to take for granted until one day, they’re not quite as easy as they used to be.