Stability and mobility exercises seem to be having a moment—and it’s about time. Moving your joints through their full ranges of motion isn’t just important for athletes or the superfit. Mobility and stability exercises can help keep your joints healthy, reduce your risk of injury, and keep your body moving pain-free. (Related: What Is Mobility: The Mobility Myths You Need to Know About)

And while many fitness studios now offer entire classes dedicated to improving mobility and stability, you should ideally be thinking about both during every workout. But what exactly *are* mobility and stability?

Boiled down to the basics, mobility helps our bodies function optimally. It benefits our everyday movements, helps correct our muscular imbalances, betters our posture, helps prevent injuries (especially overuse injuries), allows us to move more efficiently, and gives us a better range of motion during our workouts. So really, it does a lot. Essentially, mobility is ongoing, preventative maintenance for your entire body. Many associate foam rolling with mobility, and foam rolling definitely does benefit mobility by decreasing inflammation and adhesions within our muscles and connective tissue. But it’s really only a portion of what you should be doing on the reg.

As for stability? While stability and balance seem pretty synonymous, balance has more to do with proprioception—the ability to sense where your body is in space—while stability is more about being grounded and strong during movement (it’s a big deal for runners, BTW). Some great examples of stability exercises include unilateral movements, like single-leg Russian deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, walking lunges, and single-leg hip thrusts.

To stay mobile and stable, add these stability and mobility exercises from fitness instructor Alicia Archer, the bendy yogi behind @kinkysweat and Kohl’s wellness ambassador, to your next warm-up routine. They’ll help maintain and increase your hip, shoulder, and spine mobility, and boost your overall flexibility and strength over time. (BTW, here’s the difference between mobility and flexibility.)