There’s nothing like a good old spring clean after a long winter. Whether it’s Marie Kondo-ing your sock drawer, getting rid of all the rotting veg at the back of the fridge or giving your home a good old scrub, there’s something incredibly satisfying about decluttering. And it’s also a great opportunity to work on your mobility. All that deep cleaning and sorting requires stretching, balancing, reaching and other movements you might not do every day – not even in gym classes.

Quite often, we don’t know that our range of motion has reduced until we try to reach for a pile of random junk at the back of a cupboard or crouch to clean under the sink. That might not sound particularly dramatic, but good mobility is hugely important because it can determine how well we move and live later in life. In fact, researchers have found that maintaining high levels of body flexibility, muscle strength and coordination (ie mobility) has a favourable influence on life expectancy. So, how can you reap the maximum mobility benefits as you breathe some fresh air into your home? 

First, a quick recap as to what mobility actually is. Mobility is the combination of strength and flexibility. When you have both in equal measure, you’ll be able to move easily and pain-free. Physiotherapist and yoga therapist Dr Kate Ryan says many people are strong but lack flexibility or vice versa; we all know fit people who can’t touch their toes and bendy yogis who’d struggle to lift light dumbbells. 

Often, people confuse mobility with flexibility. The latter is about your passive range of motion (ie touching your toes or being able to drop into a split). Mobility, on the other hand, requires strength to stabilise joints (eg being able to stand up from sitting on the floor without using your hands). It’s a more active and useful skill.

“It allows you to do all the things you do in your daily life. It’s what enables you to bend down and pick something off the floor easily or reach something off a high shelf,” says Dr Ryan.  

Think of chores as movement snacks

A full home deep clean can feel overwhelming if we see it as one big project, but it can feel more manageable and give you a better mobility boost when you break it down and do little and often, says Wendy Welpton, a natural movement coach and founder of Reclaim Movement. “Don’t declutter in a day, but see it as a month-long project and do half an hour a week or five minutes five times a day,” she says. By using cleaning and decluttering as movement snacks, you’ll increase your frequency of movement and change your body position more.

Personal trainer Yasmine Say agrees that exercise habit stacking can be useful. “We’re so busy all the time that we need to condense and consolidate chores,” she says. Rather than seeing tidying and working out as two massive things on your to-do list, combine them by adding movement into your cleaning routine. Walk or jog to the shop for bin bags or squat rather than kneel to clean the skirting board. 

Test your balance

“Spring cleaning inevitably involves doing a plethora of different movements with your body,” says Say. Even if you’re stuck scrubbing the same spot, there are ways to challenge your body: try balancing on one leg while you clean countertops or attempt an arabesque – lifting your back leg up as much as possible – when picking things up from the floor.

Actively think about rotating

Window cleaning and polishing give you a chance to move your shoulders and work on good back mobility. To get the most out of those movements, make your reach as big and wide as possible. For side-to-side motions, think about rocking through the waist and hips. “If you’re mopping on a hard floor, focus on twisting around to create rotation,” Dr Ryan recommends. Other floor-based exercises might include lunging while vacuuming or squatting while you use a dustpan and brush.

Use your non-dominant hand more

For more of a brain workout, try cleaning using your non-dominant hand. That’ll get your neuron pathways firing up and give both sides of the body a chance to move and strengthen. “Try hoovering, scrubbing the floor or cleaning the shower with your less dominant side to make your weaker side stronger,” suggests Say.

Spend more time on the floor

Being down at floor level is one of the most beneficial things we can do for our mobility, says Welpton, as the simple act of sitting down and getting up requires good mobility through various joints. Find reasons to move between standing and floor level, and look for opportunities to spend time on the floor in a variety of positions. “Being on the ground increases core stability because it requires you to hold up your upper body up with your core instead of leaning against the back of a chair,” Welpton says.

Much like clutter seems to magically appear in our homes, our bodies have a default state. “We automatically go into the easiest or most energy-saving position,” says Welpton. While that’s no bad thing (we’ve evolved to expend as little energy as possible to stay alive), it is worth being mindful about how often we move and try to sit in ways that aren’t always the easiest. “Our hips and shoulders are ball and socket joints that need 360° rotation,” Welpton explains, “and when we’re in a lateral movement pattern all the time, we’re not getting those ranges of movement.”

If your mobility is already good, you might not be that bothered about turning your monthly clean into a workout. But if you’re wondering how necessary it might be to start working on your range of motion, there are some simple at-home tests you can try.

The sit-to-stand test is the gold-standard way to assess how well you move, and it only takes a moment to do. You can also build a mobility test into your cleaning routine, Dr Ryan says. “If you don’t clean the back corners of your cupboards or reach a certain shelf very often, when you do, it can be an indicator of whether you are struggling with it more than you used to.”

Paying attention to what you used to be able to do can be a good indicator of mobility, and if you notice that reaching, squatting or twisting feels harder, you can take steps to change it. “If you are losing mobility, it’s not something you just have to accept – you can work on it and improve it at any age,” says Dr Ryan.

She stresses that many people often start to move less once they begin to feel less limber, and that can lead to a downward spiral. We want to move more, not less.  Much like how spring cleaning makes your home a nicer place to be, working on your mobility can help to make movement feel a little more inviting. 

Images: Getty