Do you ever feel pain or stiffness when you get up in the morning?
Me too!
When I am consistent with my daily flexibility and mobility routine, I usually fell pretty good.
But yesterday, I had a very long work day, plus did a hard workout. Because of an extra crazy schedule, I ended up missing my stretching work. And I will tell you, I can feel the difference BIG time.
Now I have tried a lot of different approaches to the flexibility and mobility work over the years. One mistake I made early on was trying to fit in full 60-90 minute yoga classes a couple of times per week.
For some people, these are great. But the issue I’ve had is that with the rest of the training I am doing, it’s just not really feasible to fit that in consistently, without taking away time that I might be lifting kettlebells or running or something else.
The game changer has been finding a quick, effective flexibility and mobility routine that I can do any time. First thing in the morning, or during a work break in the day, I will usually bust it out.
I have a complete progression I work through, but this is the beginning part of it:
1 – Stand tall. Root into the ground, use great posture.
2 – Fold forward, reach down and touch your toes. Let yourself hang, stretch the hamstrings and back of the body.
3 – Step your feet back, come down to a high plank (top of push up) position. Hold here for 15 seconds or so.
4 – Lower yourself to the ground (drop to the bottom of a push up).
5 – Sit your hips back to your heels (child’s pose). Hold here for 30 seconds or so.
6 – Bring your hips up in the air (down dog). Hold this stretch for 15 seconds or so.
7 – Walk your feet forward.
8 – Stand up tall, bring the hands to the sides, return to starting position.
Try doing this 1-3x and see how great you feel!
Now progression is the name of the game when it comes to any form of training.
This is just as true in flexibility as it is elsewhere.
It tends to be fairly easy to grasp here. Go less deep into a stretch and it’s easier. Go further into a stretch and it’s harder.
Simple, right?
Yep, so let’s not over complicate things!
Of course, just like you can’t always add or subtract weight with every exercise, every stretch isn’t always so simple.
There are some cases where you need to modify how a stretch is done, or even sub out one for another.
My friend Logan Christopher’s new program, 7 Minute Flexibility, is designed around just 12 stretches (with two of them being unilateral so being done to each side, therefore a total of 14 positions):
There are 100’s of possible stretches, but he chose these 12 because they cover just about every area of the body.
Sometimes you need to change your position to hit the same area. In other words there are modifications.
Is a gymnast bridge way beyond your ability? Do the cobra instead. It’s not a perfect match up but it certainly focuses on the spinal flexibility needed.
The cool thing about it is all the progressions and regressions from the course.
Just understand that it is always about this…progression.
And with 7 Minute Flexibility it is built around the idea of use it or lose it. The good news is with just a bit more practice you can also improve it.
Check it out here:
-Forest and the FVT Team at ForestVanceTraining.com