Mobility Exercises To Sprinkle in your Workouts

Just as promised, here are a few mobility exercises that I like to implement with the clients that I work with, no matter if they are dancers, multifaceted athletes, or general pop clientele.  

4 Essential Mobility Exercises

These exercises will be listed with a picture of what it should look like following all the descriptions below.

1. World's Greatest Stretch; Start out in a high push-up/high plank position. Then, have one foot outside of the same side's hand. From there, you should be in a deep lunge position with both hands still on the ground. After, open up your arm and torso to the leg that was placed outside of the hand and reach towards the ceiling. This position should open up the hips and spine and any other areas that feel tense. Then from there, thread through between the hand that's still planted and the hind leg that's extended. (Note: Inhale when reaching to the ceiling, exhale when threading through)
2. Assisted Hip Airplane; You'll first start with standing 1-arm distance away from a stable post such as a squat rack or pole. Then, you'll grip with both hands and get into a single leg RDL hold. While maintaining your knee stacking above the foot, turn your hip towards the leg that has gone up off the ground. Your position should have your hips opened out while grabbing the post/pole simultaneously (using the post for guidance & support to keep you stable). Hold the outward position for 10-15 seconds with squeezing the glute with the leg that's off the ground. From here, you'll transition into a curtsy lunge without landing your foot onto the ground. Big tip here is to turn the hips inward rather than getting the leg on the outer part of the leg that's planted. From here, hold this position for about 10-15 seconds. Alternate through these positions seamlessly for 1-2 minutes. Your glutes, quads, and hammies should be fired up by the end of it with even looser hips.
3. Child's Pose/Hip Adductor Stretch > Modified Cobra; You'll start on your hands and knees in Beast/Quadruped Position. From there, one leg will extend out to the side (Note: anchor bottom of foot where it is fully planted on the ground). After, you'll sit into your hips to feel both a release of tension in the low back and inner thigh from the leg that's extended laterally. Then, with the extended leg staying as is, you're going to transition into a cobra stretch where your palms are both touching the ground and your torso is upright. In this particular position, drive the hips into the ground and squeeze your glutes to feel that glute activation. You can go back and forth into these two positions for 1-2 minutes for optimal mobility.
4. T-Spine Rotation & Extension Against Wall; Using a wall as a guide, get into a 90/90 Half Kneeling position in which the hip that's closest to the wall is where the same side leg is leading. Both hands and arms are reaching forward together. Once you're in this position, you'll then open up the arm away from the wall turning open to where the back of the hand and arm get as close to the wall as possible (Note: This pathway should look like a door opening). Retrace your arm back to its starting position and now with the arm that's closest to the wall, drag the arm overhead with the focus following the arm, tracing a full circle all the way through then reverse back to normal and repeat the same process for 1-2 minutes.

World's Greatest Stretch

Assisted Hip Airplane

Child's Pose/Hip Adductor Stretch Into Modified Cobra

T-Spine Rotation & Extension Against Wall

STAY TUNED

Now you don't have to say you don't do mobility work to friends that ask you if you warm up or do any mobility training. Just use these and you are already ahead of the curve. With that being said, stay tuned for the stretch exercises that I always incorporate after my workouts and also consider my take towards flexibility.

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