Squatting, literally, is for children. The ease with which they go all the way down and get back up like a spring is something most adults can only dream of or reminisce about. A fair few of us reading this struggle even to bend down to lace up our shoes or pick up something off the floor.
Then there are those niggling issues from spending too much time in front of your laptops that wouldn’t allow you full use of your shoulders, and by extension, arms. And, best not to bring up stiff necks at all. Ever wondered why most adults can’t perform these simple movements with complete range of motion that every single child, who can barely walk, does with an ease unfamiliar to grown-ups?
This happens because between the ages of 20 and 49, depending on the level of activity, flexibility declines by upto 10% per decade. There’s an easy fix, but almost anyone who works out finds the solution extremely boring, and it involves stretching, mobility work and cool-down drills. But fitness enthusiasts and recreational athletes find these three things so tedious that most skip them. Even those who do not exercise or play sports should, ideally, do some mobility work thrice a week in order to retain their full range of motion and keep their joints healthy. In fact, if you ever wander into a semi-pro or a better sports facility, you will find athletes walking around with a foam roller, yoga mat and resistance bands. Each and every single one of them usually spend 30 minutes or so foam rolling, mobilising and stretching on their mats using their resistance bands before and after their training sessions. Doing the boring stuff — mobility, stretching and warm-up/cool down — every day is what keeps them agile, nimble, injury-free as well as pain-free.
Why the boring bits matter?
These routines are considered tedious simply because there is no instant payoff, says Ashwini V Rai, a Cult Fit fitness expert in Bengaluru. “You do not feel a burn or see a pump from a warm up, so the brain files it as filler rather than actual training, even though it is quietly doing important work in the background. People tend to associate progress with intensity, and this kind of work just does not feel intense. Because the benefits show up slowly over time rather than immediately, and it is easy to underestimate their value,” she explains.
Anushka Rishi, lead sports physiotherapist at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai, shares a similar perspective: “These routines are slower, less exciting than the actual workout, and the benefits are not always apparent immediately. Doing the same movements repeatedly does not help either. But these things genuinely matter for preparing the body, improving how it moves, and helping it recover. Keeping routines shorter, mixing them up, and tying them to specific goals can make a real difference.”
All these boring chunks of an exercise routine matter more than most people can fathom. No athlete, elite or amateur, ever skips mobility, warm-up or stretching in a training session or while preparing for match day. At the professional level, an injury can cost someone an entire season or even their career, so the margin for error is much tighter. Movement prep, activation drills and structured cool downs are a core part of training in professional programmes, not something bolted on at the start or end. A proper warm-up preps the nervous system and raises tissue temperature so that the body can handle load safely. Mobility work keeps joints moving through the range of motion they need for good technique under load. Stretching supports recovery and helps maintain flexibility over the long run. “The tricky part is that skipping any of these won’t hurt you today. However, it shows up months later as a nagging injury or a movement pattern that has quietly gone wrong,” says Rai.
Mobility
It is an important but often misunderstood part of a workout programme. Mobility isn’t just about being flexible, it’s about having an optimum range of motion under control to perform movements and exercises efficiently and safely, explains Rishi. Adequate mobility allows you to reach the positions an exercise requires without compensating with other parts of the body and musculoskeletal system. For example, having full ankle range allows for better squat depth while good hip mobility facilitates better hip hinge and lunges. “Maintaining adequate mobility allows you to continue performing fundamental movement patterns such as squat, hinge, push, pull, rotation and lunge without progressively restricting your options as training volume and intensity increase,” adds Rishi.
Warm-up and cool-down drills
We live in a world where we are always running against time. The traffic, a meeting that stretched too long, family emergency, social calls, vehicle breakdown—there are plenty of reasons beyond our control that press us for time every single day. So, while working out or playing a sport, warm-up and cool-down are routines that one is quick to skimp on. But the body keeps score. When you exercise, the body temperature goes up gradually which gets the blood moving to the right places, and gives the muscles and joints a chance to prepare for what is coming. “After a proper warm-up, performance tends to be better and that early stiffness that makes the first few minutes of any exercise feel rough, starts to ease. The cool-down deserves the same respect. Bringing the body temperature back down gently through light movement and stretching after exercise helps it settle and reduces the discomfort that can follow a hard session,” says Rishi.
Stretching
If you work out and do not stretch, the muscles start getting tight and short over time. For anyone training regularly or playing sport, that flexibility is what allows the body to move the way it needs to without restriction. The key is knowing which type of stretching to use and when. Before exercise, dynamic stretching is the better choice because it gets the body moving and ready, advises Rishi. Static stretching is best after the workout or game.
What can you skip if you must?
If you have to drop one of these due to various reasons, post-workout static stretching is one thing you can skip, says Rai as it can be made up later on your rest day. “Warm up and mobility, on the other hand, should never be missed because they directly reduce injury risk,” she adds.