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The Perfect Mobility Routine (FULL BODY FIX!)

The Perfect Mobility Routine (FULL BODY FIX!)

by | Jul 6, 2025 | Blog, Exercises, Foam Rolling, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Stretches, Workouts

Feel like it would take you hours to address ALL of the little aches and pains you have?

Like your age is just making you creakier and creakier?

This doesn’t have to be the case!

I want to share how you can use the 3-step prehab process to address aches and pains up and down your body and improve your mobility by targeting just 3 main key areas with 9 exercises.

These 9 moves include all 3 parts of the prehab process – foam rolling, stretching and activation – to have you feel like a well oiled machine.

And the best part?

They can be combined into a routine you use almost daily that takes just about 10 minutes!

Before I dive into the moves, I want to explain why the full prehab process is so key so you understand the benefits of combining these 9 moves in this specific order – foam rolling, stretching then activation.

And because this makes for even a perfect full body warm up, I’ve focused the stretches on dynamic stretches (ones with movement) over static stretches (where you just hold) to help make sure you improve your flexibility without any impact to your performance.

But you first want to foam roll to relax overactive or tight muscles. Foam rolling is like a massage and helps release knots and relax muscles so you can better engage weak or under active muscles and properly mobilize joints while stretching muscles.

This first part is key to getting everything to work better together.

Then you stretch to improve muscle flexibility but also joint mobility.

With stretching, you want to focus on the muscle driving the stretch, not just what is stretching. This helps you not only better stretch the muscle but begins the activation process – engaging muscles that are weak or often don’t want to work when they should.

Then with activation, you are continuing to mobilize but also stabilize joints. You’re strengthening weak muscles and almost “waking them up” to help them be primed to work during your workouts and more compound exercises and heavier lifts.

This process addresses all key components to injury prevention – mobility, flexibility AND stability.

And bonus, it not only helps you avoid injury, but helps you see better strength and muscle gains for improved body recomp from your workouts!

So now, let’s dive into the 3 areas you’ll want to target, including your:

  • Shoulder blades
  • Hips
  • Feet and ankles

I focus on these 3 areas because if we address immobility or weakness in those places, you’ll be amazed at how even that knee or elbow pain lessens.

Everything is connected and that often where the pain is, isn’t where the initial problem started!

So let’s start with foam rolling, stretching and activation for your shoulder blades to improve scapular mobility and stability.

#1: Scapular Mobility And Stability

Have you ever had neck, shoulder or upper back aches and pains? Even elbow pain?

Addressing the movement of your shoulder blades may be the key to alleviating these aches and pains.

Too often we only focus on our shoulder mobility and forget how much the shoulders and shoulder blades really work together to power movements.

From pulling exercises to even pressing movements, we need to have proper scapular control if we want to use the correct muscles to power the exercises and prevent overload of smaller muscles like our rotator cuff.

To improve your scapular mobility and control, try including these 3 moves before your upper body workouts. It will help improve your pressing as well as your pulling!

The first move you want to include in that prehab or warm up process is Lat Foam Rolling.

While the lat more indirectly impacts your scapular movement, it can really contribute to that rounded shoulder posture, causing aches and pains.

Not so fun fun fact it can even create issues into your lower body because of its connection to your glutes through the thoracolumbar fascia.

And this muscle can often become tight, leading to us not efficiently engaging our backs.

To roll out your lats, a roller works best. Lie on your side with the roller at the side of your back behind your armpit. Reach your hand overhead with your palm facing up to stretch your lat as you roll.

Hold on any tight spots as you work your way down the side of your back, rocking back more as you go lower on your ribs.

Reach your arm overhead then lower it down in front of your chest as you hold on any tight spots you find.

The second move you want to include is a stretch to open up your chest as well as even mobilize your shoulders and shoulder blades – the Suspension Trainer Snow Angels.

Find yourself hunching forward a ton when sitting?

A tight pec minor contributes to anterior tipping of the shoulder blade while a tight pec major can contribute to that internal shoulder rotation – exactly that bad posture we want to reverse.

That’s why this stretch, especially before any overhead pressing, is key.

To do the snow angels, hold a handle in each hand, facing away from the anchor point and walk out so the suspension trainer is pulling back slightly on your arms as they are straight down by your sides.

Engage your upper back and feel your chest open up and stretch as you swing your arms out straight and open overhead from your sides.

By focusing on engaging your back to drive your chest open, you make sure you actually stretch your pecs instead of just seeking out more range of motion from your shoulders.

Feel your shoulder blades move as you raise your arms overhead and then lower them back down to your sides.

The third move you will want to include is an activation exercise – the Roller Serratus Anterior Extensions.

The serratus anterior is a muscle too often ignored and overlooked but it’s been linked to neck, shoulder and even upper back aches and pains as it is a primary scapular stabilizer.

So this activation move is key to create that strength and stability.

To do the serratus anterior extensions, place a roller under your wrists with your palms facing in toward each other at about eye height against a wall.
Walk your feet back so you’re angled into the wall and resting a bit of your weight against the roller just to be able to push into it as you extend up.

Brace your abs and roll your arms up, thinking about pulling your shoulder blades “out and around” forward on your rib cage as you slide up.

Then slide back down, pulling with your back. You want to focus on feeling around your rib cage as you reach out and your back as you pull back down.

Because everything is connected, you may be surprised by how using these 3 moves can even improve your spinal health and have an impact at your hips and pelvis.

But if you do have lower back, hip or knee pain, or have struggles with tight hips in general and hamstring strains, you’ll also want to address these 3 prehab moves to improve your hip mobility and stability next.

#2: Hip Mobility And Stability

Many of us have heard we’re spending too much time seated leading to hip flexor tightness. And this hip flexor tightness can create compensations and imbalances that lead to our lower back hurting during deadlifts or our knees hurting during lunging.

It’s why we want to use these 3 moves to relax those hip flexors, mobilize our hips and spine and even activate our glutes so they’re working properly when they should be.

This starts with relaxing a hip flexor and quad muscle, the rectus femoris, that can perpetuate lower back, hip and knee pain.

It is the only quad muscle that impacts joint movement at both the knee and the hip.

To roll out your Rectus Femoris, you can use a roller or ball. The smaller and harder the trigger point tool, the more it will dig in.

Find the middle of your thigh about half way down and lie over the foam roller or ball. As you hold, flex and relax your thigh to help the muscle relax and release.

You can move up higher or lower on the front middle of your thigh to find any tight spots and hold.

The second move to include is one that addresses not only your hips but also your spine. It’s a stretch that really has that far reaching impact and great when your short on time – the World’s Greatest Stretch.

This dynamic stretch will warm your body up and prepare everything to work, working on thoracic rotation while stretching your glutes, hip flexors, adductors and hamstrings.

To do this stretch, start in a high plank position with your hands then step one foot up and outside the hand on the same side. Squeeze your back glute to stretch that hip flexor.

Drop your elbow on that side down to the ground near the instep of your foot. Do not worry if you can’t touch the ground. Focus on not rocking out on your foot just to touch to make sure you’re really stretching your glute and adductor.

Reach that arm up toward the ceiling, opening your chest up toward that front leg and the ceiling. Focus on your back opening your chest up as you rotate.

Place your hand back down then drop your back knee to the ground to sit back on your heel, straightening your front leg out. Feel a stretch down your hamstring as you hinge, leaning over that front leg while pushing your butt back.

Then repeat the movement.

With this stretch, and all of the others I mention, focus on what is driving the stretch, not just on the muscle stretching.

This focus on what you feel working is also key as you do glute activation moves like exercise number 3 – the Side Lying Wall Lateral Raise.

You can do this move with bodyweight or progress it with a band.

Lie on your side a few inches from the wall with your back to the wall.

Lift your top leg up a few inches off your bottom leg and turn that top toe slightly down toward the ground. Drive your heel back into the wall behind you.

Slide your heel up the wall lifting your leg, feeling your glute working to push back and lift.

And last but not least, you want to address your feet and ankles. They are your foundation. Instability or immobility there can lead to changes in your movements up your entire body.

#3: Feet And Ankle Mobility And Stability

Far too many of us have also had ankle or foot aches and pains that we simply rested then went right back to what we were doing, never addressing the underlying culprit. This may be why we now have knee, hip or even lower back problems.

So taking care of our foundation is key with these prehab moves.

And one often overlooked muscle group of our lower leg are the peroneals, which is why peroneal foam rolling is so key!

Peroneal tightness can lead to what looks like a leg length discrepancy or even a weight shift during squatting. This muscle has a far reaching impact so it can’t be ignored in our prehab.

To roll it, place a ball on the ground and relax your lower leg onto the ball, pressing the outside of your lower leg down into the ball and hold as you even circle your foot.

You want to focus on the side of the meaty part of your calf, holding as you push down and tense and relax the muscle with the foot movement.

The second move to include, the Ankle Mobility And Groin Stretch, improves both the mobility of your ankles but also your hips, activating your glutes and stretching your adductors.

It is a great stretch if you’re struggling with knee pain or find you can’t squat down low.

To do this stretch, set up half kneeling and open your front knee out to the side so your foot and leg is perpendicular to your back kneeling leg.

Bring that front foot back so it is turned out but in line with your back knee and move that foot out so your knee is behind your ankle. Engage your glute then shift your weight, rocking that knee forward over the ball of your foot without your heel coming up.

Don’t lean forward as you rock forward or back. Adjust how far out that foot is from your back knee, shifting it closer for more of a focus on ankle mobility or further out to stretch your groin more.

Then the third activation move will help you strengthen through the range of motion while addressing the too often ignored soleus calf muscle.

By using a plate weight for the Seated Plate Weight Calf Raises, you are working this muscle through an extended range of motion.

The seated position helps you target the soleus over the gastrocnemius which we so often focus on with our calf raises.

Strengthening this muscle improves our gait mechanics which can help us walk and run more efficiently without pain!

To do Seated Plate Weight Calf Raises, sit on a bench with the plate weight on the ground in front of you and the balls of your feet on the edge of it.
Your heels should be on the ground aligned about under your knees so you feel a slight stretch in your calves.

Drive through the balls of your feet and toes to lift your heels up off the ground.

Pause at the top to feel your calves then make sure to lower all the way back down to use the increased range of motion.

Combine all 9 of these moves for a quick full body prehab routine.

Setting a timer for 30 seconds per move or per side and completing all foam rolling then stretching then activation can make for an amazing mobility series or warm up.

For this quick prehab routine written out, check the video descriptions.

But a little goes a long way when done consistently! Consider using this routine even 3-4 times a week! It takes under 10 minutes!
—-

Prehab Routine:

FOAM ROLLING:
30 seconds per side Lat Foam Rolling
30 seconds per side Rectus Femoris Foam Rolling
30 seconds per side Peroneal Foam Rolling

STRETCHING:
30 seconds Suspension Trainer Snow Angels
30 seconds per side Ankle Mobility And Groin Stretch
30 seconds per side World’s Greatest Stretch

ACTIVATION:
30 seconds Roller Serratus Anterior Extensions
30 seconds Seated Plate Weight Calf Raises
30 seconds per side Side Lying Wall Lateral Raise

For mobility work included with EVERY workout, check out my Dynamic Strength program:

–> LEARN MORE

The TFL Muscle (Tensor Fasciae Latae) – The Hidden Cause Of Low Back, Hip, Knee and Ankle Pain

The TFL Muscle (Tensor Fasciae Latae) – The Hidden Cause Of Low Back, Hip, Knee and Ankle Pain

by | May 25, 2025 | Blog, Core, Exercises, Foam Rolling, Pain Relief

There’s just this nagging pain you can’t seem to get rid of.

Maybe it’s your lower back. Your hip. Or even your knee or your ankle that feels off.

You’ve stretched. You’ve strengthened. You’ve rested even.

But the issue never really goes away. It keeps coming back.

The culprit may be one muscle that you don’t realize is perpetually getting overworked…

The TFL.

And this muscle can have a far reaching impact leading to aches and pains from your back down to your feet. 

In this video I want to break down… 

…where the TFL is and what it does, 

…how doing even the “right” moves can backfire and

…then how to adjust your movements to help you better activate your glutes

…while also doing the mobility work to relax this tight and overworked muscle.

So first, where is the TFL, what does it do and why should you even care?

The TFL or tensor fasciae latae is a small muscle on the outside of your hip.

To feel where your TFL is so you can notice when it is working, put your hand on the front top of your pelvis down your leg as you’re lying on your side.

Rotate your toe down toward the ground, turning your leg all the way up toward your hip. This internal rotation of your hip should make your TFL tense.

Ever notice that area really burning or working during moves like band walks where you’re trying to make your glutes work?

That’s your TFL compensating for your glute medius and becoming overworked and probably tight. And this is what can throw your ENTIRE lower body out of alignment and even perpetuate back pain.

Your TFL helps flex your hip, internally rotates your thigh, and abducts your leg.

Because it connects into your IT Band, tension in your TFL doesn’t just stay local.

It impacts your knee and even reaches your ankle. It even changes the way your feet strike the ground.

Over time, these changes in your movements, these compensation can lead to:

  • IT Band Syndrome
  • Patellofemoral pain (or runner’s knee)
  • Hip impingement or hip pain
  • Shin splints
  • Even chronic ankle issues

And here’s the kicker and why you need to care about this muscle… 

You might be seeing some of these other aches and pains and so focused on the point of pain you didn’t realize the culprit is this nasty little sucker of a muscle. 

So all of your work to correct those other issues doesn’t pay off and you just constantly struggle with aches and pains sidelining you.

Now if you’re like, but I am doing glute medius strengthening because I have heard it’s my TFL is the issue…

That’s great…BUT…

What do you feel working?

Because “good” moves, the “right” moves, done with the wrong muscles working? 

That’s only going to make the issues worse and lead to a lot of frustration that your hard work isn’t paying off.

Going back to when I mentioned band walks…

Ever do those and end up rubbing right where you now know your TFL is?

Or maybe it’s clams. Or a lateral raise…

If you don’t feel the side of your butt really being the main muscle working and instead feel the burn in your TFL…

Your TFL is still running the show.

You may even be trying to roll out other areas that feel tight…

Foam rolling your back when it gets sore or your lower leg because your ankles are having issues or even around your knees because they’re feeling twingy…

But none of this is addressing the original overcompensation pattern.

You can’t just fix the tight spots downstream. 

You have to go straight to the source.

So how do you change those recruitment patterns and get your glute medius working as it should instead of your TFL taking over?

I want to share 3 form tweaks that may help based on the move you’re doing that emphasis using that glute medius over the TFL and then even share other prehab exercises, both foam rolling and stretching, that you can use to relax that TFL further.

That relaxation of the muscle even prior to the glute activation moves can only help you change those recruitment patterns and make it easier to have that mind-body connection work correctly.

Basically, it helps you mentally find your butt to make sure it’s working when it should be!

Form Tip #1: Turn your toe in and down. 

Your TFL internally rotates your hip or turns it in and abducts your leg, lifting it laterally. 

But while you’ll often see your thigh and knee cap turn in with a tight TFL, you’ll also see your lower leg externally rotate and your feet turn out. 

If you find your knees really cave in with movement, give your TFL some love!

But turning that toe down toward the ground or back in can help prevent the movement pattern seen with a tight TFL to help avoid it taking over. 

While this may lead to you internally rotating all the way up your leg, this movement puts the emphasis on the glute medius to raise the leg laterally. 

I joking say it “distracts” the TFL, making that muscle even contribute to working to internally rotate so it can’t take over for the glute medius during abduction. It’s too distracted with the other movement!

So think of slightly leading with your heel as you raise your leg up or out to the side.

Form Tip #2: Use hip extension. 

Your TFL is also a hip flexor, meaning it works to bend your hips. 

You can therefore prevent it from working by extending your hip.

This has the added bonus of also engaging your glute max which can help your glute medius fire better. 

Just make sure that you aren’t faking that hip extension by arching your back or leaning over as a torso hinge is hip flexion.

Focus on using your glute to extend truly at the hip, even pushing back into something like a wall as you laterally lift your leg. 

You should feel not only the side of your butt but also the back of your butt working.

Pair this with turning your toe down for even better activation!

Form Tip #3: Play With Your Setup.

Ever notice when doing different moves some are way easier to feel your glutes working in? While with others you can’t get that TFL to shut off no matter how modified you make them?

If this is the case, play around with postures and positions. 

With our glute medius, different fibers contribute slightly to different joint actions. 

So don’t hesitate to lean forward or back instead of sitting straight up during seated abductions. This can help you target more anterior or even posterior fibers of the gluted medius.

Try even bridge abductions to use that hip extension to engage your glute max.

But don’t be afraid to play around with postures and variations, using both one sided and two sided moves.

And to help you master moves you can’t get your TFL to be quiet during, try including them AFTER a move where you’ve already gotten a little pump in your glute medius with. 

Often that little pump can make it easier to then feel the correct muscles working in the moves 

Remember if you’re not feeling it in the right place? You’re not fixing the right problem.

And if you’re really struggling with your TFL taking over…here’s a huge piece most people skip:

The foam rolling and stretching.

Prehab is a 3 part process – 

Foam roll tight and overactive muscles…

Stretch those muscles as you mobilize joints…

THEN activate to strengthen weak and underactive muscles and improve stability. 

So if you’re using the tweaks I mentioned above with activation moves for your glute medius and struggling with still feeling your TFL try these two moves prior…

TFL Foam Rolling and the Lunge and Reach.

Both are great to include as part of your warm up.

To roll out your TFL…

Place the ball on the front side of your hip, lying over it. You can roll it back toward your glute or slightly down the side of your leg in front of your hip bone. 

But focus on that spot that tenses as you turn your leg in.

Hold on any tight spots and breathe as you relax into the ball. 

Lift and lower your leg to tense and relax 5-10 times. 

You can also bend your knee toward your chest and extend your leg back out to hit this hip flexor as well.

You can use this foam rolling move during rest between activation or even strength exercises when you feel the TFL taking over, but for sure include it in your warm up or prehab before a stretch like the Lunge and Reach.

To do the Lunge and Reach…

Step forward on one side, keeping your back leg straighter as you lunge forward. Lunge deeper to intensify the movement and stretch.

Reach with your opposite hand overhead even leaning to reach further. You will feel a stretch down your side but into the front side of that back hip.

Really engage that back glute to drive your hip into extension.

If you are really struggling with TFL tightness or even using this in your cooldown, you can do a static stretch variation half kneeling on the ground near a way.

But focus on that hip extension engaging your glute as you reach toward the opposite side to stretch.

Remember, the point of pain is not always where the problem started.

If your knees hurt…If your hips feel stiff…If your ankles feel locked up…

If you’re doing a lot of the “right” things but nothing’s adding up, look at other areas that can have an impact, like your TFL

Because if you don’t address the TFL? You’ll just keep fighting the same battle over and over.

Try those form tweaks after the foam rolling and stretching moves today.

Focus on what you truly feel working to finally change those recruitment patterns and address that overload to alleviate those aches and pains!

Move and feel your best with Dynamic Strength workouts. Every workout includes the prehab work you need!

–> Learn More

Do You Do This During Ab Workouts? 5 Mistakes You Might Be Making

Do You Do This During Ab Workouts? 5 Mistakes You Might Be Making

by | May 4, 2025 | Blog, Core, Exercises, Pain Relief, Workouts

Feel like your ab workouts aren’t paying off? This video’s your missing link.

Because harder moves don’t mean better results.

We can be doing all the “right” exercises—and still not see the payoff.

Why?

Because we’re compensating. Letting our hips or lower back take over instead of our abs doing the work.

And when that happens, we start to blame the moves—even the ones we should be doing.

We write them off because they cause pain. But it’s not the move. It’s how you’re doing it.

So let’s fix that. Let’s stop the aches and pains. Let’s make sure every rep actually builds the strong abs you’re working for.

Here are 5 common ab training mistakes—and how to fix them.

MISTAKE #1: Doing moves you haven’t earned.

Moves need to fit our current fitness level, needs and goals. When we do exercises we haven’t earned, we end up using the incorrect muscles to power the movements.

This is why we can end up feeling our lower back or hip flexors over our abs working during certain core movements.

Too often we then try to put a bandaid on the issue to power through.

Doing a harder move is better, right?

WRONG!

Regress to progress.

Modifying a move doesn’t mean making it easier on yourself – it means allowing yourself to optimize the exercise.

A prime example of this is putting your hands behind your lower back during leg lower exercises.

Placing your hands under your lower back might feel better in the moment, but it’s not teaching you to properly control the exercise and brace your abs.

Instead of putting your hands behind your lower back to cheat and do a move you haven’t earned, learn to properly brace by regressing to the pelvic tilt hold.

Then build back up.

Learn to truly engage your abs through that tuck of your pelvis toward your ribs. This will protect your lower back and allow you to use your abs to stabilize, even engage your glutes as well.

When you can control this hold, you can then begin to add back in movement, using a pelvic tilt with march.

Then a double knee tuck before building back to a single leg lower and finally the full double leg lower movement.

By building up the right way, you’ll actually work your abs and be amazed at how much stronger they get.

Don’t let ego in doing a harder move hold you back.

MISTAKE #2: Demonizing spinal flexion moves like crunches and sit ups.

Crunches and sit-ups often get written off and even demonized.

But these bodyweight basics work our abs through spinal flexion. Something that planks or big heavy lifts don’t do.

It’s our abs’ job to power that rounding of our spine so we want to include moves that train it.

The key is using these moves correctly so that we don’t rely just on our hip flexors or end up overusing our lower back.

Spinal flexion is about thinking of the curl or roll up of one vertebrae at a time.

Starting out, you may find crunches are easiest to control as they are a more isolated movement. You’re only having to really focus on your abs powering a smaller range of motion to flex your spine and lift through your shoulder blades.

Really focus on your abs curling your upper back off the ground as you press your lower back down into it.

The crunch can really help you focus on that ab activation and mind-body connection because it is so isolated.

Then you can start to move into sit ups, learning to control the full roll up.

Too often with sit ups we just, well, sit up, letting our feet flop around or using momentum, even swinging or arching back overhead when we lay down.

Instead slow things down and think about rounding forward as you reach toward your toes to roll up. Then slowly lowering one vertebra at a time back down

But don’t avoid training this movement pattern. It may not only be the key to getting the amazing strong and defined abs you want (with your diet dialed in of course) but may even help you avoid back pain in your other lifting exercises!

MISTAKE #3: Not focusing on the correct muscles working.

Often we are including many of the “right” core moves, we’re just trying to mimic what we think is proper form and not performing the full exercise or using the correct muscles to power the full movement.

It goes back to mistake #1…we’re trying to do an exercise we haven’t earned so we cheat.

We do leg lowers where we aren’t bracing our abs properly with the posterior pelvic tilt so we’re only really using our hip flexors to lift and lower.

Or we’re doing hanging ab moves and not actually curling our knees toward our elbows by rounding through our spine, we’re only bending and extending at our hips to tuck our knees up.

If you feel your hip flexors working during these reverse crunch or leg raise movements, your hip flexors are what are getting worked. Not your abs.

This perpetuates aches and pains and makes all of our hard work not pay off the way it should.

And even backfire. Because not only can this lead to hip flexor issues, but tight, overworked hip flexors can perpetuate our lower back pain.

Focus on that true spinal flexion. The posterior pelvic tilt is spinal flexion with that tuck of your pelvis toward your ribs.

That curling of your knees toward your elbows as you hang is spinal flexion.

Focus on that movement and regress to progress if you need so you can.

Try an incline ab variation or even lying reverse crunch with overhead hold. But train the proper movement and recruitment pattern.

Don’t just focus on doing the move, focus on what you feel working!

MISTAKE #4: Training to fatigue over using frequency to your advantage.

Have you ever just thought, “I just need to get through the moves!” then rushed through the exercises while tired knowing you were a bit sloppy?

Quality matters. Yet so often we focus on quantity.

We seek to be sore and tired.

Instead of trying to destroy your abs in a workout and do a ton of reps and sets, lower the volume and train them more frequently over the week.

And have a clear set routine you repeat each week, don’t randomly string things together.

While ab exercises can and should be done for higher reps, like 15-25 per set with generally lighter loads if any weight, you still don’t want to focus on just doing 100s of reps in a day.

Spread out that volume over the week. When you are fresher and less fatigued for the moves, you’ll perform a better quality of work.

You may find you are even able to do more advanced variations for all the reps than you could have had you stacked them all together.

And you put yourself at less risk for getting tired and then calling on other muscles to help you power through the moves.

Think about even just a couple of moves done for 2-3 sets 3-4 times a week even.

MISTAKE #5: Focusing on doing more over intensity.

A 2-minute plank where you’re zoning out? Not helpful.

Yet so often we focus on doing more over not only the quality but also the intensity of each rep.

When you’re doing an exercise, focus on really challenging yourself with the movement. Focus on what you feel working and engaging that muscle fully.

With bodyweight movements like the plank, use that mind-body connection to try to engage your abs, and entire core, harder to create shakeage.

Yes shakeage.

Focus on your back supporting your shoulders, bracing that core as if being punched in the gut with that slight posterior pelvic tilt. Flex your quads and drive back hard through your heels.

Don’t let yourself relax during the movement. Create that tension.

Because holding longer while cheating may make your ego feel good, but it isn’t making those abs work more.

We often end up compensating as well, which is why we feel our hips or back the next day even if we didn’t notice during.

It’s not about the clock — it’s about the tension.

You want to feel like you’re barely surviving a 15 second hold the more advanced you are over having ego in just going longer.

You want to use that more advanced ab move, even if you have to pause to complete all the reps.

Shorten the time. Maximize the effort and intensity.

Stop going through the motions with your workouts or letting ego lead to you trying to do moves you haven’t earned.

Regress to progress, focus on that quality of work and be intentional with every move you do!

This will lead to you building the strong abs you want, you can then reveal through proper nutrition!

For amazing workouts to help you build your leanest, strongest body ever, check out my Dynamic Strength program:

–> Dynamic Strength

The Weakest Muscle in Your Upper Body (Your SERRATUS ANTERIOR)

The Weakest Muscle in Your Upper Body (Your SERRATUS ANTERIOR)

by | Feb 17, 2025 | Blog, Exercises, Foam Rolling, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Stretches, Warm Up

When we create upper body workouts, we map in exercises for our chest, shoulders, back, biceps, triceps…

But we too often don’t include moves for this essential muscle…

The Serratus Anterior.

And while no, this muscle isn’t going to be one we target with super heavy lifts during our sessions, it is a key muscle we strengthen and activate if we want to be able to press or pull more without shoulder injury and see the muscle gains we want from our training.

Honestly this muscle needs far more love than it gets, especially if we have had previous shoulder, neck or even upper back aches and pains.

That’s why I want to break down the important role this muscle plays in our shoulder and scapular health as well as how to make sure your serratus anterior is working so we can see better strength and muscle gains.

Then I’ll go over 3 key moves to activate and strengthen your serratus anterior as well as a few bonus prehab tips to help you get more out of your upper body training in general!

First, why is the Serratus Anterior so important?

The serratus anterior is often called the boxer’s muscle as it is key to a powerful punch and its main function is protraction of the shoulder blades or that movement of the shoulder blades forward around your rib cage.

Not only does this muscle control the movement of our shoulder blade to protract as we press horizontally like in a bench press or punch, but also to upwardly rotate as we press overhead.

This upward rotation of the shoulder blade allows us to use our back correctly to support our shoulders and power the press overhead. Limited movement can lead to us really struggling to press vertically up.

Our shoulder blades can also limit our ability to press overhead and lead to neck, shoulder and upper back aches and pains by being anteriorly tipped.

This is when our shoulder blades don’t sit correctly on our rib cage and the bottom slightly sticks out as the top of the shoulder blade is tilted forward.

This is another function of the serratus anterior – to stabilize the shoulder blade so it does sit correctly and can even posteriorly tilt slightly as we press overhead.

This proper positioning of our shoulder blades due to our serratus anterior being strong is essential for us to be able to lift more and avoid upper back, neck and shoulder injuries, even rotator cuff issues.

And too often, we ignore this muscle and even BLAME our rotator cuff for our shoulder pain instead.

This can lead to us doing a ton of work for our rotator cuff which only makes issues worse through further working an overworked or even restricted muscle because it isn’t allowed to work correctly due to limited scapular movement!

And on top of the role it plays in our shoulder blade movement, the serratus anterior also impacts our breathing mechanics and can enhance our physique when developed creating that nice definition around our rib cage!

Next I want to dive into really locating this muscle to feel it working and even address some common issues we can encounter when trying to strengthen it.

It isn’t uncommon with many basic serratus anterior exercises to feel our upper traps, levator scapulae and even pec minor start to want to work when our serratus anterior is weak.

So where is the Serratus Anterior to be exact and how can I tell when other muscles are taking over?

The serratus anterior is the muscle on the sides of your ribs just under your armpit.

Place your opposite hand on your ribs under your armpit then reach the hand on the same side out as if punching or pressing. Feel that muscle engage.

This is what you want to feel working in the 3 Serratus Anterior Activation Exercises I’ll go over next.

All too often though when this muscle is weak, we start to feel the area at the base of our neck, top of our shoulder blade toward our spine or even our chest into the front of our shoulder working instead.

These areas are us feeling our upper traps, levator scapulae, pec minor and even anterior delt starting to work more to compensate for our serratus anterior being weak.

Our upper traps and levator scapula elevate our shoulder blade or lift it up.

We see this happen with a shrugging motion.

And often we tend to shrug extra when pressing to try to lift heavier and compensate for other areas of weakness.

We can also see our chest, specifically our pec minor muscle, and the front of our shoulder feel like they are working extra to stabilize our shoulder when our shoulder blade isn’t sitting properly on our rib cage.

The pec minor works to protract our shoulder blades so will work extra if the serratus anterior isn’t pulling its weight.

The pec minor also will anteriorly tip the shoulder blades when the serratus anterior isn’t strong enough to fight against it and keep alignment. This is why we can see those neck, shoulder and upper back aches and pains popping up.

This is also why we’re often told to do extra rowing or pulling exercises to balance out our posture and strong chest muscles.

And while strengthening our back can be key, especially if we spend a ton of time seated, hunched over our devices, the extra back work may not be paying off if we keep ignoring our serratus anterior!

That’s why I wanted to share 3 activation moves to help!

3 Serratus Anterior Exercises:

The first is a move great for almost every fitness level, the Roller Serratus Anterior Shoulder Extensions.

This move can be done as a unilateral, or one sided exercise, or with both sides at the same time.

To do this move, I love using a roller against a wall, but you can also use sliders or a towel, especially for the one-sided variation.

Place the roller right below your wrists with your palms facing in. You want to be slightly angled in toward the wall to apply more pressure.

Really push into the roller to even feel your serratus anterior slightly engage from a little movement of your shoulder blades away from your spine.

Then roll up on the wall, reaching overhead. Feel your the bottom of your shoulder blades open out to the sides of your back as you feel around your rib cage work to reach up. Don’t just shrug your shoulders.

While you don’t want to force your shoulders down to limit the movement of your shoulder blades, you want to make sure your shoulders aren’t just moving and you aren’t just shrugging.

The roll up is coming from your shoulder blades moving first.

Really push hard into the wall as you extend up, then pull the roller back down to about shoulder height and repeat.

If you have shoulder pain or limited mobility on one side, performing a single arm variation is best.

Note if you start to feel that base of your neck area or even your chest and front of shoulder working too much to walk in a bit closer to the wall or not extend up as high to start.

Another option to work on this overhead serratus strengthening is a Downward Dog Scapular Press. This can help you focus on that push of the ground away to engage if that cue, pushing away helps or you don’t have something you can use to slide on a wall.

The next activation exercise is the Serratus Anterior Press.

This is a horizontal pressing option which focuses on protraction more while the Shoulder Extensions focus a lot on upward rotation of the shoulder blade as well.

The one thing to really be careful with during this press, is that your pecs or the front of your shoulders don’t take over.

It’s one reason I don’t use the push up plus often for activation for the serratus anterior but will include it in workouts for pure strength building.

But this move is a great way to isolate each side independently and even correct imbalances.

A band or cable work well for this move and you’ll want to standing in a staggered stance.

You’re going to be performing a variation of a chest press or punch with the hand of the leg that is staggered back.

As you press out, feel your shoulder blade move forward around your rib cage and focus on those muscles around your ribs really pulling it forward.

You want to even get that little extra reach out at the end, slightly rotating even.

Then bring your hand back into your chest. Be conscious that even though you may slightly press up as you press out that you don’t shrug at the end.

If you don’t have a band or cable, wall protractions are always an option.

To do the wall protractions, place your knuckles on the wall, palms facing in and make sure you aren’t shrugging.

Then push off the wall, pulling your shoulder blades forward to almost round your spine back.

Don’t just hunch forward. Feel the pull of your shoulder blades around your ribs coming from you pushing away from the wall.

The 3rd activation move I love to include is the Scapular Push Up To Dolphin.

This move strengthens the serratus anterior but also helps you learn to control scapular retraction, the movement of the shoulder blades toward the spine to engage your upper back, as well as your core stability.

That scapular retraction component can really be helpful if you do find your pecs often want to engage.

With this move you’ll set up in a forearm plank with your elbows under your shoulders as your feet close together.

You want that nice plank position. You’ll then pinch your shoulder blades toward your spine to retract before pushing the ground away to protract them back.

Once back in that plank position, you’ll pike your butt up and drive your chest back toward your feet. It’s like a downward dog from your forearms. Feel yourself stretch through your triceps down the sides of your back.

Feel around your rib cage working to press your chest back as you extend your spine.

Then come back into the plank and repeat.

Make sure you don’t shrug your shoulders as you pinch your shoulder blades together or push the ground away. And really focus on that shoulder blade movement then the extension of your spine as you push back.

Now…If you’re struggling to isolate and feel your serratus anterior working, especially with any of these moves, you will want to include these other prehab moves potentially before your activation exercises…

Because that full 3-step prehab process of foam rolling, stretching and activation is key.

Here are 2 foam rolling and 2 stretching moves you may want to include prior to your activation work for your serratus anterior in your warm up routine.

First, Chest Foam Rolling.

Rolling our your pec minor with a ball can help relax this muscle that wants to take over. A ball in a doorway is best as you put that ball right at the front of your arm pit next to your shoulder joint.

Hold in the meat of the muscle as you even reach your hand overhead then back down toward the ground.

The second foam rolling moves is Levator Scapulae Foam Rolling.

You can do this against a wall or the ground. The ground will allow you to apply more pressure.

But find that top edge of your shoulder blade closest to your spine. Put the ball right above that corner and press into the ball.

You can look down and away tilting your head to help stretch the muscle as you hold. You can then even help the muscle relax and release as you hold by moving your arm up and down or back and forth across your chest.

And after including some foam rolling, especially in your warm up, you want to do a few dynamic stretches.

One key one is the Kneeling Thoracic Extension And Lat Stretch.

This stretch works on improving our shoulder and thoracic mobility. A lack of both can also have an impact on our scapular movement.

Especially a lack of thoracic extension can lead to our shoulder blades not sitting properly on our rib cage.

And tight lats can also perpetuate the bad posture that doesn’t allow our serratus to work as it should.

To do this stretch, you can kneel on the ground with your elbows on a bench. You want to sit back on your heels as you drop your chest toward the ground and lengthen through your spine.

Don’t just arch your lower back but focus on pressing your chest down to extend through your mid and upper back, feeling down the sides of your back stretching, not just your triceps.

Then relax out and repeat.

If you can’t kneel, you can even do this as more of a wall hang variation with your hands on the wall as you hinge over and press your chest toward the ground, extending your spine.

The final prehab move that can be key is Suspension Trainer Snow Angels.

This stretch improves your shoulder mobility and works to stretch out your pecs to help improve your shoulder blade alignment.

This is super key if you feel your pecs during your activation work or even your anterior delts.

To do this move, you’ll have a hand in each suspension trainer handle and face away, walking out so there is a bit of tension with your arms down by your sides.

You’ll then slowly bring your arms out and up overhead as if you were making a snow angel in the snow.

Feel your chest stretch as you open up at the top. You don’t want the movement only coming from your shoulders. Then lower down and repeat. You can walk out further to get more of a pull back.

If you don’t have a suspension trainer, you could do one side at a time, sliding your hand up on a wall next to a doorway or do a version lying face up on a foam roller.

But if you’ve struggled to lift as heavy as you’d like especially due to neck, shoulder or even upper back aches and pains, stop ignoring this essential muscle!

This prehab work in your warm up goes a long way!

And the stronger our weakest links and those muscles that really improve our stability, the more we can lift and push our workouts to improve our muscle and strength gains!

For workouts that include prehab in every routine, check out my Dynamic Strength program:

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The Weakest Muscle in Your Lower Body (Your Glute Medius)

The Weakest Muscle in Your Lower Body (Your Glute Medius)

by | Dec 1, 2024 | Blog, Butt, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Runner's

Stop ignoring this muscle…

The Glute Medius.

The thing is…we THINK we’re doing a ton of exercises to work this muscle and target it at times.

But all too often we’re doing the “right” moves and compensating because of previous injuries and tight hip flexors from sitting for most of the day.

We’re letting our TFL, a hip flexor, or our piriformis, a butt muscle that turns the hip out and open, take over for the glute medius.

And this not only doesn’t help us build stronger glutes, but perpetuates the aches and pains and injuries FURTHER.

So all of that hard work we’re putting in to correct the problem is actually making it worse.

That’s why I want to break down how to actually make sure your glute medius is working and form tweaks to 2 basic glute medius moves I see people doing all of the time and not truly benefiting from.

I’ll also share a few bonus prehab tips to help you get more out of your glute activation exercises in general!

But first, I need to mention the most important part of activating the correct muscles during movements…

Not just going through the motions with exercises!

You need to actually ask yourself as you do the moves, “Where and what do I feel working?”

This mind-body connection is key. And starting out it may be more of a challenge.

You may not feel anything working when you think about it.

The key is learning to notice when other muscles are taking over.

Which is why I want to help you understand how to know your glute medius is truly working…

This starts with understanding where you DON’T want to feel the move.

And you don’t want to feel this move in your TFL, piriformis or down your IT band. Now if you have no idea where these things are, don’t worry, I’m about to break all of this down!

Let’s start with the TFL…

It is key to note that the TFL, or tensor fascia latae if you want to be all fancy, IS an abductor muscle like the glute medius so IS going to work with lateral raise movements too. It helps raise your leg out to the side and stabilize lateral movement.

But too often it is becoming overworked leading to hip, back, IT band and even knee and ankle issues because we aren’t aware it is taking over for the glute medius.

To feel where your TFL is so you can notice when it is working, put your hand on the front top of your pelvis down your leg as you’re lying on your side.

Rotate your toe down toward the ground, turning your leg all the way up toward your hip.

You’ll feel the TFL flex as you do this movement. That’s where you then DON’T want to feel the main part of any lateral raise type movements you do if you want to target your glute medius.

Next the piriformis…

Now this muscle will assist more with external rotation type exercises, so moves where you’re lifting your leg out to the side but also rotating your hip open or turning your toe out.

To notice your piriformis working instead, you will want to lie on your side and put your hand were the top of your back pocket on your pants would be. Then turn your toe open toward the ceiling, externally rotating your hip. You’ll feel that piriformis muscle flex.

Again you don’t want to feel this taking over during those glute medius lateral raise, abduction movements.

And the last area I want to mention is the IT Band as often we can feel tension down the side of our thigh during these movements as we start to progress them.

Part of this is because of the TFL’s connection to our IT Band and that becoming overworked.

But also because we aren’t focusing on the lift coming from our glute.

If you feel tension down the outside of your leg, you will want to then check to feel if your TFL is really flexed during the exercise especially or if you feel your glute medius working.

Now…I want to help you find your glute medius so you can check to feel it working in moves when you can’t yet just feel it activating with that mind-body connection yet.

Then I want to dive into the 2 moves and form tweaks you can make to help you make sure this muscle is powering the movement.

To find your glute medius so you can place your hand on this muscle even during moves to feel it working and build that mind-body connection, set up half kneeling with one leg forward and your knee bent to 90 degrees.

You want your knee right over your ankle.

Take your hand on the same side and place your thumb in your hip crease with your palm resting fat at the outer hip joint.

Your palm is resting on your glute medius.

Keeping your palm there, lie on your side and lift your leg straight up to the side.

You “should” feel it working.

But if you don’t, this is where the tweaks to form with basic moves is key!

Because form with exercises isn’t so binary and just good or bad.

There are tweaks we can make to work with our builds and our recruitment patterns, or how we’ve taught our body to use muscles based on daily movements and injuries.

Since we used the basic lateral raise to find these muscles, I want to start with this move and the adjustments you can make to this exercise to really make sure you feel your glute medius working!

The Basic Lateral Raise:

The lateral raise exercise can be done standing or lying down and you can use a variety of tools, including mini bands to progress it.

But before you advance it, you want to be able to really activate your glute medius with just your own bodyweight.

You have to EARN the addition of resistance, or even a bigger range of motion. And you earn that by being able to engage a muscle with just your own bodyweight.

If you struggle doing the lateral raise with feeling those other areas we went over and not your glute medius, the first change to the move you may want to make is your hip rotation, which often we can see in our TOE ANGLE.

Is your toe and foot pointing straight ahead? Turned open? Or down toward the ground?

If you’re struggling to feel your glute medius, you may find it isn’t turned down toward the ground and that internally rotating your hip and turning your toe down toward the ground actually HELPS.

While having your foot parallel to the ground and toe pointing forward isn’t wrong in the slightest nor is turning your toe open, often those make it harder for us to avoid compensating to start.

If you turn your toe down and still don’t feel your glute, notice your body alignment.

Are your hips slightly flexed? Is your torso slightly forward or legs slightly in front creating a slight bend in your hips?

If so, straighten out and squeeze your glutes to drive your hips into extension. Do not arch your back. Just extend your hips with your glutes.

This engagement of your glute max can help.

You can also then slightly kick back as you raise your leg out to the side.

This also focuses the move more on your glutes to help prevent the TFL, which flexes the hips, from engaging.

Kicking back into a wall even and holding that pressure as you raise can even help further if the basic kickback isn’t enough.

Just to recap the tweaks…

Turn the toe down toward the ground, rotating your hip toward the ground. Keep this position during the move. If you’re standing, you’re turning your toe in toward your other leg.

Make sure your lying in a straight line with your glutes engaged.

Kick back slightly as you lift even pushing into a wall through the entire move.

The next move I wanted to cover is The Clamshell.

This is a move that anyone with back pain, hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain has probably been given in physical therapy.

And it is an amazing move, when done correctly.

But so often this move isn’t done while targeting the glute medius and we don’t even realize it.

With the clam, we tend to focus on range of motion and making it a bigger movement, which really is just more external rotation of the hip and often leads to us feeling the piriformis more.

To stop us focusing so much on the range of motion, place a yoga blocks between your feet. This helps you really focus on lifting from your glutes and makes the move very small.

Sometimes shrinking the range of motion on an exercise to start can help.

Because, while we do want to strengthen muscles through a full range of motion, we first need to isolate to activate at times.

So using the yoga block you can focus on just that small movement to lift the knee open.

This also helps you avoid any toe rotation and therefore extra hip rotation. This keeps your feet locked in parallel.

But if you don’t have a block, just like with the lateral raise, even turning your toe down over your bottom foot can help you focus on that glute medius and restrict the range of motion of the clam too!

You can also put your back against a wall to help you avoid rotating open or swinging your leg if you don’t have a yoga block while almost seeing the exercise as you working to STOP the lift open.

And just like the lateral raise, we also want to pay attention to the amount of hip flexion we have during the exercise or how much our hips are bent.

The more out in front of you your knees are, the more your hips will be bent, which can make it harder to feel your glute medius and easier for your TFL to compensate.

And while you may adjust the degree of hip flexion to target different aspects of the glute medius eventually, to start you want to find the positioning that allows you to make sure your glute is working.

Keeping your hips more extended can help and the wall behind you can be a guide to set up.

To recap these tweaks quickly…

Use a yoga block or wall to help you avoid making the exercise movement bigger than it needs to be and focus on that glute lifting.

Adjust how bent your hips are to even extend your hips more and engage your glutes better.

Turn your top toe down over your bottom foot to help limit the range of motion and focus on that glute even stopping the lifting through engaging.

Then as you feel your glute medius working in both of these moves, you can add resistance.

A mini band placed often on the thighs is a great way to start.

Placing a light resistance closer to our hips helps us really focus on still feeling our glute medius working as we create more of a challenge for the muscle to strengthen it!

Now if you’re still struggling with feeling everything but your glute medius working right from the start, you should NOT add resistance.

And you want to make sure you’re doing that full prehab process, including foam rolling and stretching prior to these activation moves.

Foam roll your TFL and your piriformis to help relax and release those muscles.
Stretch your hip flexors to allow your glutes to engage better.

THEN do these activation moves.

And don’t be afraid to pause in your activation to use those foam rolling moves especially if you do feel something compensating.

But don’t just keep pushing through!

Because what you feel working is getting all of the benefit of the exercise. Make sure the muscles you want are truly being worked!

If you want to improve your hip stability, avoid knee, hip and lower back aches and pains, lift more, run faster and cycle further, stop ignoring the importance of making sure your glute medius is actually benefiting from all the exercises you are doing!

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7 Tips To Start Back in the Gym After a Layoff

7 Tips To Start Back in the Gym After a Layoff

by | Sep 29, 2024 | Blog, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Workouts

Starting back to working out is HARD.

It’s easy to do too much too fast and prevent ourselves from getting into a routine or even end up injured.

It’s hard to regress to progress and even check our egos to do less than we were doing before.

But meeting ourselves where we are at to rebuild is key.

That’s why I want to share 7 tips to help you avoid the common training mistakes I see people making when starting back so you can rebuild even stronger and get that momentum going so results snowball!

And I will warn you…as you build back, it can be hard at times to not compare to where you were at before.

But this comparison can kill our gains.

Which is why tip number 1 is to remember every move is EARNED!

It’s tempting to try to go back to what you once did before you took time off.

But that is a recipe for injury or at least soreness that may sideline you for weeks, holding you back from getting consistent.

You have to build back. You have to earn those moves again.

And often it isn’t enough to just think “do less.”

You truly need to focus on modifying to match where you are at now.

It may mean taking more than one or two steps back to focus on fully re-establishing those movement patterns and that mind-body connection.

So when you first start back, go back to those basics. 

Focus on what you feel working with fundamental moves you can then build off of.

Even film your movements to check form.

Take pride in earning those exercises and weights back with slow progression.

But enjoy re-learning to move well first.

And note…I said SLOW progression with earning those moves.

A common mistake we make when building back is not only not having earned the moves we include and simply doing what we’d done before…

But also doing too much too fast.

We go 0-60. 

We jump off the couch and expect to be back to running half marathons right away.

Instead we need to take the approach of doing just enough that we CRAVE more and feel we could have done more.

This will help us ultimately not make ourselves so sore we can’t be consistent or compensate due to fatigue so we end up with injury.

We have to remember that everything is sort of NEW again.

And that new again can make us sore.

Being too sore can stop us from doing our weekly workouts as they are laid out, which can make it hard to build that routine and momentum.

Not to mention, being sore can change our recruitment patterns, impacting how muscles engage in other moves.

This can lead to us not getting the most out of our workouts or ending up injured so we’re starting over again.

So remember less is more starting back. Do just enough that you’re craving doing more but DON’T until you have a few weeks under your belt!

And make those progressions in moves incremental, tracking them over the weeks!

Which leads me to tip #3…Don’t jump to adding weights first.

Adding weights or using a form of resistance is the easiest way to progress a move often.

So our first thought as we build back is to simply load moves down.

And if we can do a weight, we add more!

But just because you can lift a weight doesn’t mean your body is truly ready to.

While you may be strong enough, we have to remember that our connective tissues aren’t as fast to heal and build.

So not only do you want to take your time and slowly add loads to give your body fully time to catch back up, but you may want to start with other forms of progression first.

Progression or advancement in moves can be achieved through the same but different!

Consider first increasing your range of motion for a movement. This can help you build mobility and stability as you progress.

Or work up toward the top of your rep range over hitting the bottom to create that strength but also muscular endurance.

Even consider adjusting the tempo of the move, speeding moves up to work on your mind-body connection and fast recruitment patterns and even power or slowing moves down to focus more on strength and control.

But don’t just jump to adding weights.

Too often we do this and then ego even starts to get in the way pushing us to do more than we’ve earned!

Then tip #4: Focus on what you feel working! Don’t just rush through!

Establishing that mind-body conenction to make sure we’re moving WELL is key.

We’re laying that foundation off of which we will build our future training.

This is an opportunity to make sure this foundation is extra strong.

Not to mention, the better we are able to activate muscles, the stronger and more powerful we will be.

This focus on muscle activation will also help us ultimately see better muscle gains more quickly!

So as you start back, stay intentional with the moves. Ask yourself, “What do I feel working?” doing each exercise.

Don’t just go through the motions. Just don’t rush through.

And if you don’t feel the correct muscles working, modify the movement. Swap in a different variation. Regress to progress.

Even assess if other mobility work, especially in your warm up is key to help you get the correct muscles working, especially ones that may be underactive from previous injuries or your desk job posture.

Which is why tip #5 is to prioritize your warm up.

Too often we want to skip our warm ups  to get to the “good stuff.”

We focus just on the calorie burn and muscle building benefits.

But our training sessions are a time to learn to move well and even address postural distortions we have from previous injuries and our desk job postures.

Especially when we’re just starting back, we want to build that strong foundation.

We don’t want to ignore cracks that will only add up more and more as we progress.

So especially as you’re starting back, prioritize that mobility work and get in the habit of a warm up that focuses on foam rolling, stretching and activation.

You want to foam roll to relax tight muscles and start to mobilize your joints. Foam rolling can even help you disrupt that mind-body connection to muscles that tend to want to take over when they shouldn’t, like your hamstrings for your glutes in bridges.

You then want to include dynamic stretching to further mobilize your joints and improve your muscle flexibility, stretching out tight muscles.

This dynamic stretching also begins to activate underactive muscles before you finish your warm up with activation exercises.

These activation moves isolate muscles to help you really feel them working.

This mind-body connection then allows you to better activate these muscles in the compound exercises you use in your workout. 

Like say for instance doing a fire hydrant in your warm up to activate your glutes before then having reverse lunges in your workout. You’ll be surprised by how much more you really feel your glutes working and see better muscle and strength gains faster because of it!

But your mobility work doesn’t stop at your warm up.

Not only do you want to then include moves to strengthen through a full range of motion, but you also want to make sure your workouts include exercises that move you in every direction!

Often when we start back we include those fundamental movement patterns which are key, but we also get stuck moving in really only one plan of motion.

This ultimately can fight against us truly improving our mobility and stability but also hold us back from becoming functionally more fit and building muscle as quickly as possible.

The more directions we press and lunge and pull in, the more we are hitting every aspect of a muscle group and really using a joint through a full range of motion.

And sometimes these simple tweaks in posture and direction can make a basic move harder.

You may find by including a side lunge, you feel your glutes and adductors more while improving your hip stability…all while even using lighter loads than maybe you could for something like a reverse lunge.

With a focus on moving in different directions we will also improve our core strength, including rotational and anti-rotational moves.

All of this is key to building back more quickly while creating that solid foundation from the get go!

It can also allow us to challenge ourselves with less volume and loads to truly address any weak links we may have!

And with all of this…tip #7…Stay consistent!

It is tempting when starting back to get distracted by all of the options out there and to want to try all of the different moves and tools.

Don’t.

Stay focused on your goals. Have a clear plan in place.

Avoid jumping around too much as this can lead to injury and results not building…not to mention you constantly feeling sore and like you aren’t progressing!

While you don’t want to repeat the same moves every single day, you do want to have a weekly schedule you repeat for even 3-8 weeks straight.

This will help you slowly progress moves week over week and be able to track your progress.

You will also find your body adapts more quickly so you can ultimately see changes faster.

We have to remember that we get good at what we consistently do…and this applies to our training and movements too!

So if you’re starting back to training, focus on meeting yourself where you are at, progressing moves with intention and purpose while following a clear plan that keeps you consistent and earning every move you do!

For more workouts designed to help you rock those results no matter your fitness level, check out my Dynamic Strength program…

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