I highly encourage all my clients to incorporate mobility into their week. Generally leaving when and how much up to them, but these are 8 mobility exercises anyone can do. Read for a full explanation on how and why to do them and find downloadable workouts to follow at the end.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Child’s Pose with Traction
2. Trap Traction
3. 3 Point Hip Flexor 
4. High Plank Sit Back
5. 90/90 Hip Mobility
6. Hip Circles
7. Iron Cross
8. Thoracic Extension
9. Downloadable Workouts

HOW TO PERFORM A TRAP TRACTION

Your traps, or Trapezius muscles, are one of several back muscles.  This muscles is named after it shape, a trapezoid. And it is quite large, running from the base of the head, out to the clavicle and shoulder and down the spine. Our traps help tilt, turn and stabilize at the head. They also are involved in shrugging your shoulders, stabilizing the shoulders and twisting the arms.

Basically you are using your traps all day. And there are other factors that impact your traps. Like sleep. If you are like me you like to sleep on their side, giving themselves a hug and pulling their shoulders (shrugging) up to the ears. Basically increasing the tension in my traps while I sleep, go me! I go to sleep to recover, not make things worse.

And then there is stress. If you haven’t heard, your shoulders are a very common place to “carry stress”. Simple put that means, when you are stressed you tend to shrug your shoulders. Putting more tension into those already active traps.

STEPS FOR A TRAP TRACTION

We are using a weight to produce the traction portion of this exercise, but you can just as easily use a counter or desk by grabbing underneath.

1. Stand comfortable on two feet with a shoulder width stance with a weight in your left hand.
2. Keeping your posture tall, but your shoulder relaxed, slowly turn your head to the right and tuck your chin towards your armpit.
3. Find your end range of motion, hold for a few moments and return to start. Repeat this movement varying your chin location.

WHAT TO AVOID

• Pain. As always, mobility should be pain free. Control the stretch by bringing your head into a more upright position.
• Shrugging Shoulders. This is the opposite of what you want here. So try to relax those shoulders to get the most out of this stretch.

TIPS FOR A TRAP TRACTION

• You don’t need a ton of weight, but if all you have at your disposal is a 5 pound weight you are better off using a table/counter/railing. Anything that you can get your hand under to provide a base for the pulling force.
• Try working your chin from your midline out towards your armpit. There might be more than one spot that needs stretching.

HOW TO PERFORM A HIGH PLANK SIT BACK

With so many mobility exercises “on the market” it is hard to know why you should or shouldn’t do one. Unfortunately, without knowing your health history it is hard to know what is right or wrong for you. However, I can tell you some great reasons for doing the high plank to sit back. And if any of those reasons hits home with you, then give it ago by following the steps below. Just make sure to read the section on what to avoid.

Hip & shoulder mobility together – a nice benefit to save time and work functionally. However, this may be a drawback for you if you experience shoulder pain or limited range of motion.

Warm-up & core activation – we know that a plank requires us to use our core, so a high PLANK to sit back will be no different. Doing these will help wake up your core and warm your body to be ready for more challenging movements.

Decrease low back pain – hip mobility is linked to decrease low back pain, but so is core strengthening. Two birds, one stone. You can’t really go wrong there.

STEPS FOR A HIGH PLANK SIT BACK

1. Start in a high plank with your feet shoulder width apart.
2. Push through your hands, bend your knees and sink into yours hips as you “sit back”. This should mirror child’s pose in yoga, except elevated off the ground.
3. Once you have reached your maximal “sit back” push through your toes, straighten your legs and move back to a high plank position.
4. Repeat for desired reps. I recommend sets of 10 for a warm-up, sets of 5 for active recovery

WHAT TO AVOID

• Be sure not to let your low back arch or your hips sag as you bring your body back into a high plank position. Keeping your core engaged the entire time will help prevent any low back arch.
• Pain. We are always avoiding any pain or high level discomfort. Remember that there are a large variety of hip mobility exercises out there. You can certainly find another.

TIPS FOR A HIGH PLANK SIT BACK

• This is a great warm-up exercise, but it can also be incorporated into a workout by adding a movement between reps. For example, a push-up between sit backs or step your feet in and stand-up between each rep.
• If you have wrist discomfort when in a high plank consider using dumbbells (hex style are easiest) as the base for your hands. This will allow your wrists to stay straight, versus the flexed position they typically in during a high plank.

HOW TO PERFORM A HIP CIRCLE

Hip mobility has a large impact on low back pain. For example, tight hips can cause your posture to change and your low back to hurt. Tight hips can also cause an individual to use poor technique while lifting increasing the odds of a low back injury. Working hip mobility to restore range of motion can minimize low back pain and injury.

Increasing range of motion at the hips is also connected to improved athletic performance. Limited range of motion means your mechanics, loading pattern and ability to work efficiently will be limited as well. Opening up range of motion opens up the opportunity to access more power and translate that power to performance.

Before we jump into the steps decide whether you want to do standing or quadruped hip circles. Does it matter? An argument can be made in both directions, but for this purpose you decide. I favor the quadruped when I am indoors and or doing mobility. I use standing when I am outdoor or getting warmed-up, especially for running.

STEPS FOR A STANDING HIP CIRCLE

1. Find your balance on one leg  by engaging your core and keeping a soft bend in the knee of the weighted leg.
2. Once balanced raise the non-weight knee to 90 degrees.
3. Then keeping your foot pointed at the ground rotate your hip open so your knee points to the side.
4. Finally rotate your hip so your knee points down to the ground and your foot to the back.
5. Bring your knee back up to 90 and follow the same steps.
6. Repeat 5 times then reverse the steps, working hip rotation in the opposite direction.

STEPS FOR A QUADRUPED HIP CIRCLE

1. Start on all fours, hands and knees, and brace into the ground by driving force through your limbs and engaging your core.
2. Lift one knee off the ground and rotate at your hip raising your knee away from your body.
3. Rotate your hip again so that your quad is parallel with the ground and your foot is pointing to the sky.
4. Bring your knee back down to the ground and follow the same steps.
5. Repeat 5 times then reverse the steps, working hip rotation in the opposite direction.

WHAT TO AVOID

We have said it before, but we will say it again … we are focusing on a specific range of motion. The size of the movements does not matter. We do NOT want excessive motion or a flailing body. Isolate the movement at your hip by controlling your torso and upper body.

Your hip joint is a ball and socket, which allows the joint a large range of motion. That range of motion can become limited over time. Enter mobility and flexibility training. While you are doing the exercise think about that ball and socket joint. Envision your leg moving around your hip. The rest of your body should be still or quiet.

TIPS FOR A HIP CIRCLE

1. You can use a wall as proprioception to control the rest of your body from moving. Just line up sideways with one shoulder against the wall and maintain contact as you move through the range of motion.
   • When you are in the quadruped position it will prevent too much rocking side to side which will help control your range of motion.
   • Standing it will prevent the side bend from occurring in order to move your leg.
2. Keep your core braced so that you do not wobble side to side and hyper focus your attention on your hip.
   • In the quadruped position you should drive your limbs into the ground & squeeze your abdominals before lifting the knee off the ground.
   • Standing you should put a slight bend in the weighted leg and engage your abdominals to help with balance and posture.

HOW TO PERFORM THORACIC SPINE MOBILITY MINI CRUNCHES

The objective of these mini crunches is to work your thoracic spine into extension. Since we spend a typical day in flexion – sitting and rounding of the shoulders. It is important to focus your attention and movement to the thoracic spine. Movement elsewhere will give you a false range of motion and could contribute to more discomfort.

For simplicity, you can think of your thoracic spine as the section where your ribs are located. It is designed to support and protect the heart and lungs via the ribcage. The range of motion is small, but the thoracic spine can move in flexion (bending forward), extension (arching backward) and rotation. Range of motion most commonly decreases in extension and rotation due to repetitive motions. Like I said above – sitting at a desk, driving, etc.

Of course age and injury can and will have an impact on range of motion. But for the average person it is your daily life style that is causing your range of motion to change, decreasing mobility and contributing to daily discomfort.

STEPS FOR MINI CRUNCHES

1. Start with your foam roller perpendicular to your spine at the bottom of your shoulder blades.
2. Cross your arms over your chest and plant your feet firmly on the ground.
3. Engage your abdominals and squeeze your glutes to brace your lower body.
4. Allow your back to extend, or round, around the foam roller as you lean back.
5. Extend back, as far as you can go, keeping your core engaged.
6. Return to the starting position.
7. Perform 5 reps in one location then move the foam roller slight up your back and repeat.

WHAT TO AVOID

Our main focus here is on the mid back, or the thoracic spine. Your focus should be on creating movement in that region of the body. Avoiding movement in others.

When working on spinal mobility you have to acknowledge that your spine works synergistically, but it should also work independently. Isolating our thoracic spine is essential to creating mobility. We need to avoid movement in our lumbar spine during extension on this exercise.

TIPS FOR MINI CRUNCHES

• You should feel no pain, movement or work in your lower back. If you do work to better engage your core.
• Move the foam roller up only an inch or two at a time to help target individual vertebra.
• If you are able to keep your core engaged you can extend your arms overhead to increase the the force pulling you into extension. A weight can also be held in your hands.
• I’ll say it again … be conscious of your core, specifically keeping it braced. Doing so will help control any movement in your lumbar spine and isolate the movement in your thoracic.