The no-frills tool can help you improve mobility, dig deeper into your stretch, and master fundamental movement patterns.
Do More With is a series highlighting equipment around the Club that can help you reach your fitness goals. In this installment, we highlight mobility sticks, available on the Club floor.
People often assume that each piece of equipment at the Club has a singular purpose. Barbells are for strength training. Battle ropes are for power building. And BOSUs are for enhancing balance and stability.
But mobility sticks are one of those tools that’s meant to be multifaceted. Commonly called Dunphy Sticks after co-founder Dennis Dunphy, mobility sticks are strong, flexible plastic pipes that range from four to seven feet long and are equipped with durable grips on each end. Thanks to their unique material, the sticks can be used for a wider range of movements than a basic PVC pipe, which you might find in a standard weight room. You can train your flexibility and mobility with the sticks and even use them for strength and corrective exercise work.
The problem: Mobility sticks are so versatile and simple in design, members may not know how to use them in their training and, in turn, gloss over. Here’s my advice.
Why Train with Mobility Sticks
Using a mobility stick can help you unlock your full range of motion in a targeted area. This is particularly the case when you’re doing rotational moves to target the thoracic spine; it’s really easy to go through the movement without actually feeling it in your back. But when you immobilize part of your body — such as by holding the stick against your chest while sweeping one end across the floor in front of you — you have the opportunity to make the mobility exercise a little bit more active and intentional. Similarly, you can use the stick as an anchor that allows you to dive deeper into your stretch, whether it be a scorpion or overhead lat stretch.
The tools also provide stability while you’re performing mobility exercises that challenge your balance. Consider a cossack squat, essentially a stationary side lunge. As you sink into your deep squat, you might feel like you’re about to topple backward. But holding a rigid mobility stick that’s firmly planted into the ground in front of you can help execute the movement without worrying about your balance. It’ll also help you keep your chest lifted, drive back into your glutes, and maintain proper form throughout the exercise. Essentially, the mobility stick provides an additional level of comfort when you’re performing exercises that are brand new to you or you’re not quite confident performing.
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Aside from mobility, the sticks can help ease you into serious weight lifting. When my clients aren’t strong enough or equipped to use a barbell just yet, I might have them practice the deadlift or squat movement pattern with a mobility stick first. It’s especially useful for overhead movements — overhead squats, lunges, split squats, snatches, shoulder presses, you name it — when proper posture is essential. I want to make sure their body mechanics are sound throughout that movement pattern before I put them under a heavy load.
I’ll also use the instrument for an instability challenge by attaching a resistance band fixed to a kettlebell on each side of the stick. That way, the implement is loaded and really tests your core strength, but it doesn’t weigh as much as a barbell.
How to Use Mobility Sticks
Mobility sticks come in both short (four to five feet) and long (six to seven feet) lengths. The long options are ideal for mimicking the barbell or performing standing movements in which you need a contact point with the ground, such as during lateral bow and arrow stretches and hip adductor stretches. The short sticks, on the other hand, are helpful for drills that require a shorter lever (think: an overhead shoulder drill) or when you’re working on your knees or on the floor.
I regularly use mobility sticks to teach a hip hinge — the movement pattern involved in deadlifts, good mornings, hip thrusts, and more. It’s a great tactical tool to help members understand how to hold a neutral spine through the full range of motion and to reinforce the fact your head should be moving as an extension of your spine. During a deadlift or good morning, hold the stick vertically behind your back so it runs along your spine. As you practice the exercise, everything from your head to your hips should be making contact with the stick.
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Mobility sticks are also great to open up your spine, shoulders, and hips. Try kneeling T-spine rotations to isolate the thoracic spine or the 90/90s to loosen up your hips after sitting at a desk all day long. The dead bug — one of my favorites — also doubles as a shoulder mobility movement (as you actively reach your arms above your head) and a core-strengthening movement. All of these exercises are ideal for priming your body before a workout or just improving your mobility practice altogether.
The biggest mistake you could make is simply not using mobility sticks to their full potential. I see a lot of members turning to the tools to boost thoracic mobility — which is great — but they can do so much more than that. Don’t be afraid to use them to stretch your quads or work on your ankle mobility. And when in doubt, reach out to an Equinox Coach for even more tips and tricks.
Jessica Burke is a Tier 3 Coach at Equinox Anthem Row. She graduated with her Masters in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan and has spent the last several years in collegiate strength and conditioning coaching at Purdue and Penn State. Jessica is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, certified personal trainer, fitness nutrition specialist, performance enhancement specialist, and Precision Nutrition Level 1 coach. She also is Strength and Conditioning Coach Certified by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association.