Body feeling stiff and you've noticed you've developed poor posture? If you sit most of the day, then these are some of the things you'll experience. But you can fix that in just 3 minutes a day, with a mobility routine that consists of 3 simple mobility exercises that’ll work on the most problematic areas, including shoulder mobility and hip mobility.
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Before getting into the mobility workout, let’s start by looking at a pretty crazy study. Researchers split participants into 3 different groups: a control group and 2 test groups. The control group sat and did nothing. With the test groups, the researchers used a neuromuscular electrical stimulator to send 17 electrical currents into their back muscles at regular intervals. One group received a low-level current, while the other group received a high-amplitude current that caused their back muscles to contract. What did they find?
For the high-amplitude group (those whose muscles contracted from the current) the stiffness in their backs almost completely reversed. So, what does this mean for you and I? You simply need to start moving the joints and contracting the muscles you don’t use when you’re sitting all day. That said, I know how hard it can be to stick to a mobility routine consistently.
That’s why my team and I have worked together to find the 3 mobility exercises that focus on the most problematic of areas.
The first exercise is great for improving shoulder mobility and rounded shoulders. It’s called the wall clock. Stand sideways with your fingertips touching the wall and your thumb pointing down. Engage your core and, without arching your back, slowly draw your palm in a big semi-circle forward and up the wall. Then, complete the circle by moving your arm back and down the wall, letting your shoulder blade move back and down as your arm travels behind you. Reverse the circle to get back to the starting position and spend about 30 seconds on each side.
Now, let’s focus on the back and neck with the cat cow. Start on your hands and knees, with your hands directly under the outer edges of your shoulders. Then, spin your elbows towards your thighs to engage your lats. Inhale, as you gently lift your tailbone towards the ceiling and reach your chest forward, through your biceps, to stretch your abs. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you lift your chin and head up. Then, you’ll wanna go in the other direction. Exhale, and imagine there was a rope, pulling your mid-back up towards the ceiling, and rounding your spine. As you do this, push the floor away to open up your shoulder blades. Then, use your neck muscles tuck your chin by looking towards your knees. Do this for about 30 seconds, then for the next 30 seconds, some back to a neutral position and turn and look towards your left foot to stretch the muscles on the right side of your lower back and rib cage, then return to center. After, same on the other side. Turn and look at your right foot.
Finally, the perfect 3-minute mobility routine wouldn’t be complete without a hip mobility focused exercise. Exercise 3 does exactly that. We’ll start at a Level 1 version and then build up to Level 3, which is the most effective variation.
Level 1:
Sit on the floor and bend one leg in front of your body at around a 90° angle and then do the same with the back one. Then, sit up and tall and try to position your shoulders square to the front of your shin. Keep your spine tall and exhale as you reach your chest forward, hingeing over your front leg until you feel a deep stretch on the outside of your front leg’s hip or glute area. Inhale, as you come back to the starting position and exhale, as you get into your next rep. For Level 1, do 30 seconds on each side, trying to get deeper into the stretch with each rep.
Level 2:
Maintain that same 90 degree leg position, but this time, as you lean forward, push your front shin down into the ground and lift your hips up to get your torso upright. Then, reverse this by lowering as slowly as you can, while leaning forward. Again, aim to do 30 seconds on each side.
Level 3:
In this case, you’ll repeat what we did in Level 2 but, instead of sticking to just one side at a time, for a deeper stretch in your groin and hip flexors, “windshield wiper” your knees directly over to the other side on the way down, and repeat this motion back and forth.
To help you stay upright, reach your arms out in front of you and engage your core during the transition. Again you can use your hands for support here if you need it.