Why improving your mobility should be a priority at any age - The Little Things podcast

Older women are at more risk of serious injury from falls - which makes mobility something younger women need to consider. Photo / Getty

When we talk about wellness, or see lifestyle influencers when we’re scrolling through Instagram, it’s usually things like new exercise trends or complicated new diets that catch our eye.

For Juliet Starrett, she is on a mission to get people think about something that even she admits is not that sexy: Mobility.

“I think it’s one of these pillars of our wellness and longevity that nobody pays attention to because it’s possibly the least sexy part of this whole wellness, health, fitness, longevity conversation. It’s much cooler to talk about sitting in your ice bath and talking with your friends in the sauna and even nutrition and things like sleep and hydration are more sexy than mobility,” she told The Little Things podcast.

“But I think it really is one of the most important pillars, especially for people who are trying to have a durable body, and for those of us who are interested in living long and feeling good in our bodies.”

Starrett’s career has been focused on trying to get people of all ages to be more active, and consider the strain on their bodies as they get older. A former world white-water rafting champion, she was the co-founder of San Francisco CrossFit, author of Built to Move, and alongside her husband Kelly runs The Ready State, a multi-platform brand aimed at teaching people daily mobility exercises.

Mobility and fitness advocate Juliet Starrett. Photo / Supplied.

Speaking to The Little Things hosts Francesca Rudkin and Louise Ayrey, Starrett said that even something as basic as the ‘sit and rise test’ - to show if you can get up and off the floor without using a knee or hand - can highlight to people how important mobility is for our longevity, and how losing that can put yourself at risk.

“The fall risk in the elderly is a gigantic problem. If you fall and break your hip, you have like an 85 percent chance of dying within a year, if you fall and break your hip over 75 years old. And the number one way, at least in America, that people end up in a nursing home is they fall.”

On top of that, Starrett said she was recently informed that women over 65 have an equal chance of dying after a fall as they do from breast cancer.

And while that may make it seem like it’s a problem for the elderly, Starrett said that this is something people need to consider when they are younger, before they find themselves in pain or suffer an injury.

And while the episode has plenty of advice to dig into to improve your mobility, Starrett says there is one easy thing you could do to improve your mobility that has been one of their most controversial recommendations: ditch your jandals.

“It’s not an ideal footwear for especially long bouts of walking, because in order to keep them on, you’ve gotta clench your foot, and it creates a lot of foot challenges,” Starret said.

“I think if you’re going to go for anything longer than, you know, a small stroll or to the nail salon, it’s probably best to put on shoes,” though she noted that angry feedback from jandal or flip-flop fans has suggested that might be too much for some people.

Listen to the full episode of The Little Things for more advice from Julia on improving your mobility and the simple exercises you can do each day.

The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series is hosted by broadcaster Francesca Rudkin and health researcher Louise Ayrey. New episodes are available every Saturday.