Peak Physio Director Laith Cunneen was recently invited onto Channel 9’s Today Show to talk about mobility and healthy ageing. It was a great conversation on a topic that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. We tend to think about fitness in terms of strength or cardio, but mobility, your body’s ability to move freely and comfortably, is what quietly determines how well you function at 50, 70 and beyond.
Here’s what Laith covered on the show, and how you can put it into practice.
Why mobility matters as we age
Most of us don’t think about mobility until something stops moving the way it used to. Reaching into the back seat, turning to check a blind spot, getting up off the floor: these are the everyday movements that quietly get harder, and we tend to write it off as “just getting older.”
But a lot of that stiffness isn’t ageing itself. It’s the result of how we’ve used (or not used) our joints over decades. Joints and the surrounding connective tissue stay healthy by being moved through their full range regularly. When a movement drops out of your daily routine, the body gradually treats it as a range it no longer needs, and access to it fades. Use it or lose it is a cliché because it’s largely true.
The catch is that this happens slowly, over years, so there’s no obvious moment where it goes wrong. One stiff segment quietly loads up the segments above and below it, and the problem usually only announces itself once there’s pain or a noticeable loss of function.
The encouraging part is that mobility responds well to attention at almost any age. A small, consistent amount of the right movement keeps the joints you rely on available to you, and that’s what protects your independence and quality of movement in the decades ahead. It doesn’t take much, which is exactly what Laith wanted to get across on the show.
Three exercises you can do at home
Necks, backs and shoulders are among the most common niggles people deal with, especially anyone spending long hours at a desk, so the routine Laith talked through on the show is built around exactly those areas. It’s deliberately simple. No gym, nothing to buy, and the whole thing takes five minutes. The aim isn’t to work up a sweat, it’s to take a few key joints through their full range so they stay available to you. Done most days, this is enough to make a real difference.
🎯 Spinal rotation
A gentle rotation exercise done lying on your side, opening the chest toward the ceiling and letting the spine turn naturally. It targets rotation through the mid-back, the area that stiffens most from desk work.
🎯 Spinal flexion and extension
A slow, flowing movement on your hands and knees, alternating between arching and rounding the spine. Where the book opening covers rotation, cat-cow keeps the spine moving comfortably through bending and extending.
🎯 Shoulder and upper back mobility
Done lying on a foam roller or flat on the floor, this involves sliding the arms overhead and back, much like making a snow angel. It opens up the shoulders and upper back through a range most of us lose from days spent with our arms out in front of us.
The key with all three is slow, controlled movement that stays comfortable. You’re not stretching hard or pushing into pain, you’re simply reminding your body it has these ranges and keeping them open.
Set up well, then keep moving
For a lot of us, those stiff necks, backs and shoulders trace straight back to how we spend the working day. Good posture and a good workspace setup matter. Getting your desk, chair and screen right takes a lot of unnecessary load off your spine and shoulders over the course of a day, and it’s well worth doing properly.
But a good setup is only half the picture. The other half is movement. The body doesn’t like being held in any one position for too long, even a well-set-up one, because joints and connective tissue are fed and kept healthy by movement. So a solid ergonomic setup gives you a good position to be in, and postural rotation, regularly changing that position through the day, keeps any single structure from carrying the load for hours at a stretch. You want both.
In practice:
- Set your workspace up properly. Screen near eye level so you’re not dropping your head forward, chair supporting you, the things you use often within easy reach. This is the foundation.
- Then build movement on top of it. Get up and change position regularly; a short break every 30 minutes or so makes a real difference.
- Vary how you work where you can. Alternating between sitting and standing, or simply shifting posture often, spreads the load.
- Use the exercises above as movement breaks. They double neatly as a reset during a long day at a desk.
A good setup and regular movement work together. One without the other leaves a gap.
How a physio can help
It’s easy to think of physiotherapy as something you turn to once a problem has set in, but a lot of what we do sits earlier than that. A physio can assess where you’re actually stiff or loading poorly, often well before it turns into pain, and build a mobility routine that suits your body, your history and the way you spend your day. The three exercises here are a solid starting point for most people, but they’re general by design; a tailored program targets the areas that genuinely need it and skips the ones that don’t.
Beyond programming, a physio offers guidance that’s hard to get from a video or an article: checking your technique, progressing exercises as you improve, adjusting things when life or work changes, and helping you stay consistent. And of course, if you do have a niggle or an injury, that’s squarely what we’re here for too, identifying what’s driving it and getting you moving comfortably again.
One quick note on safety. Most mobility work is gentle and suits almost everyone, but some symptoms warrant proper assessment rather than pushing on alone: persistent or severe pain, or neurological symptoms such as pins and needles, numbness or weakness. Less common but more urgent signs, including bladder or bowel changes, saddle-region numbness, rapidly worsening weakness, unexplained weight loss, fever, significant trauma, or a history of cancer, should be checked promptly.
Looking after your mobility doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming, and a few minutes most days goes a long way. These are just a few ideas to get started, and there’s plenty more to cover. If you’d like a hand working out where to focus, the team at Peak Physio is always happy to help.