He fixed the tightness that got him injured. His story shows how you can, too.

If you’ve been strength training for awhile chances are you’ve gotten hurt at least once. Unfortunately it’s a rite of passage for most people. (In some gyms it’s even a badge of honor but that’s a rant for another time.)

When you trace those injuries back to their root cause a lot of them point to the same thing: restricted flexibility and mobility.

Even people who don’t feel stiff often lack the mobility to access good form. So when they get a tweak or a strain they often assume they just weren’t strong enough. Which sets them up for even more injuries down the line.

So when Rob Arthur strained his back doing deadlifts, the normal thing would have been to rehab it then just hope it never happened again.

But if that’s what he did we wouldn’t be writing this case study about him.

“It was a wake-up call,” said Rob when I asked him about getting hurt. “I hadn’t been prioritizing movement quality as well as I could.” He started using our Mobility program to improve his range of motion so he could keep lifting without fear getting hurt again.

Now his hips are moving and feeling better in his deadlifts. A long-term nagging pain in his shoulders is gone. And it’s helped keep his back injury free so he can train with confidence.

It’s worked so well for Rob that he just kept doing it. He’s already completed the whole program three times and is well into his fourth.

The key is that Mobility is designed as a non-boring practice that specifically targets the body areas you need for athletic movement.

Here’s how Rob describes what makes it work:

Like Rob says, there are three main things that made Mobility work for him:

1. It fits easily with the activities you’re already doing and helps you move better for them
2. It gets results in the body areas you need them the most
3. And the combination of structure and variety makes it easier to stay consistent

Let’s take a closer look at Rob’s experience with each one of these.

Move Better for the Stuff that Matters to You

Most people don’t have specific flexibility goals like, “I wanna be able to bend down and put my palms on the floor.” Neither did Rob. He just wanted to keep up his kettlebell and bodyweight strength training without constantly being worried about hurting his back again.

That’s what Mobility is made for. It helps you do the stuff you care about with more freedom and less of the stiffness that holds you back.

Here are 3 key ways Mobility did that for Rob.

One, we designed Mobility to complement whatever training or activities you’re already doing. For Rob that meant using Mobility as a warm-up for his strength work. He’d do a 30-minute Mobility session right before each strength workout. (You can also opt for a 15-minute warm-up session.)

“It makes for a great warm-up for my other training,” he said. “I really like having that warm-up phase to get me moving well before I load my movements.”

Since Mobility isn’t a workout it left him feeling fresh and ready for his other training. And the exercises helped prepare his joints and soft tissues to safely move through the necessary ranges for his strength work.

Two, Mobility uses our clinically backed stretching protocol to help you make efficient range of motion gains. Which means no more gym-class stretches where you just try to hold uncomfortable positions for as long as you can bear it.

Instead you follow a simple combination of contract-relax exercises with short static holds. This combo helps your body learn to relax in end-range positions, which gives you greater access to easy range of motion.

And three, Mobility is more than just stretches. Each session includes functional movement training to make your flexibility more useful in everything else you do.

The one Rob liked the most is called the Basic Spiderman. “I love that you get a good stretch in your hamstrings and then you get a good stretch all up and down your side,” he said. “And you get a good twist in there. Then there’s this strength component to it when you do the pushup part. I mean, the Basic Spiderman just has everything in it.”

By incorporating exercises like Basic Spiderman you teach your body how to use your flexibility skillfully. So instead of just getting better at stretching, you move better in your BJJ, your powerlifting, your rolling around on the floor with your kids.

For Rob, these three things helped him improve his strength training while keeping his back injury free:

“I hit those movements and I just feel good. With my deadlifts I feel a lot more comfortable when I get down into the initial lifting part of the position. That reflects progress with my hips. And then with my back, I haven’t injured it since doing Mobility.”

Full Body Results Right Where You Need Them

“Hips, shoulders, and back,” said Rob. “Those are the main areas that I’ve really noticed a benefit.”

And that’s no accident.

We designed Mobility to help with athletic movement and certain body areas contribute more than others to moving with power and skill.

“With my back, I haven’t injured it since doing the Mobility thing. I’ve just felt much more stable, much more confident.”

But that doesn’t mean those other areas aren’t important. So we programmed Mobility to work on three levels:

• Full Body Results: Every session is a full body practice that will help resolve stiffness from your feet to your neck.
• Athletic Focus: Each session puts an emphasis on one of four key body areas that are critical for athletic movement: your hips, shoulders, legs, and torso.
• Foundational Mobility Throughout: Your hips and spine are the main drivers of powerful, pain-free movement so you improve them consistently throughout the program.

That’s why Rob noticed results right where he needed them:

In his hips: “My hips feel better, I’ve had better range of motion. And I also used to have a gnarly, almost like a limp when I walked. Maybe that was compensating for poor mobility or stability somewhere else. But since [starting Mobility] I’ve just noticed less of that goofy walking pattern.”

In his shoulders: “With my shoulders, I used to get very tight in my chest. And I would just have a little bit of random aches and pains here and there and I don’t ever have those anymore.”

And in his back: “And then with my back, again, it’s just I haven’t injured it since doing the Mobility thing. I’ve just felt much more stable, much more confident.”

Structure Makes It Easy, Variation Keeps it Fresh

Like most people, Rob’s got plenty of details to juggle in his life. From the everyday stuff of work, grocery lists, and plans with friends to all the various decisions about insurance plans and investment accounts that linger at the edges of consciousness.

That’s why we designed Mobility to be so easy to follow. Because the fewer decisions you have to make in order to start your training, the more likely you are to actually do it.

With Mobility you just open it up and press start, and the program walks you through exactly what to do that day to make progress.

“The structure helps out because it’s something that I log into and I know that it’s laid out for me,” said Rob. “I don’t have to read online and think, ‘Am I actually going to benefit from this?’ I just sign up and I go through the program.”

“It keeps me feeling good. It makes for a great warmup for my other training. I just don’t know what I would do in its place. I can’t think of a better alternative.”

But a lot of times structure also means repetitiveness, and repetitiveness is boring.

So instead of repeating the same things over and over, Mobility progresses through different body areas and variations of certain exercises. That way you’re never doing the same thing two sessions in a row, but you’re always making progress towards your goals.

“I know that it’s going to have me working through different areas,” said Rob, “whereas if I were doing this on my own I might avoid certain positions and certain movements. And that variability combined with the structure helps me stay consistent because I’m not getting bored of doing the same thing every day.”

By optimizing for consistency, Mobility makes it easier for people like Rob to get the results they want.

That’s not to take anything away from Rob. No matter how frictionless the training might be, he still had to show up and put in the work. But having a program that meets you half way doesn’t hurt.

In fact it’s worked so well for Rob that he’s been doing Mobility consistently for nearly a year. And it doesn’t sound like he’s planning to stop anytime soon.

“I want to be able to do the things that I do until I’m in the dirt. I know just how devastating losing the ability to move as you age can be. Anytime I get injured—like after that back injury, for example—just not being able to move the way that I normally moved, it really bummed me out. I don’t want to lose that as I age, and I felt like this seemed to me to be a good strategy to maintain that ability.”

The way Mobility fits easily into his life and supports his other training makes this kind of long-term consistency possible. For Rob, Mobility is the best way to keep his body moving the way he wants.

“I just really like Mobility and I like that it makes me do things I don’t want to do. I like that it puts me in positions that I wouldn’t put myself in normally, because that’s where we need the work. It keeps me feeling good. It makes for a great warmup for my other training. I just don’t know what I would do in its place. I can’t think of a better alternative. To me, it’s the best option right now to keep moving.”

Start a Simple Practice for Less Stiffness and More Freedom in Your Movement

The truth is that most people don’t know how good their bodies can feel. They’ve gotten so used to stiffness and achey joints that they’ve limited their movements to accommodate them.

What Rob’s story shows is that you don’t have to do that. And you don’t have to take on a ponderous stretching routine, either.

Instead all it takes is a simple practice that fits with what you’re already doing.

Mobility sessions take as little as 15 minutes a few times a week, but they add freedom and easy range of motion to all your training and activities.

So if you’re ready to move easier and better, with less stiffness and pain, then get started with Mobility today.