The Ultimate Mobility Test That You Can Do Anywhere

This is the ultimate mobility test to see if you are flexible and can move correctly, or if you need to adjust your training due to weaknesses. And you can do that with the help of Zach Long.

Zach Long, an internationally famous physiotherapist and strength coach, is known as the Barbell Physio. His focus is on helping athletes improve their sports performance, recover rapidly from injuries and optimise their movement.

Check out his ultimate mobility test posted on YouTube Channel bodybuilding.com and see for yourself how you’re doing.

The Ultimate Mobility Test

“If we don’t have good mobility, our ability to get into an optimal position for the lifts that we care about […] will be limited,” Long explains. That is why it is important to keep your mobility in check and this is what the ultimate mobility test is all about.

This is comprised of 3 tests for body parts that Long believes to be the most commonly most limited in people. They are:

Ankle
Thoracic spine
Lats

The first part of the ultimate mobility test is a typical way to check if you have good ankle mobility. On one knee, plant your foot one hand away from the wall and then try to touch the wall with your knee without taking your foot off the ground.

If you can do with a distance of a full hand away from the wall, you have great mobility. If you can do with a 3-finger distance from the wall, your ankle mobility is good, but if you cannot touch the wall from a 3-finger width out, you need to work on ankle mobility.

If your thoracic spine is not good, overhead lifts will suffer as you cannot lock out in position and you put more stress on the neck and the lower back. To test it, sit on your heels with thighs against the wall, put the arm closer to the wall between your knees and twist outwards and rotate. See how your collarbone can rotate.

If it’s below 50 degrees angle, you need to improve it as well. Make sure to test it on both sides.

For the last part of the ultimate mobility test, you sit with your legs crossed and your back flat against a rig or wall. Grab a PVC pipe with a shoulder-width grip, lock your elbows out and see if you can open your arms up fully to where you touch that PVC to the rig or the wall above your head.

Make sure you don’t arch your back off the wall or bend your elbows during this test.

Ready to do the ultimate mobility test right now? Click on the video below to see exactly how to do each movement.