Experts › Mobility › Kelly & Juliet Starrett

MobilityMobilityEvidence: solid

Kelly & Juliet Starrett

Kelly: Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) · Juliet: attorney and CEO of The Ready State · co-authors of Built to Move

Ten simple self-tests and ten daily practices to keep your body moving freely for life, without needing a gym.

In short

  • 30 minutes sitting on the floor a day
  • 8,000–10,000 steps a day (up to 12,000)
  • Daily balance and deep-squat practice
Build my plan in The Starretts’ style
Words explained (2)
Loaded carry
Walking while holding something heavy, like shopping bags or dumbbells.
Mobility
Moving your joints freely through their full range.

At a glance

Strength 10%Easy cardio 30%Intervals 0%Mobility & stability 60%

Training focus: our estimate from what they recommend.

10 tests, 10 practices
Signature habit
1.5–2.2 g per kg
Protein
Mobility
Training style
Solid
Overall evidence

Background

Kelly and Juliet Starrett are co-authors and business partners who built their careers together in coaching and mobility. Both were elite whitewater paddlers: Juliet won world and US national titles in whitewater racing, and both raced for US national teams.

In 2005 they opened San Francisco CrossFit, one of the first CrossFit gyms. Kelly earned his Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Samuel Merritt College in 2007, and in 2008 the couple launched MobilityWOD, an online video library of mobility exercises that was renamed The Ready State in 2019.

Kelly became known for teaching people to look after their own joints and tissues. His book Becoming a Supple Leopard (2013) became a New York Times bestseller, and he has consulted for teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, Olympic athletes and US military units.

Juliet is an attorney by training and runs The Ready State as CEO. Together they wrote Deskbound (2016), about the harms of long sitting, and co-founded StandUp Kids, a non-profit promoting standing desks in schools.

Their 2023 book Built to Move moved their message from athletes to everyday adults. It sets out ten 'vital signs' of physical health, each with a home test and a daily practice, and became a New York Times bestseller.

Known for

  • Built to Move: 10 tests and 10 daily practices
  • Popularising 'mobility' work in fitness
  • Becoming a Supple Leopard
  • The couch stretch and floor-sitting habits
  • Campaigning against too much sitting (Deskbound, StandUp Kids)
  1. 1997–2000Juliet won US national and world titles in whitewater racing
  2. 2005Opened San Francisco CrossFit, one of the first CrossFit gyms
  3. 2007Kelly earned his DPT from Samuel Merritt College
  4. 2008Launched MobilityWOD, an online mobility programme
  5. 2013Kelly published Becoming a Supple Leopard (with Glen Cordoza)
  6. 2016Published Deskbound together (with Glen Cordoza)
  7. 2019MobilityWOD renamed The Ready State
  8. 2023Published Built to Move: The Ten Essential Habits

Core ideas

  1. Being able to move well in daily life (getting up off the floor, squatting, balancing, walking) is a vital sign of health, just like blood pressure.
  2. Simple home tests give you a baseline you can retest, so you can see your body improve.
  3. Range of motion can be improved at any age with regular, low-tech practice.
  4. Modern life involves far too much sitting, so build more movement and more varied positions into the whole day.
  5. Basic, affordable habits (walking, vegetables, protein, sleep) matter more than gadgets, supplements or extreme workouts.
  6. Be consistent before you try to be heroic: small daily practices beat occasional big efforts.

How the Starretts live

The Starretts mostly talk about what they teach rather than their own daily schedule. A few personal details have come up in interviews.

2×
whitewater world champion (Juliet, 1997–98)
+1
Masters world title on her return in 2018 (Juliet)
~23 kg
ruck pack Kelly says he carries (reported)
  1. WalksKelly has said he goes rucking with a heavy pack (around 23 kg) and favours walking as a fix for sleep and tissue health.

The protocol

Training

  • Walk 8,000–10,000 steps a day, up to 12,000 if you canStrong evidence
  • Sit on the floor for at least 30 minutes a day, changing positions (cross-legged, 90/90, long sitting)Personal habit
  • Practise getting down to and up from the floor; test with the sit-and-rise testSome evidence
  • Daily deep-squat time: hold your deepest squat for five breaths as a test, plus sit-stands from a chairSome evidence
  • Daily balance practice; test standing on one leg with eyes closed (SOLEC) and putting on shoes while standingSome evidence
  • Optional rucking: start with about 2 kg for a mile, three times a week, and build up over about a monthPersonal habit

Go deeper: Strength (Brad Schoenfeld) · Heart & fitness (Benjamin Levine, Martin Gibala) · Mobility & balance (Mike Fitch, Jules Mitchell)

Eating

  • About 800 g of fruit and vegetables a day (roughly six cups)Strong evidence
  • Protein about 1.5–2.2 g per kg of body weight; some later talks cite 1.8 g per kgSome evidence
  • Choose affordable protein sources that fit your budget; perfection is not requiredNote

Go deeper: Eating (Tim Spector, Chris van Tulleken)

Sleep & recovery

  • Aim for at least 7, ideally about 8, hours of actual sleep; track hours asleep for three nightsStrong evidence
  • Keep the same bed and wake times, including weekendsSome evidence
  • Be careful with caffeine and alcohol; keep phones and screens out of the bedroomSome evidence
  • Keep the bedroom cool, dark and quiet, and allow more time in bed than you think you needSome evidence

Go deeper: Sleep (Matthew Walker, Colleen Carney)

Stress & mind

  • Breath-hold test as a rough benchmark for tolerance of carbon dioxidePersonal habit
  • Breathe through the nose during the day and in workoutsPersonal habit
  • Optional mouth-taping at night, building up gradually from about 10 minutesPersonal habit
  • Spend about 180 minutes a week outdoorsSome evidence

Go deeper: Stress & connection (Elissa Epel, Robert Waldinger)

Strong evidence = trials or large studies · Some evidence = smaller or observational studies · Personal habit = their own choice, little evidence · Doctor only = prescription or blood-test dosing, never in your plan.

The 10 vital signs

The ten 'vital signs' in Built to Move (2023), each with a test and a daily practice.

1

Getting down to and up from the floor

Test: Sit-and-rise test

Practice: Floor-sitting positions and mobilisations

2

Breathing

Test: Breath-hold test

Practice: Breathing exercises (nose breathing) and mobilisations

3

Hip extension

Test: Couch test

Practice: Hip mobilisations (e.g. the couch stretch)

4

Walking

Test: Steps-per-day inventory

Practice: Purposeful walks and strategies for more steps

5

Future-proofing neck and shoulders

Test: Airport-scanner arm raise and shoulder rotation tests

Practice: Shoulder flexion, upper-back and rotator-cuff mobilisations

6

Eating as if you'll live forever

Test: 800 g count and protein count

Practice: 800 g challenge and protein boost

7

Squatting

Test: Squat test

Practice: Squat variations (and sit-stands)

8

Balance

Test: SOLEC test and 'old man' balance test

Practice: Balance exercises and mobilisations

9

A movement-rich environment

Test: Sitting inventory

Practice: Standing workstation and dynamic sitting

10

Sleep

Test: Hours-asleep count

Practice: A better sleep strategy

The Starretts’ style in your plan

Choose “Follow one expert” and we keep their balance of training and the methods above, then fit them to your age, your available time and your health screen.

What we adapt

Session length and number to your week. Loads start from your self-tests, never a one-rep max. Hard sessions never on back-to-back days.

Never in your plan

Anything marked “Doctor only”: prescriptions, and doses set by blood tests. We show these as their choice, not as advice.

You can mix

Prefer someone else’s eating or sleep advice? Pick one expert per area and set your own strength-cardio balance.

Build my plan in The Starretts’ styleCompare with other experts

The research behind it

Getting up off the floor and survival

In 2,002 adults aged 51–80, those who scored lowest on a sit-and-rise test were about five to six times more likely to die over about six years than those who scored highest.

Brito et al., European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 2012 (online)

Standing on one leg for 10 seconds

Among 1,702 adults aged 51–75, being unable to stand on one leg for 10 seconds was linked with an 84% higher risk of death over about seven years of follow-up.

Araujo et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022

800 g of fruit and vegetables

Eating about 800 g of fruit and vegetables a day was linked with almost a third lower risk of early death compared with eating very little.

Aune et al., International Journal of Epidemiology, 2017

Daily steps and death risk

Across 15 cohorts, more steps meant lower risk of death, with the benefit levelling off at about 6,000–8,000 steps a day for people aged 60 and over.

Paluch et al., Lancet Public Health, 2022

Honest about weak spots

  • Several central tests rest on observational data: the sit-and-rise and one-leg balance studies show that people who do poorly die sooner, not that practising the test makes you live longer. Both studies were also in Brazilian cohorts and could not rule out other explanations.
  • Some tests have no validated scoring for the general public; the Starretts themselves describe the breath-hold test as a rough benchmark rather than a lab-grade measure, and practices such as mouth-taping have little evidence behind them.
  • Built to Move deliberately leaves out cardio and strength training; for adults over 50 those remain important for heart health and muscle, so the plan works best as a base layer rather than a complete programme. Kelly's earlier Supple Leopard was criticised by one reviewer for a trial-and-error approach rather than a systematic method.
  • They run a paid subscription business (The Ready State) and have been described as partners of the supplement brand Momentous, so some advice sits alongside commercial interests.

Where experts disagree

  • Training emphasis: The Starretts make mobility the base and leave out formal cardio and strength; Rangan Chatterjee includes strength twice a week and short high-intensity home workouts.
  • Protein: The Starretts suggest about 1.5–2.2 g per kg of body weight; Rangan Chatterjee does not set a protein target.
  • Daily steps: The Starretts aim for 8,000–10,000 (up to 12,000); research in over-60s suggests the benefit levels off at about 6,000–8,000.

Sources

Last reviewed October 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us at hello@lifelongmethod.com and we’ll correct it.

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