Unlock Your Strength

Kelly Starrett shares the simple secret for stretching your limits

- Todd Detwiler & Kelly Starrett

TRY THIS RIGHT NOW: GET OFF YOUR couch and sink into a full squat with your feet flat on the floor. Now stay there for 10 minutes.

To physical therapist Kelly Starrett, you’re not truly fit until you can do that. This simple challenge, issued six years ago on YouTube by Starrett, owner of a San Francisco CrossFit box, addresses a fitness weakness that most men ignore and it exemplifies his philosophy. Starrett preaches that working out should produce more than chiseled abs and bulging biceps. He wants the gym to restore mobility – that is, the raw range of motion that modern life, computer work and commuting rob from us daily.

It’s the reason he posted that squat challenge. “I was like, how come no one has a basic understanding of how their body works?” he recalls. “So I decided to make a video every day for a year. I wanted people to focus 10 minutes a day on mobility.”

It’s a radical premise: according to Starrett, the point of going to the gym is not just to become thinner or stronger but also to restore normal, baseline physiological function. “That means being able to put your arms over your head without having to warm up,” he says.

Now Starrett works with sports teams and elite military units. “I create education tools and drills for busy people,” he says. “These tools let you refine your movement, making you feel better in the gym and in everything you do.”