As Christina Danaee approached 40, she had spent years dealing with chronic shoulder and neck tightness that caused pain during daily life and activities like swimming. She tried to manage the pain with stretching, massage and heating pads, but she couldn’t find relief. Then a friend suggested she try something new: adding light weights to her mobility routine.
She was skeptical; she didn’t lift weights and worried about getting too muscular. Still, she picked up the lightest weight she could find — five pounds — and started experimenting. One of her first moves was a shoulder halo — slowly circling the weight around her head.
“It’s changed everything,” she said. “I almost never feel sore or stiff anymore. It has made other forms of activity more fun and easy, too.” Ms. Danaee now swims laps several times a week — something that used to be too painful.
If you’ve ever done cat-cows or neck rolls, you’re already working on mobility. But a number of physical therapists and trainers say you can get more out of such range-of-motion exercises by adding light weights. For people who stretch, foam roll and do mobility drills but still feel stiff or limited, this is the next step.
Weights build stability.
Mobility refers to how far you can move a joint with control, as opposed to flexibility, which is just how far a joint can go. You might be able to pull your leg up to your chest with your hands, but mobility requires lifting your leg using your muscles alone.
Therefore, mobility requires strength and stability.
“It’s about instilling confidence and preparing your tissues to be adaptable to whatever your environment may be,” said Vernon Griffith, a mobility and strength coach in Virginia Beach.
Take a torso rotation. Twisting side to side trains the spine’s ability to move. But adding a medicine ball forces your core to steady the movement. A side lunge stretches your inner thigh and hip, but holding a weight to your chest forces your body to stay balanced as you sink lower, turning a stretch into stability training.
But building stability doesn’t always mean lifting heavy weights, said Julia Rosenthal, a physical therapist in Brooklyn. Research suggests that even low-weight resistance training improves strength and balance in adults, especially those with reduced mobility.
To try this training yourself, start with slow, intentional movements — like a forward lunge or a standing overhead reach while holding a book or soup can — and build from there. Even a couple pounds is enough to activate the small, stabilizing muscles in your hips or shoulders.
“Even if you’re super strong, I would lean toward the one to two pounds before the five to 10,” said Alex Rothstein, an assistant professor of exercise science at New York Institute of Technology. You can also use exercise bands to provide the resistance, depending on what you have at hand.
It also doesn’t have to take long — you might notice that the movement feels steadier and easier after three to five slow, controlled reps, he added.
Begin with movements you already know well or motions you want to improve in daily life. After shoulder halos, Ms. Danaee moved on to full-body movements like getting up and down off the floor holding a kettlebell to improve her hip and back stability. Other more complex movements might include kettlebell windmills or Turkish get-ups.
But as with any strength training, increase the weight and difficulty over time. “If there’s not enough challenge, your body has no reason to change,” Mr. Griffith said.
Weights increase range of motion.
Adding a small amount of load can also increase how far your joints move, acting as a counterbalance and bringing your body into positions that might feel out of reach.
For example, Dr. Rosenthal said that getting to the bottom of a squat can feel wobbly for some, but holding a light dumbbell or a kettlebell in front of you shifts your center of gravity forward, helping you drop lower without falling back. Once you’ve experienced what that feels like, it may become easier to access again.
“You just have to show their brain how to get there in the first place,” said Dr. Rosenthal.
Weights can also simply enhance gravity. The Jefferson curl is a slow, rounded forward fold in which a weight gently pulls you down to help lengthen your spine and access more range. The key is to go light to avoid injury.
The exercise is similar to a trainer placing a hand on your back during a forward fold and encouraging you to sink into the stretch more. “I’m showing my nervous system that I can be confident here. I’m good,” Mr. Griffith said.
Dr. Rothstein added that using weights may calm the body’s proprioceptors — sensory receptors that resist stretching to protect you from injury — and help your body trust a new position.
Try it yourself. Next time you do a familiar move, like a seated forward fold or a side bend, hold a light weight in your hands. Over time, you might notice your movements become easier than before.
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