What to work on next in mobility training

The first problem is that mobility improvement is hard to feel and easy to imagine. Warmth, a session that felt good, and a position that hurt less today are all poor evidence, because all three move with time of day, temperature and mood.

Pick two or three positions and record them the same way at the same time of week — a photograph against a wall, a measured distance, a marked point on the floor. Nothing elaborate. What this gives you is the ability to tell the difference between a plateau and a bad Tuesday, which is the distinction the whole question turns on.

• Add load at the end of the range — The most common missing ingredient. Passive range that is not supported by strength is range you cannot use, and it tends not to persist. Working gently with load in the positions you have gained is what converts them into usable movement and is generally where progress restarts.
• Ask for control rather than depth — Being able to move slowly into and out of a position under control is a different quality from being able to reach it. It is usually more useful, and it is a fresh target when depth has stopped moving.
• Train the position, not the stretch — If the goal is a squat, spend time in a squat. General flexibility work transfers less well to specific positions than people expect, and specificity is what most stalled programmes are missing.
• Reduce the number of exercises — Collections of twenty drills done once a fortnight produce nothing. Four positions, most days, for weeks, produce a great deal. Frequency and consistency beat variety by a wide margin here.
• Give it longer than feels reasonable — Connective tissue and the nervous system both adapt slowly. Months rather than weeks is the honest timescale for structural change, and expecting otherwise is why people conclude it has stopped working at week six.

One thing to be clear about: a position that is limited by joint structure rather than by soft tissue will not open up, and pushing harder into it is how people acquire irritated joints. Range that is blocked by a hard, bony end-feel is different from range blocked by a stretch sensation, and if you cannot tell the difference — or if a position is consistently painful rather than uncomfortable — that is a question for a physiotherapist rather than a programme.