Before you add another set, another mile, another class to your week — try this. Four movements. One minute each. No equipment. What you find will tell you more about your body than six months of workouts ever did.
Test 1: Hamstring reach
Stand with your feet together. Hinge at the hips and reach for the floor with straight legs. This isn't a flexibility contest — it's a window into your posterior chain. If your fingertips stop at your shins, your hamstrings have been quietly shortening for years. Desk work does this. Driving does this. The body adapts to the position you give it most.
Test 2: Single-leg squat (pistol check)
Stand on one leg. Slowly lower yourself as far as you can control. You're not looking for depth — you're looking for symmetry. Does your left side feel completely different from your right? Does your knee dive inward? Does your hip hike? These are compensations your body has been running on autopilot, and they show up under load whether you notice them or not.
Test 3: Couch test (hip flexors)
Kneel with one foot against a wall behind you, the other foot forward in a lunge. Try to stand tall through your torso. If your lower back arches aggressively or you can't get upright without gripping, your hip flexors are running the show. This is the desk-damage signature — hours of sitting have locked your hips into flexion, and your back has been picking up the tab.
Test 4: Shoulder overhead
Stand with your back flat against a wall. Raise both arms overhead and try to touch the wall with your wrists without arching your back. If you can't get there — or if your ribs flare to compensate — your thoracic spine and shoulder mobility have been quietly declining. This matters more than you think: overhead restriction cascades into neck pain, rotator cuff strain, and breathing pattern dysfunction.
The screen isn't a test you pass or fail. It's the honest starting point that makes everything after it work.
What to do with what you find
If all four felt clean and symmetrical, your foundation is solid — keep building. If one or more revealed a gap, that's not a failure. That's information. And information is where real training starts. The screen Stephan runs in the first session goes deeper than this — 20+ scored patterns, not just four — but these four will tell you whether the conversation is worth having.