How to check your mobility with Svayam Yoga
Complete a seven-movement mobility check and read the result for each area of your body.
When this is useful
In your first week, so the rest of your practice starts from something real rather than a guess - and again every few months, to see what has changed.
Before you start
- About two metres of clear space, and somewhere to stand your phone or laptop.
- About five minutes, uninterrupted.
- Anything you told us during onboarding about what your body cannot do. That still takes priority over anything measured here.
Steps
Step 1
Open Mobility
Mobility in the sidebar opens a screen headed Mobility check. If you have started one before and did not finish, it offers to pick up where you left off rather than starting again.
Step 2
Press Start
The check runs nine simple movements in front of your camera, one at a time. Each is introduced before you do it, so you are never guessing what is being asked.
Step 3
Work through the nine movements
Move to where the position becomes genuinely limited, not to where it becomes uncomfortable. Pushing past your range makes the reading flattering and useless. If a movement hurts, stop that one and go on.
Step 4
Read your bands
When you finish, each area of your body gets a reading under Where you are now. These are bands rather than degrees, because a single camera can tell roughly where you are far better than it can tell you an exact number.
Step 5
Look at the suggested drills
Below your readings, the areas that need work come with short drills aimed at them, each with its length and any caution attached. These are the practical output of the check - the readings are how you got here, the drills are what you do about it.
What happens next
Your readings are kept, so when you re-check in a few months you see the change rather than a replacement. Suggested drills appear alongside anything a teacher has assigned you, under My Drills.
An example
You have always assumed your hamstrings are the problem. The check comes back with hamstrings mid-band and thoracic spine at the bottom of its range - which is why every forward fold feels stuck in your back. Two five-minute thoracic drills, three times a week, and the next check moves that band.
Tips
- Do it warm rather than cold, but not straight after a hard session.
- Do it at a similar time of day when you re-check. Ranges genuinely differ between morning and evening.
- Re-checking more often than every couple of months mostly measures noise.
Safety and limitations
- The readings come from a single camera and are a guide, not a diagnosis.
- Never move into pain to produce a better reading. If a movement hurts, that is the answer, whatever the number says.
- If a reading surprises you badly, or an area has hurt for a while, that is a conversation for a clinician rather than a drill.
Svayam supports a general wellbeing practice. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it is not a substitute for medical advice, physiotherapy, or an in-person assessment by a qualified yoga teacher.
Related how-to guides
How to check your posture with a camera with Svayam Yoga
Run one posture check on a pose of your choice and read the alignment feedback it produces.
How to work on a tight area of your body with Svayam Yoga
Find which areas are most limited, practise the drills suggested for them, and re-check later to see what has moved.
How to build your own practice session with Svayam Yoga
Assemble a session from drills aimed at the areas you choose, save it, and run it.