What We Know,
and What We Don’t.

Staying Active Is the Backbone of Back Care

The UK guideline on low back pain and sciatica, NICE NG59, advises self-management and encouragement to carry on with normal activities at every stage. It recommends considering exercise programmes, including biomechanical, aerobic and mind-body approaches such as yoga, chosen to suit each person’s needs and abilities.

What it means in the app: gentle routines you can repeat daily, choice over intensity, and no promise that any single stretch fixes a back.

Source: NICE guideline NG59, Low back pain and sciatica in over 16s: assessment and management, recommendations 1.1.3, 1.2.1 and 1.2.2. Last checked October 2026.

Regular Stretching Improves Range of Motion

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled 77 studies in healthy people and found that stretch training produced a moderate improvement in range of motion. Static holds and PNF (contract then relax) did better than ballistic or bouncing styles. How long, how hard and how often people stretched did not clearly change the result, which suggests consistency matters more than heroics.

What it means in the app: timed static holds by default, short daily sessions, and a streak that rewards showing up rather than suffering.

Source: Konrad A and colleagues, Chronic effects of stretching on range of motion with consideration of potential moderating variables, Journal of Sport and Health Science, 2024.

Exercise Reduces Falls in Older Adults

A Cochrane review of 108 trials and more than 23,000 people, average age 76, found that exercise reduced the rate of falls by around 23 per cent. Programmes built mainly on balance and functional exercise were the most common type in the review.

What it means in the app: the 50 plus routines include balance, sit to stand and heel raises alongside mobility, always next to a counter or chair.

Source: Sherrington C and colleagues, Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2019, CD012424.

Breaking Up Sitting

Getting up and moving regularly through a long seated day is widely encouraged in public health advice. The exact best dose is still debated, so the Desk reset is short enough to do whenever you can, not on a strict timer.

We will add sources here before launch.

Mobility as Injury Prevention for Athletes

Many coaches use mobility work for warm-up and recovery, and it can help you reach positions such as a deep squat or a full overhead lockout. Whether it prevents injury on its own is far less clear. We present the athlete routines as position and comfort work, not injury insurance.