Move Better to Feel Better With the 30-Day Mobility Challenge
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Your body needs to move every day in order to keep it working the right way. No, that doesn’t mean you need to lift weights daily, or run 5 miles instead of taking lunch, or even play a game of basketball every single afternoon. But you should move—and explore how you can move in ways that go beyond just a 10-minute walk or a half-hearted stretch session.
That’s the heart of mobility training and the backbone of this 30-day challenge. Instead of focusing on one muscle group, fitness tool, or type of exercise, you're just going to focus on moving. Every day for the month, for exactly 3 minutes (in increments of 40 seconds on, 20 off), you’ll do one mobility exercise. Each exercise is designed to challenge you to move your body in a new way—like exploring your hips’ ability to rotate, your spine’s ability to round and arch, and your upper body’s ability to twist, among other things.
Work through the moves for just 3 minutes a day, and you’ll lubricate tight hips, relax your back, and stave off neck pains, too. You’re teaching your muscles and joints to blend stability and flexibility with these moves, gradually building a bulletproof, pain-free body.
You’ll do this by taking a progressive path to better mobility via this challenge designed by Men's Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. You'll start by learning several basic moves in the first seven days, then gradually exploring a handful of positions at a more in-depth level in each subsequent week. Over the final days of the challenge, you’ll revisit moves that may have challenged you weeks earlier—and discover how much you’ve improved your mobility. Your body will be the better for it, and you'll have a brand new healthy habit.
The Men's Health 30-Day Mobility Challenge
▼ WEEK 1
You’ll learn a handful of basic mobility moves this week, starting things out nice and easy and working to unlock your hips, your shoulders, and your lower back. Remember that you're performing each exercise for 3 total minutes, moving for 40 seconds, then resting for 20 seconds.
DAY 1: Cat-Cow
DAY 2: Inchworm to Scorpion
DAY 3: Low Lunge with T-Spine Rotation
DAY 4: Hinge to Hip Airplane
DAY 5: Spiderman with Thoracic Rotation
DAY 6: Hip 90-90
DAY 7: Child’s Pose
▼ WEEK 2
You’ll open with a spinal mobility flow (just as you did in Week 1, and just as you will every week), then you’ll explore your hips and mid-back with a series of Spiderman flows for most of the week. Again, work for 3 rounds of 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off.
DAY 1: Cat Cow to Bear Plank to Plank
DAY 2: Deep Squat to Alternating Arm Reach
DAY 3: Spiderman to Cossack Switch
DAY 4: Spiderman to Cossack Switch with Overhead Reach
DAY 5: Spiderman to T-Spine to Scorpion
DAY 6: Deep Spiderman
DAY 7: Low Lunge to Overhead Reach
▼ WEEK 3
Once again, you’ll start by challenging your spine. Then you’ll spend the week pushing your hip mobility to the limit with a series of hip 90-90 moves. Work for 40 seconds, rest for 20 seconds. Repeat for 3 rounds.
DAY 1: Inchworm With Full Extension
DAY 2: Hip 90-90
DAY 3: Hip 90-90 to Reach
DAY 4: Hip 90-90 to Shinbox
DAY 5: Hip 90-90 to Shinbox to Step
DAY 6: Half-Butterfly
DAY 7: Child’s Pose with Reach
▼ WEEK 4
Learn a handful more flows that’ll push your hips a bit farther, then return to challenging moves you learned earlier this month. If you’ve kept up with the program, you can expect to feel more comfortable and fluid in positions that pushed you to the limit just a week earlier. Work for 3 rounds of 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off.
DAY 1: Bear Plank Rear Delt Raise
DAY 2: Downward Dog to Pigeon Stretch
DAY 3: Pigeon to T-Spine to Spiderman Lunge to T-Spine
DAY 4: Spiderman to T-Spine to Scorpion
DAY 5: Spiderman to Cossack with Overhead Reach
DAY 6: Cat-Cow to Bear Plank to Plank
DAY 7: Hip 90-90 to Shinbox to Step
▼ WEEK 5
Finish the month by returning to two of the most challenging combos all month—and expect to move better than ever!
DAY 1: Half-Butterfly
DAY 2: Pigeon to T-Spine to Spiderman Lunge to T-Spine
The equipment for this video was provided by Life Fitness. The flooring was provided by Thor Performance Products.
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