Mobility has taken the fitness industry by storm.
If you spend any amount of time scrolling through the profiles of instagram’s many fitness “influencers”, you’ve probably seen them in a deep squat or similar position, discussing the benefits of improving your range of motion and mobility.
Course | Features | Best For | Our Rating / Price |
---|---|---|---|
Calisthenics Movement- Mobility Course |
|
| 9.3 CHECK PRICE |
Editor's Choice Vahva Fitness- Movement 20XX |
|
| 9.5 CHECK PRICE |
The Ready State- Movement and Mobility 101 |
|
| 8.7 CHECK PRICE |
The Movement Athlete |
|
| 9 CHECK PRICE |
Metabolic Stretching |
|
| 8.7 CHECK PRICE |
But unlike a lot of trends, this one is actually proving to be beneficial to the fitness industry as well as reducing lower back pain or pain in other joints like your ankle or hips.
For decades and decades people have been training with one sole purpose in mind: To lose weight or gain muscles, often neglecting their muscle, joint, and bone health and mobility. With that in mind, this new holistic way of seeing physical exercise as a means of also improving flexibility and joint health is, in our opinion, great.
Mobility training is also often referred to as movement, animal flow, animal movement, or any similar assortment of words, and the approaches vary only slightly between them.
But does this movement (see what we did there?) have any weight to it? If it does, are there any quality mobility courses available online?
Well, you’re about to find out.
Table of Contents
What Is Mobility Training?
In a nutshell, mobility is the ability to move your body freely.
In particular, mobility training aims to improve the range of motion of your joints and limbs. It’s similar to flexibility training, with the addition of strength training.
Is Range of Motion Really that Important?
Yes, it is and we’ll tell you why.
Besides improving your fitness and sports performance, it’s key in preventing injury, increasing the longevity of your body, and it’s an easy and low risk way of training for overweight people and people with physical restrictions and back pain.
Mobility training has gained prominence as our lifestyles have become increasingly sedentary and, as a result, we have lost a lot of range of motion that we used to have making us prone to injuries. We need that motion to promote our functional fitness. Reaching down to pick something up or stretching to reach something under the couch, shouldn’t result in an injury. However, it can if we don’t have the mobility we need to do those things.
We’ve also become more obese. Sitting has contributed to lower back problems as well.
The best way to counteract all of this is mobility training. It’s the solution to our new reality to help get our body moving.
But if you’re reading this, you’ve probably researched this kind of training already and we know you don’t need much convincing. You are here because you want to improve your mobility.
So without further ado, here are the best online mobility training and movement courses we’ve found and tested. Ranked and reviewed.
#1- Vahva Fitness- Movement 20XX Review
What is Vahva Fitness?
Vahva fitness is the brainchild of Finnish duo Samuli and Eero. Having backgrounds in martial arts and calisthenics, they’ve developed an approach to fitness very much focused on precise movement and bodyweight training.
This is a very healthy approach that focuses on performing certain movements correctly, rather than getting a certain number of repetitions in, or training until exhaustion. It’s always better to do the move right rather than wrong many times risking injury.
They have a very holistic approach to training of which we are fans.
The Movement 20XX Program
There are two sections to this course:
- Main Elements
- Flow Elements
Main elements focuses on strength and mobility- a more “classic” approach to training. Within this section, you’ll focus on 3 categories of training:
- Push strength and mobility
- Pull strength and mobility
- Leg strength and mobility
Flow elements focuses on movement solely. It consists of 3 categories:
- High flow (standing up)
- Low flow (low stance)
- Ground flow (lying on the floor)
You can choose to do one of the mobility elements, the flow elements or both.
As previously mentioned, the core value of this course is quality of the movement. The instructors make this point throughout the course: It’s better to do only one repetition well than to do many repetitions with poor form.
Movement 20XX- Pros
- The flow movement category is, in our opinion, the real stand out of the course. It’s so much fun and doesn’t feel like a workout at all, and brings real mobility benefits.
- Very little gear needed. In fact, you can probably get away with having no gear at all. But if you do want to be able to do 100% of the exercises, investing in a set of gymnastics rings will do the trick.
- Great structure– very easy to follow. There is an introduction page, followed by a workouts page, where you’ll find your workout schedule presented in a user friendly manner, and then there are video and text breakdowns of all exercises.
- Overall, it’s extremely enjoyable to follow, and doesn’t require much commitment or effort to get through.
Movement 20XX- Cons
- If you’re looking for overnight muscle gains, keep looking. Here you’ll find long term results and a focus on injury prevention, flexibility, and slow build up of strength.
- Some advanced athletes might find the course a bit limited. The course is divided into 6 months, with the final months representing the advanced level. We found this level relatively challenging but not very hard. But then again, the whole point of the course is to focus on movement and not so much repetition or strength.
Movement 20XX- Our Verdict: 9.5 out of 10
Overall, this is a great course. In fact, it is our favourite online movement course.
It represents great value for money, giving you 6 months of workouts and a lifetime of progressions and exercises for the price of a couple of months of a gym membership.
It provides a really solid foundation to develop cool skills and a chiseled physique.
Finally, it strikes the perfect balance between flexibility, strength, and movement. No area is neglected.
- Strength and mobility workouts with 30 strength exercises and 30 mobility drills
- Flow movement workouts with 53 flow elements and 11 flow routines
- 6 active flexibility drills and 4 static strength skills
- 6 months of workout routines with a built-in weekly schedule
- Bonus content:
Movement MasterClass (15 Lessons)
Free Muscle Up Guide
Free Mindset Training (15:01 length video) on maximizing the results
Facebook Community
#2- Calisthenics Movement- Workout Mobility Course Review
What is Calisthenics Movement?
As the name would suggest, Cali Move is focused on producing calisthenics courses and exercises.
The duo of athletes hailing from Germany are a staple in the street workout and calisthenics community, amassing over 2.2 million subscribers on youtube and over 300,000 followers on instagram.
Despite being famous for their calisthenics content, their mobility course is also a stand out in the industry.
In fact, calisthenics and mobility have a lot in common and complement each other well. The former focuses primarily on strength whilst the latter focuses on flexibility, though both are required for the disciplines.
The Calisthenics Movement Workout Mobility Program
The Cali Move Workout Mobility program, is simply the best online mobility training program money can buy right now.
We were blown away by it, which doesn’t normally happen.
The main reason for our praise is that it’s just so simple, doesn’t take much time and is enjoyable to do.
Unlike other courses, where you can choose different paths and progressions to focus on, sometimes giving you decision paralysis, with Cali Move, you simply start the course and keep going until it’s done.
Your skill level, preferences for certain movements, etc, don’t matter. You just do it for a couple of months and at the end, you’ll have a wider range of motion, more flexibility, and more strength. It really is that simple. It will help you with joint pain and making your body healthier.
As somebody who has enrolled and attempted to do dozens of online courses only to give up because I get “lost” or am not sure which exercise, lesson, or progression to focus on, this style of course was really refreshing. Anytime you are free to train, you log on to the calisthenics movement site, you pick up where you left off the last time (after finishing a lesson / workout, a checkmark will appear in front of it), and you follow along their video routine. If you’re unsure about the proper form, you can check their video library of exercise explanations.
The course uses the teachable platform, which is quite common for online programs, but this is the best use of it we’ve seen so far. They share all of the information in such an easy way.
This Mobility Training Course Sounds Amazing. Tell Us More.
Another major difference between this course and others in the list is that it approaches mobility as an auxiliary practice to calisthenics and other forms of training, rather than approaching it as a form of practice in itself.
Of course, you don’t need to approach it in this manner, you can workout using the mobility drills and routines in the course, but if that’s the only thing you are doing and want to see a rapid progression, you might want to add some different sets of more vigorous exercise to your every day workouts to increase your performance.
Calisthenics Movement Workout Mobility Program- Pros
- Great delivery and course structure. A simply plug and play linear structure that is quite refreshing.
- Routines are light and fun to do. Great for warm ups of rest days.
- Highly knowledgeable teacher
- Most in-depth explanation of movement and mobility drills we’ve seen so far.
- Suitable for all skill and strength levels.
- FAQ section where you can ask a question and even check previously asked questions.
Calisthenics Movement Workout Mobility Program- Cons
- Quite “rigid” structure. Not very personalised, though if you are advanced, you can skip the initial weeks of workouts.
Cali Move Workout Mobility Program- Our Verdict: 9.3 Out Of 10
It’s almost perfect. In fact, we can’t really think of a single way we could improve it.
This is clearly a mobility training course that took a lot of time to make. The production quality is great, the depth of knowledge shared is huge and the structure is one of the best we’ve seen for all kinds of courses.
- 6+ month program
- 3 different difficulty levels
- Lifetime access (including updates)
- Bonus downloadable PDF
- Online video platform
-15-40 min per Workout, 3-6 times a week
- Additional advanced tutorials for Splits, Handstand Press and V-Sit
#3- The Movement Athlete App
The Movement Athlete differs is the perfect program for users looking for a mobile solution.
It is by far our favorite fitness app and it focuses on bodyweight training with a mixture of mobility and strength exercises.
The app is progression based, which means that you choose a goal skill/exercise and you work your way to it by working on easier variations of that skill. For mobility training, these will include exercises such as splits, handstands, bridges, and many different types of stretching.
The Movement Athlete Pros
- Great user experience
- World-class mobile app
- Very affordable
- No gear needed
- Wide variety of progressions and exercises
The Movement Athlete Cons:
- Could have a bigger focus on theory and proper form.
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#4- American Council On Exercise (ACE)– Functional Training Specialist Program Review
What Is ACE?
ACE is the American Council on Exercise, the leading certifying body for personal trainers globally.
If you are a physical training profession you’ve surely heard of them. If you haven’t, all you need to know is that they provide the golden standard of training and certification for personal trainers.
The Functional Training Specialist Program
We were on the fence on whether to include this program/certification or another of the several mobility focused programs that are for non-professionals.
However, we decided to suggest this ACE Continuing Education Credits course in lieu of that. After enrolling in a couple of other mobility and movement courses, we found that they actually don’t vary that much.
In each course you’ll have an instructor go over the same overall principles, suggesting a pretty similar schedule, and focusing almost exclusively on practical skills.
These are great if you’re just interested in improving your own mobility without going too deep into the topic.
But if you’re anything like us, you might find yourself asking why mobility is so important and what this kind of training is actually achieving.
And that’s why we recommend taking the function training specialist program.
It’s based on the very popular BioMechanics Method® of diagnosing and fixing physical problems and will leave you prepared to work on your own mobility issues as well as other people’s issues.
It’s a mobility training course aimed at industry professionals, but this shouldn’t deter you from taking it.
The Functional Training Specialist Program Pros
- Certification and Continuing Education Credits. If you’re a fitness professional, this is the mobility training course for you.
- In-depth, academic approach. Instead of just learning drills, you’ll learn anatomy, physiotherapy, and all the theory behind mobility.
- Based on the widely used BioMechanics Method®. This will give you an easy to remember framework that you can apply to your’s and other’s mobility issues such as shoulder mobility.
The Functional Training Specialist Program Pros
- Not as entertaining or easy to follow. If you enroll in this course, you must be a highly motivated individual.
- Focused on teaching others rather than personal development.
The Functional Training Specialist Program- Our Verdict: 9 Out Of 10
This score is highly dependent on your goal. If you’re looking to improve your theoretical knowledge and start or progress your career in fitness, we would rank this course higher.
However, if you’re only looking to learn new mobility drills, we find that the other two courses listed do a better job.
As an ACE Functional Training Specialist, you will help your clients move more—more efficiently, more effectively and more often.
Honorable Mentions
With the amount of mobility training courses available online, it would be impossible to review all of them.
However, some notable omissions in our list must be addressed. Including:
- Saturno Movement: Make sure you check out this guy’s youtube is gold mine. He is one of our favourite calisthenics instructors and has a huge focus on movement and mobility. If you’re looking for specific videos on opening up your hip flexors, shoulders, hamstrings, or any other flexor Saturno is your guy.
- Athlean-x also has a great series on flexibility on his youtube channel. He’s also one of our references when it comes to calisthenics training.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve made it this far- congrats, we admire your commitment to improving your mobility.
The 5 courses we mentioned should more than cover all the basics and include both paid and free options.
Despite the wealth of information available for free, we encourage our readers to bite the bullet and invest in a paid course. This ensures proper form, gives you a structure, offers guidance from the community and teachers and in general will make you progress much faster.
If you’ve still got any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.
I’m surprised Dr Jen Esquer’s dpt mobility programs are not inluded. @docjenfit Mobility Method and Optimal body are fantastic!
Thanks for the tip Carmen, review incoming 😉
Thanks for the review. Very helpful. Just a detail !! Not info of prices whatsoever.
Movement 20XX is $1000 !!
On the other hand you have Cali move for $60
They are different aproaches but about same quality, but the diferent on price is huge. Does it make M20XX any better?
IMHO that info should be part of the review. At least a comment or thought.