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5 MOBILITY Moves To Do Every Day

5 MOBILITY Moves To Do Every Day

by | Jun 5, 2021 | Blog, Exercises, Foam Rolling, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief

Use it or lose it.

If we want to move well, we need to be intentional with our training. We need to do things to restore proper joint range of motion, flexibility and even stability.

We can just constantly smash our bodies into the ground and expect not to get injured.

That’s why it is key at points we not only regress to progress but focus on getting the correct muscles working while addressing postural distortions, limitations caused by previous injuries and even areas of immobility from our repetitive jobs and often sedentary lifestyles.

That’s why we need to include mobility work in our daily routine, even simply as part of our warm up before our workouts – whether we are lifting, doing interval training, running or cycling.

Our warm ups should include a 3-Part Prehab Process of Foam Rolling, Stretching and Activation.

This way we can relax overactive muscles, improve our joint range of motion and activate underactive muscles to be able to move better and use the correct muscles more efficiently when we train.

This can not only help us avoid compensations, overload and injury but even help us get better benefits from our actual training sessions.

So what are 5 amazing mobility moves you can do every day?

5 Amazing Mobility Moves To Do Every Day:

Move #1: Foam Roller Snow Angels

We spend so much time hunched over a computer, driving in the car or texting on our phones.

Not to mention neck and shoulder pain are an all too common complaint.

That’s why it’s key we work on reversing the constant forward flexion and stretch out our chests while improving our shoulder mobility.

The Foam Roller Snow Angels are a great way to do that!

This is a great move to use even before bed to relax after a long day.

To do the Foam Roller Snow Angels, lie on a roller with it straight down your spine and your head supported.

Let your arms fall open and swing them up overhead into a Y position. Feel a nice stretch through your chest.

Then slowly sweep them own and out to your sides and down toward you feet. Hold in any place and relax the backs of your hands toward the ground to feel a nice stretch.

Even actively engage your back to stretch your chest as you sweep your arms down toward your feet and back overhead.

Move #2: Teres Minor Foam Rolling

Rotator cuff injuries are an all too common issue.

And one rotator cuff muscle that can often become overworked and lead to shoulder pain is the Teres Minor. Trigger points in this muscle can lead to shoulder pain and even referred pain down your arm.

Especially if you are working to improve your shoulder mobility, or planning an upper body workout, it can be key to roll out this muscle prior to help prevent it from compensating during your training.

To roll out your Teres Minor, a ball works best. You are basically going to be rolling out the back of your armpit as you reach your hand overhead on the ground. You want to be able to relax into the ball so make sure you aren’t holding up your weight with that arm.

You can do this against a wall to reduce the pressure if needed, reaching your arm overhead.

As you hold, breathe into it. You aren’t rolling quickly. You can move your arm down and back overhead as you hold.

Move #3: Superman Wave

Activate the muscles of your backside with this amazing move. The Superman Wave is a great move to improve your shoulder and scapular mobility and stability as well as your thoracic extension. It is even a great glute activation move that works to improve your hip hyperextension.

The key is correctly working to extend your thoracic spine as you engage your glutes to NOT overload your lower back.

Too often when we do moves like this or the basic superman, we try to rely only on our lower back. But we want to make sure muscles, like our glutes, are doing the work they should to actually prevent our lower back from becoming overworked.

If you’ve been doing the basic superman, take the move to the next level and garner even more shoulder and scapular benefits by adding in the wave.

To do this move, set up as if doing the basic superman. As you lift your chest and quads up off the ground, focus on using your glutes to lift as you extend your mid back. Do not rely on your lower back.

Squeezing your glutes to lift your legs, feel your upper back working to lift your arms. Holding this superman position, sweep one arm out to the side and down. Then bring it back overhead and switch to sweep your arm down on the other side.

Keep everything engaged to stabilize and hold yourself up as you feel that scapular movement as you sweep your arm.

Feel the backs of your shoulders working as well as your entire upper back. Remember to also feel those glutes working to extend your hips over relying on your lower back!

Beginners may modify if they feel their lower back taking over by keeping their legs down.

This is a great move to use as part of your activation in your warm up routine after you foam roll and stretch.

Move #4: Posterior Adductor Rolling

When you’ve attempted to do glute moves, have you ever felt that area under your butt and toward your groin working instead?

Or do you constantly have piriformis issues you can’t seem to clear up?

You may need to pay attention to those posterior fibers of your adductor magnus.

When we think of our adductors, we think of movements where we are adducting (or drawing our legs together). And we may even think of hip flexion since they do contribute to that joint action.

That is, except for the posterior fibers of the adductor Magnus which can contribute to external rotation and hip extension on top of adduction.

This puts these muscle fibers in a unique position to become overworked if our glute maximus and medius are underactive.

So to help yourself better activate your glutes, try rolling this muscle before your activation moves.

To do the posterior adductor foam rolling, a ball works best up on a bench or box. Place the ball toward your groin under your butt. And sit on the ball. Hold and breathe, don’t roll quickly.

You can also extend your leg out and then relax your leg to help the muscle relax and release as you hold.

You can do this on a roller or off the ground, you just won’t be able to apply as much pressure. This is good if you find you can’t fully relax when sitting on the ball. You do not want to tense against the pressure.

Move #5: Mini Band Glute Bridge with Abduction

Activate your glute maximus and medius with this one amazing bridge variation. Bridging is a great way to isolate those glutes and work to improve your hip mobility and stability.

By adding the band and abduction, you help activate your glute medius better to improve your hip stability. And it can also help you activate your glute max better to prevent your hamstrings from compensating.

If you have lower back, hip or even knee pain, this is a must-do warm up move to include before your lower body lifting sessions, runs or rides.

To do the Mini Band Glute Bridge with Abduction, place a mini band around your legs above your knees. Lie on your back and place your feet together on the ground, just beyond your fingertips when your arms are down by your sides.

Bend your elbows and press your upper arms into the ground. Your legs should be together as you even create tension through your upper body.

Perform a posterior pelvic tilt, pressing your lower back into the ground as you tuck your hips toward your ribs.

Bridge up, driving your knees toward your toes. At the top of the bridge, press your knees open against the band.

Press open to feel the sides of your butt working then bring your legs back together and lower down. Do not let the band pull you.

Bridge back up. Make sure not to arch your lower back but focus on your glutes driving the hip extension. And really feel your glute medius working to press your knees open against the band.

SUMMARY:

Using these 5 moves you can work to improve your mobility and stability from head to toe.

They are great moves to use even as part of your warm up or as a separate prehab routine.

You can even include them as a series, performing even a single round through, working for 30 seconds per move or side.

–> Foam Roll + Stretch + Activate = The COMPLETE Prehab Process

Leg Lowers – You’re Doing it WRONG (3 tips to help)

Leg Lowers – You’re Doing it WRONG (3 tips to help)

by | May 30, 2021 | Blog, Bodyweight, Core, Exercises, Pain Relief

Constantly feel your lower back or hip flexors during ab moves like leg lowers?

Do you just push through figuring your lower back is weak?

STOP!

Not only is this NOT helping you get the desired ab strengthening results you’re trying to work toward but it may also result in lower back and even hip aches and pains.

Here are 3 common mistakes I see people making with leg lower ab exercises and how to avoid them!

Mistake #1: Putting Your Hands Behind Your Lower Back

Stop cheating yourself out of really earning this move.

Putting your hands behind your lower back is a bandaid, a quick fix.

While yes, it can help you avoid lower back pain in the moment, it isn’t teaching you to actually use your abs correctly to protect your back and stabilize.

It allows you to do a move you haven’t truly earned.

Instead you need to regress to progress and modify the exercise to learn how to build up and engage your abs correctly.

Because you aren’t feeling your lower back because it is weak. You’re feeling your lower back because your abs aren’t yet strong enough, or you don’t have the mind-body connection yet, to keep them braced throughout.

Instead of pushing through this variation, if you want to get the full ab strengthening benefits, modify the move doing a single leg lower or even bent knee tuck.

It is always better to modify and get the correct muscles working than to push through a harder variation and compensate.

Modifying doesn’t mean you’re making it easier. It means you’re making it the level you need to work the muscles you want to target best!

You may even find you have to go back to that basic pelvic tilt movement and learn how to engage those abs and glutes correctly to stabilize and brace before adding movement!

Mistake #2: Swinging Your Legs

Leg lowers do work your hip flexors as they are a hip flexion movement.

And your abs are working to stabilize and protect your back.

But if to rush through this movement you start to swing your legs, you’re not going to get any of the benefit this move can have for your abs.

And you’re probably going to start to feel your lower back engaging as your hip flexors fatigue especially.

So stop swinging your legs and rushing through just to get the workout done.

Instead slow down the movement.

Focus on engaging your GLUTES even as you lower your legs a few inches from the ground. And even think about pulling your legs back up using your abs so you get that brace going as you lift.

Slow the movement down and focus on that control and what muscles you actually feel working.

Get more out of every second of work by being intentional!

Mistake #3: Not Focusing On Bracing Your Abs

Too often we just replicate a movement pattern without really being conscious of the muscles we feel working until we are in pain.

We let our lower back take over during this move and just keep pushing through.

We want to get the workout over with or we figure our lower back is weak.

But what we feel working during a move is what is going to “benefit” so to speak from the exercise.

So if you want to work your abs but you only feel your lower back?

Your abs aren’t getting the benefit of this move you’d like.

That’s why it is key you regress to progress and learn how to use that posterior pelvic tilt to your advantage.

While yes our spine has a natural curve, we want to know how to engage our glutes and abs using that posterior pelvic tilt.

Before you even start any level of the leg lowers move, lie on your back on the ground and think about engaging those lower abs to tuck your hips slightly toward your ribs. Even feel your glutes engage with the tuck.

From here you can do a bent knee march, double knee tuck, single leg lift or those killer double leg lowers.

But you should only advance as long as you can keep those abs braced.

If you lose that brace, you need to regress or shorten the interval of work, cutting back on time or reps.

Trying to do more without the correct muscles working is only going to backfire.

SUMMARY:

As much as we all want to do those fun and challenging exercise variations, at times we need to regress to progress and take our ego out of things.

Learn how to engage those abs correctly and build up to earn that harder move so you can get more out of every rep of that amazing leg lower ab exercise!

For an amazing Lower Ab Workout, give this burner a try! It’s a great way to finish off your workouts!

–> Lower Ab Burner

 

the Most Underrated Glute Exercise

the Most Underrated Glute Exercise

by | May 12, 2021 | Blog, Bodyweight, Butt, Core, Exercises, Pain Relief, Warm Up

The stronger your mind-body connection is?

The more you can lift, the faster you can run and the further you can cycle!

Basically the STRONGER YOU ARE!

Strength is not just about brute force but also about neuromuscular efficiency – how quickly can you recruit the CORRECT muscles to perform a movement and produce force.

That’s why it is key we include exercises to really improve that mind-body connection and make sure we are able to engage the correct muscles whenever we need.

Because as much as we focus on form, proper form does NOT always mean you’re engaging the correct muscles.

Actually often the more experienced a lifter you are and the more athletic you are, the more you can mimic a proper looking movement pattern while compensating and recruiting the incorrect muscles to do so.

This can not only result in injury but often holds us back from lifting as much as we truly can.

It prevents us from being as strong as possible because we aren’t using muscles efficiently together. We aren’t making the correct muscles pull their own weight.

That’s why you need to include some isolation moves to activate those underactive muscles and make sure you’re engaging the correct muscles at the proper times.

One muscle that often needs to be the focus of our activation work is our GLUTES.

Our glutes are commonly underactive due to our modern lifestyle.

So focused activation work can help us improve our mind-body connection to better recruit our glutes during compound lifts and when we run or cycle.

One of my favorite moves, and a very basic and often underutilized move, is the Single Leg Bent-Knee Reverse Hyper.

This move is fundamental if you want to improve your hip extension and focus on isolating those glutes.

And it’s a really great way to test if your hamstrings tend to want to take over and compensate for your glutes.

Often our hamstrings can become synergistically dominant for underactive glutes and that can result in hamstrings strains, lower back, hip and knee pain.

So if you tend to feel your hamstrings even during moves like glute bridges? You need to give this reverse hyper variation a try.

To first test your glute activation, lie face down on the ground. You can relax your chin on your hands as you straighten both legs out. Then bend one knee to about 90 degrees. Flex that foot. Do not curl the heel in toward your butt as this will engage your hamstrings.

Then drive your heel toward the ceiling and extend your hip.

What do you feel firing first? Do you feel your hamstring first or your glute?

Do you feel both? Or can you just isolate your glute?

If you can just isolate your glute fabulous! Do 15-20 reps and pause at the top to really establish that mind-body connection and even get a little pump going.

If you can’t feel your glutes, try adjusting how you’re cueing and performing the move.

Here are a few tweaks to try.

#1: Focus on driving your hip down into the ground as you drive the heel back so you don’t rotate open. Think about almost pushing your hip bone down into the ground instead of just lifting up.

#2: Think about STOPPING the lift with your glute over just trying to lift up higher. You want to focus on that glute engagement over the movement itself.

#3: Kick just slightly out as you lift. Remember not to curl your heel in toward your butt. Our hamstrings are worked by that knee flexion so avoiding it can help. However, going too straight with your leg can also make it harder for some to focus on their glutes.

#4: Slightly abduct your knee or move it out to the side before you lift. This can better engage the glute medius to help engage that glute max. Just be careful you don’t rotate your hip open. Just slightly move the knee out to the side.

Try one of these tweaks at a time to see what helps. You may even find you need to combine all the cues to get that glute firing without the hamstring trying to take over.

As silly as it may seem, sometimes just changing how we cue ourselves to perform a movement with a very slight adjustment can really help us better establish that mind-body connection when we’ve struggled in the past.

Just don’t rush through the movement. Pause and assess. Be intentional with the exercise over just trying to get through the reps.

Doing the “right moves” without feeling the correct muscles working won’t get you the results you want.

Focus on activating your glutes.

SUMMARY:

Use this underrated glute isolation move as both an activation exercise but also a test of hamstring compensation. It is a great way to make sure your hamstrings aren’t trying to take over and work when your glutes truly should be.

Be conscious of what you feel working during your workouts and do not simply go through the motions.

The more we can truly create proper recruitment patterns and use the correct muscles efficiently and effectively, the stronger we will be.

Sometimes we need to take things back to basics to get results.

We are never above those simple fundamentals!

Working to improve your glute activation?

Check out my Booty Burner Program!

–> LEARN MORE

How To Fix Knee Pain – Do These 4 Moves

How To Fix Knee Pain – Do These 4 Moves

by | Feb 25, 2021 | Blog, Butt, Exercises, Foam Rolling, injury-featured, Pain Relief, Stretches

Achy and sore knees are an all too common complaint.

And nagging knee pain can become a daily annoyance.

Knee pain can make walking up stairs or getting down on the ground uncomfortable and difficult.

It can make us fear moves like squats and lunges so much that we simply stop doing them all together.

It can hold us back from training intensely.

Knee pain can cause us to simply no longer enjoy the activities we used to love like running or jumping.

And the worst part is often we’ve done a ton of things to TRY to address the problem.

We’ve focused on all of the muscles right around our knee trying to strengthen everything to improve our knee stability.

But all too often this not only doesn’t provide lasting relief, but it actually BACKFIRES.

So if trying to strengthen the muscles right around your knees isn’t necessarily the answer, what is? How can you get rid of nagging knee pain for good?

First, there are two joints you need to be paying attention to instead of just focusing only on your knees…

Your ankles and your hips!

If there is immobility or instability at either one of these two joints, your knees are going to suffer the consequences.

All too often when we lack mobility in one area, we seek out mobility from another.

So if your ankles aren’t mobile? You’re going to search for mobility from your knees! Mobility your knees really aren’t meant to provide!

And instability at your ankles or hips is what can lead to improper alignment up and down your legs, causing muscles around your knees to even become tight and overworked, further perpetuating your aches and pains!

That’s why I want to share 4 essential exercises with you to address both ankle and hip mobility and stability issues.

 4 Must-Do Moves To Prevent Knee Pain:

Improving your range of motion and stability at both joints can help you avoid perpetuating your knee issues and even alleviate the overload.

#1: Knee-Friendly Ankle Mobility Stretch

Improving your ankle mobility, specifically your ability to dorsiflex or draw your toes up toward your shin can go a long way in preventing knee pain during squats and lunges, not to mention when you run or ride!

Especially if you are suffering from knee pain currently, many ankle mobility drills can be uncomfortable as your knee will travel even past your toes.

That’s when this Knee-Friendly Ankle Mobility Stretch comes in handy.

Because the ball of your foot is up on a block or weight, you’ve put your ankle into dorsiflexion before you even shift your weight forward.

Most ankle mobility moves require your knee to move past your toe for the full range of motion.

But because of this starting position, your knee doesn’t have to travel forward that much for a full range of motion.

This can help alleviate some pressure on your knees as you work to improve that ankle mobility.

Keeping your heel on the ground with the ball of your foot up, shift your weight forward as much as you can. If your heel starts to lift, you’ve gone too far.

Then shift back and repeat.

#2: Single Leg Toe-Raised Calf Raises

It’s key you activate any weak or underactive muscles if you want to maintain the range of motion you are working hard to build.

If you don’t establish the mind-body connection to those muscles?

You are just going to keep perpetuating the same patterns of overuse, leading to your knee pain.

Having mobile, but also STABLE ankles is key if you want to avoid injury.

That’s why it’s key after you do any mobility work that you do activation moves to strengthen weak muscles and work to maintain that range of motion.

And especially if you’ve ever had issues on just one side, you want to address the imbalance with imbalanced prehab. Which may even mean doing this move on only one side or more reps on one side at least.

I recommend having your hands on a wall or something to help you balance so you can focus not only on driving off the entire ball of your foot for the calf raise, but also so you can focus on dorsiflexing your foot as much as possible as you move to your heel.

Make sure to move slowly lifting your toes toward your shins to sit back on your heel before lowering your foot to the ground to press up onto the ball of your foot. Do not just rock and use momentum.

You can also do this as a bilateral move instead if both sides need equal attention.

#3: TFL Foam Rolling

The TFL or tensor fasciae latae is a hip flexor muscle that is a common culprit of not only hip pain, but also knee and even ankle pain.

This muscle can have a far reaching impact because of it’s connection to the knee through the IT Band.

So if you’re a runner who’s had IT Band or knee issues, you need to include this move as part of your warm up!

When the TFL becomes overactive and tight, it can also try to compensate and work when your glute medius should actually be the prime mover. This perpetuates what has been called gluteal amnesia.

It can inhibit your glute medius from working correctly to support and stabilize your hip, which can also lead to further knee issues.

This simple foam rolling move is key to use even before a glute medius activation exercise as it will help you relax the TFL so it isn’t as likely to try to engage and take over.

Place a ball in the lateral side of your hip and lie slightly propped up on your side with the ball pushing in toward your hip socket.

Relax as you hold. To help the muscle relax and release itself, lift and lower your leg to tense and relax the muscle.

You can prop yourself up more or fully lie over the ball depending on how much pressure you want to create. Make sure you can actually relax as you hold. You don’t want to tense against the pressure.

You may even find standing to hold against the wall is better pressure to start.

#4: Extended ROM Side Lying Leg Raises

Improving your hip stability will help protect your knees. That’s why it is key you include moves to activate your glute medius.

The glute medius is a key hip stabilize, not to mention strengthening it will help prevent your TFL from becoming overworked!

Because a tight and overworked TFL can cause hip internal rotation and external tibial rotation, it can lead to our knees caving in during things like squats.

It can cause tracking issues so that your hips, knees and ankles aren’t all in proper alignment during even exercises like lunges.

Basically, it can lead to movement patterns that end in knee pain.

By strengthening your glute medius, you can prevent this improper movement pattern.

And that’s why moves like side lying raises or abduction exercises are so key.

By lifting this basic move off the ground to perform it on a bench instead, you can allow yourself to work through a bigger range of motion to strengthen the glute medius. This is even a great way to progress that basic move from the floor without adding loads.

Just be conscious you do actually feel your glute medius working and not your TFL taking over.

A great way to help avoid your TFL compensating is to turn your toe down toward the ground as you lift or even kick slightly back.

The internal tibial rotation can help inhibit the TFL while the kick back can slightly engage the glute maximus.

SUMMARY:

Using these four moves you can improve your ankle and hip mobility and stability to help prevent your knee from suffering the consequences of issues at these other two joints!

You can choose to include one or two of these in your warm up routine or combine all four for a quick mobility series. Even just 1-2 rounds through working for 30-45 seconds per move or side can go a long way!

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Do the prehab work DAILY to keep those aches and pains away!

 

The Perfect Mobility Routine (FULL BODY FIX)

The Perfect Mobility Routine (FULL BODY FIX)

by | Feb 11, 2021 | Blog, Foam Rolling, Pain Relief, Stretches

What are the most common aches and pains we complain about?

Neck pain? Elbow pain? Shoulder pain? Lower back pain? Hip pain? Knee pain? Ankle pain?

Basically our entire body?!

Because of previous injuries and our very sedentary, repetitive movement lifestyle, all too many of us end up with a whole host of issues.

It can make you feel like you have to spend hours a day addressing every single area that hurts. Like you have to warm up just getting out of bed.

It can make you want to give up on mobility work because you just have to keep adding more and more things in!

That’s why I wanted to show you some short cuts to improving your mobility.

Often there are a few key culprits that, if we address immobility or weakness in those places, can really help alleviate aches and pain in other areas.

We have to remember that everything is connected and that often where the pain is, isn’t where the initial problem started!

So what are 3 key areas we need to target if we want to improve our full body mobility?

Before I dive into the key areas we want to work on, I do just want to highlight the importance of doing MORE than stretching when it comes to improving your mobility.

Part of becoming more mobile isn’t simply improving the flexibility of the muscles that act on a joint. It’s also about improving the stability of that joint.

Often if muscles are underactive or weak, they will not support the joint properly and that may then lead to overload of other muscles. This can then create mobility restrictions because the joint isn’t stable and muscles aren’t able to work together properly.

This overload can lead to tightness and a lack of mobility as the body tries to protect itself from further issues and injury.

This is also why your elbow can end up injured because of a lack of proper shoulder mobility or stability. We compensate and seek out mobility and stability from other areas.

It’s why, when addressing these 3 key areas of immobility and instability, we want to take a 3-step prehab approach of foam rolling, stretching and activation.

This way we can relax overactive and shortened muscles, mobilize joints and improve the stability of these areas so the correct muscles are pulling their weight!

For each of these 3 areas, I want to share a key foam rolling, stretching and activation move to help you start working on your mobility and stability!

3 Key Areas Of Immobility And Instability:

#1: Scapular Mobility And Stability

Elbow, neck, shoulder or even upper back aches and pains? You need to make sure you have proper scapular control and mobility!

So often we get focused on only improving our shoulder mobility and we forget how much the shoulders and shoulder blades really work together to power movements. We ignore our shoulder blades and the impact their proper movement can have on protecting and stabilizing our shoulders.

From moves like pull ups to push ups, we need to have proper scapular control if we want to use the correct muscles to power the movements 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 Levator Scapulae Foam Rolling.

The levator scapulae contributes to a few different scapular movements from elevating your shoulder blade to downwardly rotating the scapula to even performing anterior tipping.

This muscle becoming tight can be a key culprit of neck and shoulder aches and pains!

A great way to start relaxing it to alleviate aches and pains and start to restore proper scapular functioning is by using a ball to relax and release the muscle.

Find that top middle point of your shoulder blade by your spine and either lie on a ball with it right above that edge of the shoulder blade or stand pressing back into a ball against the wall there.

Hold on the spot even slightly looking away as you press into the ball. Breathe and relax as you hold.

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 Angel is a great move to include especially before your workout.

While we often feel like our upper back becomes tight from sitting hunched over, we can’t ignore that this posture puts our pec muscles in a perpetually shortened state. A tight pec minor can contribute to anterior tipping of the shoulder blade while a tight pec major can contribute to that internal shoulder rotation.

This can lead to neck, upper back, shoulder and even elbow aches and pains.

Especially if you want to improve your overhead press, this is a great move to include.

When you do the Suspension Trainer Snow Angels, you want to make sure you’re engaging your upper back to open your chest up as you raise your arms up overhead.

You want to extend your thoracic spine too.

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 Serratus Anterior Press.

Serratus anterior weakness has been linked to neck, shoulder and even upper back aches and pains as it is a primary scapular stabilizer. (STUDY: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21889362/ )

If you’re experiencing scapular winging or upper body dysfunction, strengthening the serratus anterior is key as it will help posteriorly tip the shoulder blade as well as help you perform proper upward rotation of the shoulder blade.

Both of these movements are key to keeping your neck and shoulders healthy during overhead pressing (not to mention this may even help prevent overload at your elbows and even lumbar spine!)

With the Serratus Anterior Press, it is key you feel yourself pulling your shoulder blade forward around your ribs as you reach out. You aren’t just doing a unilateral chest press. You want to focus on the movement being felt around your ribs as you protract your shoulder blade or pull it away from your spine.

You want to also punch slightly up at an incline as you feel like you’re almost reaching out at the end. Focus on what you feel working over trying to simply go heavier.

#2: Hip Mobility And Stability

Lower back, hip or knee pain? Groin strains? Hamstring pulls? You need to work on your hip mobility and stability.

We’ve all been told we are spending too much time seated.

But this constant hip flexion is creating mobility restrictions at our lumbo-pelvic-hip complex that has far reaching effects. It’s not only why we can feel our lower back taking over during deadlifts by also even why we can fear knee pain from lunging!

That’s why it’s key we start by relaxing those overactive and shortened hip flexor muscles.

The first move you want to include is Rectus Femoris Foam Rolling.

This quad muscle is so key to release and lengthen because it not only flexes the hip but also extends the knee.

The direct impact it has on both joints can contribute to hip and knee pain not to mention even perpetuate quad dominance and anterior pelvic tilt, leading to lower back issues and even hamstring strains. This muscle may even impact your SI joint health and functioning because it can contribute to rotation of the pelvis.

To roll this muscle, 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. You can even flex and relax your quad to help the muscle relax and release.

The second move you want to include is the Side Lunge to Crescent.

Your adductors, or inner thighs, not only adduct or bring your legs together, they’re also hip flexors and hip internal rotators.

The only exception to this is the posterior fibers of the adductor magnus, which can contribute to hip external rotation and hip extension. This muscle can become overworked especially if our glutes are weak!

And all too often the adductors become tight and overworked just like your other hip flexor muscles.

Your adductors becoming overworked can potentially contribute to anterior pelvic tilt and lower back aches and pains not to mention groin strains, hip pain and even knee pain.

Specifically the gracilis can have an impact on your knee and even your lower leg!

That’s why this dynamic stretch is the perfect way to warm up your legs while working to improve your hip mobility.

Make sure that as you do the side lunge portion you aren’t turning your toes in or out. You want them to be parallel to really stretch out your adductors. Keep one leg straight as you hinge at the hips to load that other glute. Watch that your knee, ankle and hip are all in line. Also make sure your heels are down.

When you shift to the other side, pause before turning into the crescent lunge. When you come up in the crescent, focus on that front knee being in line with your hip and ankle and your back glute engaging to extend that back hip.

You want to be conscious to use your glutes to drive that hip extension and not just arch your back as you come up in the lunge.

The third move you want to include to activate your glutes and improve your hip stability is Side Shift Skaters.

All too often our glutes are underactive and not properly stabilizing our pelvis or hips. This can lead to lower back, hip, knee and even ankle and foot aches and pain. It can even create dysfunction up your trunk that can impact your shoulders.

It’s why it’s key we include glute activation moves in our routines to improve that hip stability. And it’s even better when we can include unilateral moves to correct imbalances while also working on our balance.

With Side Shift Skaters, you’re going to work on activating not only your glute max to improve hip extension, but also your glute medius to improve your hip stability and prevent unwanted movement in that frontal plane (or your pelvis shifting out to the side as you balance).

Strengthening your glute medius can not only improve glute max functioning but it can also help you improve your running gait and help you avoid knee injuries and issues from improper lunging or squatting patterns.

With this move, focus on crossing the leg behind as you hinge at the hips to push your butt back.

You want to pop the hip to the side so that as you stand up you not only extend your hip using your glute, but also then push the pelvis level using that glute medius.

While you want to be focused on working your glutes in this move, don’t ignore your foot’s connection to the ground. Think about driving the ground away as you come to balance on one leg to even create better activation up your entire leg!

#3: Ankle Mobility And Stability

Plantar Fasciitis. Ankle sprains. These issues are all too common.

Yet all too often we simply rest these injuries then jump back into what we were doing.

We never address WHY we had the problems in the first place OR even work to prevent future problems from the injuries themselves.

Injuries interrupt our natural recruitment patterns and can create mobility restrictions. We can’t ignore them!

It’s why prehab work to work on ankle mobility and stability is so key. Your feet are your foundation. Issues there can lead to compensations up your entire kinetic chain!

If you want to squat lower and have a more efficient running gait? You need to pay attention to your feet and ankles!

The first move you want to include is Peroneal Foam Rolling.

Tightness of this muscle can lead to what looks like a leg length discrepancy or even a weight shift during squatting, which can result in not only ankle issues but also knee, hip and lower back pain.

That’s why it’s key you start your mobility routine by relaxing this often shortened and overactive muscle, even focusing potentially on just one side.

A ball works best for this move although you can use a roller. You will want to press the outside of your lower leg down into the ball and hold as you even circle your foot. Don’t roll quickly but move the ball down the outside of your lower leg to target different trigger points, holding when you find one.

The second move to include is a great stretch to improve both the mobility of your feet but also your ankles – the Bear Squat to Foot Stretch.

Improving your dorsiflexion and big toe extension is more important than you think. It’s not only key to your foot and ankle health, but it can impact your gait and full hip and knee range of motion.

So often when our prehab work isn’t adding up for other areas, it’s because the culprit is actually at our foundation.

That’s why the Bear Squat to Foot Stretch is such a key move to include in your warm up routine. When you sit back on your feet, you want to extend your toes. Only sit back as far as you can while relaxing into the stretch. You can rock slightly side to side before putting your hands down on the ground to drive your heels down.

This isn’t about creating a pretty downward dog as you lift your butt up to drive your heels down.

Your hands will be in closer so you can focus on that ankle mobility. When you drive your heels down you’re working on your ankle dorsiflexion or the ability to bring your foot closer to your shin. You can pedal your feet then sit back and repeat the foot stretch.

The third move to include is a move to activate your calf but by working it through an increased range of motion.

If we don’t strengthen through the range of motion we are trying to create, we won’t maintain that new found ROM.

That’s why Plate Weight Eccentric Calf Raises are a great move to include.

Eccentric focused calf raises have been shown to be great for helping with achilles tendon issues not to mention heel pain and plantar fasciitis. And this can have a far reaching impact because studies have shown that Achilles tedinopathy may impact glute activation. (STUDY: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/24121244)

And by performing this move through a bigger range of motion than off the ground, you’ll help to really strengthen and maintain that mobility you’ve worked hard to build with the rolling and stretching. You’ll be strong through that full range of dorsiflexion to plantar flexion.

With this move make sure you don’t rock in or out on your feet.

Pause at the bottom as well to release tension and not use momentum. And make sure to very slowly lower down to spend more time under tension.

If you don’t have a plate weight, you can do it off a step or box even. If you even have an imbalance, you can do this as a unilateral variation instead too.

SUMMARY:

Whether you need to address mobility and stability issues in all 3 areas, or even simply one, you can combine the foam rolling, stretching and activation moves into a quick prehab or warm up routine.

Spending just 30-45 seconds per move, or per side, you can use all of these to get in an amazing head to toe mobility routine that’s under 11 minutes!

Want help improving your posture, getting rid of aches and pains and dialing in your overall routine to achieve freaking amazing and sustainable results?!

Uhm heck yes! OF COURSE!

I mean? Honestly? WHO DOESN’T!?

If you need help dialing in your prehab, workouts and nutrition so they all work together in one comprehensive plan?

Check out my online one on one coaching program!

I’m a corrective exercise NERD and I want to help you move and feel your best!

(I’m also a control freak so I love getting to tweak things and hold you accountability daily while actually TEACHING you what you need to attain LASTING results.)

–> Online One On One Coaching

How to FIX Low Back Pain – Do These 4 Moves

How to FIX Low Back Pain – Do These 4 Moves

by | Feb 4, 2021 | Blog, Butt, Core, Exercises, Pain Relief, Stretches

If you’ve ever suffered from lower back aches and pains?

You aren’t alone.

Lower back pain is one of the most common injuries, with at least 80% of Americans suffering from lower back pain at some point in their life.

And the worst part? All too often it becomes a continual annoyance.

However, too often in our attempt to prevent future issues, we do exactly the WRONG thing,

So what do you need to STOP doing if you want to truly keep your lower back from continually aching?

And what should you be doing instead?

First let me go over what is often actually occurring leading to nagging lower back aches and pains.

While there can be many different causes, and you always want to get checked out whenever possible to determine what is causing your pain, often our issues stem from our lower back becoming overworked and overloaded.

This occurs because of postural distortions from our modern lifestyles and even compensations and imbalances caused by previous injuries.

That ankle or knee injury you had years ago?

That can create a sequence of events that finally led to overload and your lower back suffering the effects of the build up.

But instead of addressing these others areas of immobility or weakness?

We instead only focus on the point of pain – our lower back.

And often we assume our lower back hurts because it is weak.

We believe that weakness is why it fatigues during moves and why we often feel it during core work.

So what do we do?

We find moves to strengthen it – like Supermans.

But this is often exactly what we should NOT be doing!

While supermans have their place in a proper core strengthening routine, too often we turn to moves like this when we have lower back aches and pains.

And all these moves do is further overload and overwork our already tired back.

They perpetuate the overuse instead of addressing what is actually weak and the areas that actually lack immobility.

So what moves should you be doing instead?

4 Key Moves To Fix Lower Back Pain:

When you’re suffering from lower back pain there are 4 key things you need to address, thoracic mobility, hip mobility, ab activation and glute activation.

You need to make sure you aren’t seeking out extra mobility from your lumbar spine that should be coming from your thoracic spine or hips.

You also want to make sure that your abs and glutes are strong to protect your lower back and prevent it from becoming overworked.

Here are 4 great moves to help you address these 4 keys and avoid lower back aches and pains in the future!

#1: Kneeling Thoracic Extension Stretch

 kneeling-lat-and-thoracic-stretch

Ever realize you’re constantly hunching over? Whether it’s over your computer, in a car or even just while sitting watching TV?

This constant flexion can lead to limited thoracic extension and thoracic mobility in general. And when our thoracic spine doesn’t extend properly, we may then seek out mobility from other areas to help us mimic proper movement during an exercise.

So if you’ve ever noticed you arch your lower back to keep your chest up as you squat or you arch your lower back to press better overhead, you may need to work on that thoracic extension!

A perfect move to do just that is the Kneeling Thoracic Extension and lat stretch.

To do the Kneeling Thoracic Extension Stretch, kneel on the ground and place your elbows up on a box or bench in front of you. Set up far enough back that you can drop your chest toward the ground, extending your shoulders, as you sit your butt back toward your heels.

Pull a towel tight between your hands to help you avoid your shoulders rotating open as you lower your chest toward the ground.

Then drop your chest toward the ground, focusing on extending your upper back. Brace your abs and make sure you aren’t just arching your lower back as you press your chest down.

You may feel a stretch down the backs of your arms and the sides of your back. Pause for a second then relax out and repeat.

If you can’t get down on the ground, you can also do this as a half wall hang, placing your hands up on a wall in front of you.

#2: Lying Bench Hip Stretch

Stretch out your hip flexors as you activate your glutes to improve your hip extension with the Lying Bench Hip Stretch.

The psoas, a hip flexor muscle, plays a key role in our posture and pelvic positioning. When this muscle becomes tight it can limit hip mobility, which can lead to underactive glutes and your lower back becoming overworked.

Often to compensate for the lack of proper hip mobility, you’ll arch your back during moves. And because your glutes are weak? You’ll try to compensate by using your lower back to lift.

That’s why this a great hip stretch to include. It can really help you relax the psoas as you activate your glutes to control that hip extension.

To do the Lying Bench Hip Stretch, lie back on a bench with your butt right at the edge of the bench. Let one leg hang down toward the ground with your knee bent around 90 degrees as you hug the other knee in toward your chest. Wrap your hands around your shin, right below your knee to hug it in.

As you hug that knee in, squeeze the glute of the leg hanging down to really drive your hip into extension almost as if you’re pressing the heel of that foot through the ground.

Pause then tuck that knee up toward your chest before extending the foot back down toward the ground.

As you extend your hip, squeeze your glute and pause before repeating.

#3: Lying Jacks

If your glutes are underactive and weak, your lower back and hamstrings will try to pick up the slack and work when they shouldn’t.

And either of those muscle groups becoming overworked can perpetuate your lower back aches and pains.

That’s why it is key you activate your glutes so they engage correctly during compound lifts and when you run.

With the Lying, you’ll target not only your glute max, but also your glute medius. This will be key to improving your hip stability.

And you learn how to engage those glutes to even control hip hyperextension. Too often we allow our lower back to become the prime mover in this movement, when really our glutes should be in control.

To do this move, place a mini band around your legs above your knees. Lie on the bench and press your hips down into the bench.

Engage your glutes to lift your legs to about parallel to the ground. Make sure you’re pressing down into the bench and using your glutes over arching your back.

Holding at the top press your legs out and open against the band. Control the press open then bring your legs back together and repeat.

To modify you can do this off the ground. Just make sure you are truly lifting using those glutes and not arching your lower back just to get up higher!

#4: Anti-Rotational Dead Bugs

Being able to avoid unwanted rotation and correctly brace your abs is also key to protecting your lower back. If our abs are weak, our lower back may engage to help us perform the movement.

Anti-Rotational Dead Bugs is a key move to include to help you activate not only your abs but also your obliques to fight rotation and protect your lower back.

To do Anti-Rotational Dead Bugs, anchor a band down low and hold one handle in both hands so your side is to the anchor point. Lie flat on your back with your hands gripping the handle extended straight up toward the ceiling.

Make sure not to shrug.

Engage your abs with a posterior pelvic tilt, tucking your hips slightly up toward your ribs as you lift your feet up off the ground.

Fighting the urge to rotate toward the anchor point, keep your hands pressed out directly above the center of your chest. As you hold, extend one leg out as you keep the other knee tucked in. Slowly bicycle your legs, extending the other out as you tuck your other knee in.

Move slowly. This move is best done for time on each side!

SUMMARY:

If you’re sick of lower back aches and pains, STOP allowing it to become overworked. Improve your thoracic and hip mobility while learning how to correctly engage and recruit your abs and glutes to protect your lower back!

Ready to eliminate aches and pains?! Check out my Injury Prevention Pack.

Foam Roll + Stretch + Activate!