5 Movements You’ll Lose First (Unless You Do This)

Will Harlow, over-50s specialist physio, shows us how to avoid the usual first mobility losses:

Keep your footing, and reach for good health

Some movements typically become difficult first, such as these 5:

1. Deep squat: difficulty squatting reflects reduced mobility in your hips, knees, and especially your ankles, which commonly stiffen with age and limit everyday tasks like picking items up from the floor.
2. Single-leg balance: reduced ability to stand on one leg signals declining balance from changes in your inner ear, proprioception, and muscle strength, and poor performance is linked to higher all-cause mortality risk. So it’s important, even if it doesn’t seem so.
3. Overhead reach: loss of overhead reaching comes from shoulder joint changes and mid-spine stiffness, increasing the risk of shoulder and back problems and making daily tasks harder.
4. Getting up from the floor: inability to rise from the floor is dangerous, as many serious outcomes after falls occur because a person cannot get up, not because of the fall itself.
5. Side-stepping: the ability to take a quick step sideways is essential for preventing falls, but it declines with reduced leg strength and slower reaction time as people age.

So, what to do about it? Well, practise those 5 movements, of course, but there are also 3 compound exercises that train what you need to do all 5:

1. Sit-to-stand with overhead push: strengthens your legs while improving squatting ability, overhead reaching, and your capacity to get up and down from lower positions using controlled movement.
2. Cup taps: trains balance, coordination, and reaction speed by standing on one leg and tapping targets with your free foot, helping both single-leg balance and rapid side-stepping.
3. Chair ankle mobilization: improves mobility in your ankles, knees, and hips, which supports deeper squatting, safer floor transfers, and better balance over time.

Now, these may not seem fun, but not only is prevention better than cure, but also, losing your mobility and then having to regain it will be a lot less fun than maintaining your mobility in the first place.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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Take care!