Have you ever heard someone say, “I want to be able to touch my toes?” As if that was a very important thing to show their fitness and health.
It is such an arbitrary sign of “flexibility” and isn’t necessarily meaningful when it comes to preventing injuries or moving well. (Ready to address a specific ache or pain? Click here and check out our best injury prevention articles)
I’m always looking for new tools and instruments to not only improve my personal health and wellness, but also improve the quality of training that I can provide for my clients.
And if those tools come in a nice kit that clients can even get for their homes so that they are doing more things throughout the day to move and feel better, that makes me even happier.
So of course I was super excited when I found RAD Roller at the LA Fit Expo. After seeing their great product, the RAD Roller, which was a nicer variation of the Peanut I teach everyone how to make, I went to their site and ordered my own RAD Kit. I wanted to test out their complete line so I got the RAD All-In Kit.
It was $140, which some may think is expensive but it came with, what I felt, were the tools to roll out EVERYTHING. It wasn’t just a big roller for $70 bucks (although I do love my full-sized Rumble Rollers as well).
I got the entire kit, and here are all the moves and ways I felt you could truly use it to roll out everything from head to toe. And the best part, if you are a messy person like me, it is easy to store everything in one place because the balls have spots in the blocks! WOO HOO! No more random balls all around the apartment!
SIDE NOTE: I have fallen in love with the RAD Roller so much that I’ve become an affiliate of their products. So of course I think you should get their stuff to do the movements below. HOWEVER, if you have other variations of these tools, you still need to do these moves as I’ve found these are some of the BEST to help prevent pain and injury especially if you sit at a desk all day!
Isometric Exercises are a great way to build mobility, stability and strength in your lower body.
While most people include dynamic and static stretches in their workout routine, they often forget about the importance of Isometric Moves to developing mobility and even flexibility.
And Isometric Exercises are key.
Dynamic and static stretches do improve your flexibility and mobility; however, they don’t at the same time strengthen and build stability through that new range of motion.
Then when we go lift, even after doing the stretching, we often don’t work through the increased range of motion, which simply means we tighten everything back up only to have to stretch out and loosen up again.
By including Isometrics, you not only improve your flexibility and mobility, but you also work and strengthen through the new range of motion to help you keep the increased range of motion.
And, by doing Isometrics, you can learn to activate and feel the correct muscles working during the movements so that, when you go to lift weights, the correct muscles are being recruited through a full range of motion!
Below are 15 Leg Isometric Exercises you should include in your workout routine to not only improve your hip mobility and the flexibility of your legs, but also strengthen and build stability.
Low back and hip pain are common problems especially for anyone with a desk job. However, some foam rolling (or a back massage) and stretching of your low back won’t be enough to really relieve your pain.
Because sometimes where you feel the pain, isn’t the place causing the problem, especially when it comes to low back pain.
Often to relieve your low back and hip pain, you need to focus on foam rolling, stretching, activating and strengthening your entire core.
Because overly tight muscles in your core (such as your hips and lats) and underactive muscles in your core (such as your glutes and deep intrinsic core stabilizers) can all be contributing to your hip and back pain.
Follow our 4 Step Program below to Relieve Your Low Back and Hip Pain.
Your body is a chain, which means that dysfunction in one area of your body can lead to pain and injury in other areas of your body.
That is why you need to take care of your feet and ankles – they are your foundation and without a strong foundation, there are going to be problems with the rest of the structure.
So if you are suffering from foot or ankle pain, or have in the past, the best way to keep your foundation strong is by following these four prehab/rehab steps – foam rolling, stretching, activation and strengthening.
Below are tips and exercises to help you implement these four steps to Prevent and Alleviate Foot and Ankle pain as well as pain and injury further up your body!
