There is a widespread need for better understanding of movement and mobility within general fitness. Injuries are inevitable, but the belief that our bodies simply fall apart with age has become overly normalized to our detriment. With the right tools and knowledge, you can keep your joints healthy and continue doing the activities you love at any age.
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Key Takeaways
If you want to improve your mobility, start with these steps:
- Establish a daily movement routine that takes joints through their full range of motion.
- Understand that mobility work is a form of strength training, but with a different focus.
- Get an assessment to identify limitations and guide your training.
Connecting With Your Body With Dr. Jen Hosler
Dr. Jen Hosler is a physiotherapist and trainer who helps women build sustainable, low-stress healthy habits. She emphasizes mobility practices that strengthen joints and tissues from the inside out to prevent injury, improve recovery, and deepen body awareness.
Healthy Joints = Healthy Life
Many people are held back by pain in the lower back and neck. Jen encourages looking beyond traditional fitness routines to include mobility practices that target joints and build internal strength. Life puts us in awkward positions regularly; preparing your body with diverse movement now prevents problems later.
Making Your Mobility a Priority
Mobility work is like brushing and flossing for your joints. It helps maintain and expand range of motion, facilitates nutrient exchange within joints, and enhances body control and awareness. Mobility should not be ignored: starting today will multiply the returns on your overall fitness and longevity.
Are you ready to prioritize mobility? Share your thoughts in the comments.
In This Episode
- Challenges women face with aging and how mobility training helps (8:25)
- Overcoming fear after a past injury and progressing safely with mobility (15:10)
- Balancing mobility work with nutrition and other priorities (22:01)
- Practical examples of proper movement during mobility exercises (30:35)
- Why a mindset shift about aging can improve outcomes (40:43)
Quotes
“I really realized the place I can have the most impact is helping people continue to do the things they love.” (4:12)
“We need to load and off-load the joint to flush junk out and get good stuff in. Supplements alone won’t help if you don’t move through full ranges of motion.” (17:49)
“Addressing limitations early matters—many people don’t realize until they are 40 or 50 and have a major injury.” (26:04)
“Mobility work often looks like strength training; it is strength training with a different focus.” (28:30)
“It may not be your fault you lacked the right information, but it is your responsibility to address bodily signals when they appear.” (41:43)
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Related Episodes
Ep 265: Why Strength Training Can Help Your Body and Mind with Dr. Jen Hosler
Ep 362: Sports Injury Rehab and Returning to Lifting with Dr. Leada Malek
Mobility for Strength Training w/ Dr. Jen Hosler
Steph Gaudreau
If you are an athletic woman approaching or in your 40s who loves lifting and challenging yourself, the Fuel Your Strength podcast is for you. Learn how to eat, train, and recover smarter to build strength, muscle, and energy. I’m Steph Gaudreau, strength nutrition strategist and weightlifting coach.
The podcast explores evidence-based strategies for nutrition, training, and recovery—especially relevant as bodies change with age. We aim to challenge limiting narratives about what women can and should do in training.
Mobility Exercises for Better Movement
Dr. Jen Hosler
Early on Jen felt imposter syndrome around discussing movement and rehab publicly, even though she worked extensively with clients. Over time she realized the greatest impact she could make was helping people stay active and pain-free. She now focuses on mobility and movement education, while still incorporating strength principles.
Working with an Online Community
Social media can be both helpful and draining. Jen recommends finding peers and mentors online who understand the work. Connecting with other professionals reduces isolation and builds confidence to share quality information.
Common Challenges for Women Athletes
In the 40s and 50s, lifestyle habits tend to catch up with us. Injuries are common and unavoidable, but the idea that bodies inevitably fall apart is misleading. Many fitness programs focus on muscle or outward performance while neglecting joints and connective tissues. As a result, range of motion and joint resilience decline, and spine-related issues—low back and neck pain—become common barriers to training.
What’s a Jefferson Curl?
The Jefferson curl is a loaded spinal flexion performed in a standing position, rounding the spine segment by segment with a controlled load. Done properly, it can increase spinal mobility and resilience; but it should be introduced progressively and with attention to form.
Navigating the Fear of Mobility
Fear around past injuries is a major challenge. Much of Jen’s work involves educating clients to think critically about movement guidelines and loading. Strength training’s role in injury prevention is to load tissues progressively so they gain capacity. Avoiding positions entirely often leaves tissues unprepared; graded exposure and load management are the paths to resilience.
How to Keep Your Joints Healthy
Joints remain healthy through movement across their full ranges, which pumps nutrients in and out via pressure changes. Loading and off-loading are essential. Supplements cannot substitute for controlled, regular motion. Mobility work also builds body control and awareness—prerequisites for safely adding load later.
Adding Mobility to Your Daily Routine
Jen recommends starting with a daily movement routine: controlled articular rotations (C.A.R.S.), which take five to ten minutes. These are the maintenance work for joints—like daily hygiene. Most clients begin here; progress beyond C.A.R.S. requires assessment to identify specific limitations and goals.
Mobility Work Eventually Looks Like Strength Training
As mobility progresses, the exercises can become increasingly loaded and demanding—effectively strength training for internal structures. Programs can blend traditional lifts with mobility-focused strength work depending on goals and time available.
Don’t Let an Injury Be the Catalyst for Change
Addressing mobility and limitations early prevents major setbacks later. People who only learn the value of mobility after a significant injury often face lengthy recoveries and identity disruptions. Proactive work reduces this risk.
Testing Your Movement Before Adding Weights
Before loading a movement, ensure you can control it without weight. If you can’t move a joint or segment independently, adding load will produce compensations and limit range, potentially causing pain or dysfunction.
You Shouldn’t Feel Pinching with Movement
When performing mobility drills or exercises, you should not feel pinching on the closing side of a joint. Sharp pinches indicate joint compression or impingement; do not push into those sensations—modify and assess further.
Shoulder Blade CAR Exercise
A simple shoulder-blade C.A.R. begins with arms at your sides. Visualize your shoulder blades on your ribcage and move them up toward your ears without moving your neck. From the top, move them forward, down away from your ears, then back and together. Keep your ribcage and neck still; avoid using your spine to help the movement. Repeat slowly and focus on dissociating the shoulder blades from the spine.
Learning How to Dissociate Compensatory Movement
Many people unknowingly use neighboring joints or the spine to compensate during mobility drills. Filming yourself or working with a coach helps you see and feel these compensations. The goal is to distribute movement demands appropriately across the body so no single structure becomes overloaded.
Work with a Specialist for Targeted Help
If complex movements like the overhead squat are painful or limited, targeted assessment is valuable. Complex positions require coordinated mobility across multiple joints; resolving limitations often improves both performance and comfort.
What Does Strength Mean to You?
Dr. Jen Hosler
For Jen, strength is the ability to manage forces—both physical and life stressors. It’s the internal capacity to withstand and respond to external demands, whether lifting a heavy barbell or navigating a major life challenge.
How to Work with Dr. Jen Hosler
Jen offers online classes, a C.A.R.S. course, and one-on-one virtual assessments and programming focused on mobility and joint capacity. She also hosts the Movement Upgraded podcast that explores these topics in depth.
Prioritize joint health with daily movement, progressive loading, and assessment when needed. Small, consistent habits produce large returns in mobility, strength, and long-term resilience.