Every morning in Split starts the same way for me. The shutters are still closed, the city is just waking up, and before I make coffee or check my phone I roll out a thin cotton mat on the kitchen tiles and spend about fifteen minutes moving. Not exercising. Not training. Just moving — slowly, deliberately — in a way that tells my joints: yes, today is another day, let us begin gently.
I have done this for years. I started because my lower back was complaining after long writing sessions and a neighbour — a retired physiotherapist who spent his whole career at the Split clinic — told me the problem was not my back but everything around it. "Your hips do not move," he said, in the direct way of older Dalmatian men. "Fix that and your back will thank you."
He was right. And over time those five movements he showed me became the foundation of something I now consider non-negotiable, like morning coffee or the walk down to the riva.
"Fjaka — that Dalmatian art of mindful rest — taught me that stillness and movement are the same discipline. You have to know how to stop before you can know how to move well."
Why Morning Mobility Matters More Than You Think
During sleep, synovial fluid — the liquid that cushions your joints — redistributes unevenly. Your body is still, your connective tissues cool and stiffen slightly, and your nervous system is running on a lower setting. The first hour after waking is when your joints are at their most vulnerable and, paradoxically, most receptive to gentle input.
Think of it like the old wooden boats in the harbour. They creak and resist when first pulled from the water, but given a little warmth and movement they settle into their purpose. Your joints are the same.
You do not need thirty minutes. You do not need a mat (though cool stone floors work perfectly). You need intention, breath, and these five movements.
The 5 Stretches
1 Supine Hip Rotation (Figure-Four)
Lie on your back with knees bent. Cross your right ankle over your left knee, flex the right foot, and gently press the right knee away from you. Hold for 8 slow breaths. You will feel this in the outer hip and glute — exactly where most desk workers are chronically tight. Repeat on the left side. This single movement, done daily, was responsible for about 60% of my lower back improvement.
2 Cat-Cow Spinal Wave
Come to hands and knees. On an inhale, let the belly drop, lift the chest and tailbone — cow. On an exhale, round the spine completely, chin to chest, tailbone under — cat. Move slowly for 10 full breath cycles. The goal is not range of motion; it is the rediscovery of every segment of your spine. Feel each vertebra participate. By the end you will be warmer and your spine will feel three centimetres longer.
3 Standing Hip Circle
Stand with feet hip-width apart, hands on hips. Make large, slow circles with your hips — imagine you are stirring a very slow, very deliberate pot of peka. Ten circles clockwise, ten counter-clockwise. This wakes up the hip flexors, the QL muscles of the lower back, and the stabilisers around the sacroiliac joint. It also looks wonderfully strange if anyone happens to walk past your window.
4 Doorway Chest Opener
Stand in any doorway. Place forearms on the door frame at roughly shoulder height, elbows bent to 90 degrees. Step one foot forward and gently lean your chest through the opening until you feel a broad stretch across the chest and the fronts of the shoulders. Hold for 6 breaths. People who sit and type — which includes almost everyone reading this — spend hours with their shoulders rolled forward. This reverses that compression.
5 Seated Thoracic Twist with Breath
Sit on the floor with legs crossed or extended (a chair works fine). Sit tall, place your right hand on your left knee, your left hand behind you. On an inhale, grow taller. On the exhale, rotate gently to the left, looking over your left shoulder. Hold for 5 breaths, then switch sides. The thoracic spine — mid-back — is where most adults have almost no rotation. Restoring it reduces neck tension, improves shoulder mechanics, and makes breathing feel effortless.
The Dalmatian Element: Doing Less, Better
There is a word in our dialect — fjaka — that describes a particular state of pleasurable, unhurried stillness. Tourists sometimes mistake it for laziness. It is not. It is the conscious choice to be present and slow, to resist the compulsion to rush. I think of my morning mobility practice as movement-fjaka: slow, present, without agenda.
The Mediterranean lifestyle is often praised for its diet — the olive oil, the fish, the herbs from the hillsides above Kaštela. But what often goes unmentioned is the physical culture of daily, non-exercise movement: the walks along the riva, the stairs in the old town, the afternoon rest that lets the body recover. Flexibility and joint health are not gym achievements here. They are a way of living.
What to Do When the Stretches Are Not Enough
For most people, consistent daily stretching is transformative on its own. But there are periods — after illness, after long sedentary phases, during high-stress seasons — when the tissues need more support than movement alone can provide.
I went through one of those phases two winters ago. The weather was cold and grey for weeks (yes, it does happen even in Split), I was working intensively on a writing project, and I noticed my joints feeling stiffer and more reluctant than usual. My neighbour the physiotherapist — now retired and dedicated entirely to growing tomatoes — suggested I look at nutritional collagen support in addition to keeping my movement practice.
After some research, I found a product I have used consistently since. I mention it below because several readers have asked, and because I only recommend things I actually use. The affiliate note at the top of that section is there for legal transparency — it does not change what I think of the product.