We all know we should stretch more, especially when we feel tight in our hips, shoulders or back. But traditional stretching doesn’t always deliver the results we’re after. That’s why loaded mobility is the reset your body needs, as Ally Taylor explains.

By combining movement, resistance and intelligent angles, this approach doesn’t just lengthen muscles, it helps your whole body to move better.

In this short flow, we use ViPR to apply these principles to three key areas: the hips, spine and shoulders. Each move is simple but powerful, targeting multiple planes of motion at once and offering real-world mobility – the kind that helps you twist, reach, walk and train with more ease.

Why this works

1. It’s about space, not just stretching

Instead of passively holding positions, we’re creating space through motion: shifting, tilting and rotating ViPR to guide the body into deeper, more integrated positions. This allows tissues that are feeling restricted to relax while engaging muscles to support that new range of movement.

2. It uses load to re-pattern movement

Adding load, even light, changes how your body organises itself. ViPR gives your nervous system feedback, improving co-ordination and stability as you move, especially through the hips and spine, where control is sometimes lost when mobility is restricted.

3. It targets the planes we often miss

Many of us move in straight lines – walking, sitting, lifting – which means we often neglect the frontal and transverse planes (side-to-side and rotational movement). This routine incorporates twist and tilt, helping to restore movement variability.

4. It feels like movement, not work

The flow is intuitive and feels more like playing with movement than forcing a stretch. That’s why it works for everyone, from beginners to advanced movers, and why it’s especially useful as a warm-up, cool-down or mid-day reset.

You don’t need a long session to feel a difference. In just five minutes, this kind of mobility flow can release tension, reawaken sluggish movement patterns and set the tone for the rest of your day or your training session.

Use it when:

✔ you’ve been sitting for too long

✔ your lower back or shoulders feel stiff

✔ you need to prep for movement without tightening up further

✔ you want a smarter, more effective alternative to static stretching.

Mobility doesn’t need to be a chore; it just needs to make sense. Using tools like ViPR in a loaded, purposeful way helps your body move like it was meant to: dynamically, fluidly and with strength.

Ally has been a personal trainer and group exercise instructor for over 21 years and runs a private studio in East Horsley, Surrey. She specialises in training the human being, not just the human body and believes we need more focus on movement for health, rather than just aesthetics. She has also worked in fitness education for over 12 years and has trained over 1000 trainee fitness instructors in that time.

@movewellfitness
@ally22004