In the video below, Shane and Francheska demonstrate an “I Go, You Go” style routine, in which one person leads the other through an exercise of their choosing, and then the roles reverse. You can apply this kind of workout to virtually any training you like to do. It can make your session more spontaneous and fun, and it helps both you and your partner learn new workout techniques. The workout Shane and Francheska came up with here—improvised on the spot, we might add—is for total-body mobility. You can do a round or two of it as a warmup before a weight-training workout, or do it by itself to help improve flexibility and body control. Done at a brisk pace with short rest periods, it can also double as a cardiovascular routine for endurance gains. Of course, it’s more fun to do the workout with a partner, but you can certainly use it when you’re solo as well.

Directions

The workout should take about 30 minutes. Perform the exercises in sequence, doing reps for 1 minute on each move. Repeat for 5 total rounds, resting as needed between rounds. Perform the workout up to 3 times per week on days in between your normal strength training. If you do it at a brisk pace, it could double as a cardio session as well.

1. Tai Chi Twist

Reps: Go for 60 seconds

(See 1:14 in the video above.)

Step 1. Take a wide (double shoulder-width) stance with your feet facing straight forward. Shift your weight to your right leg, bending your right knee and driving it forward, while you maintain a tall posture.

Step 2. Twist your torso so your body turns to the right. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you draw your arms back to chest level, and then straighten your knee, shifting your weight to your left leg, as you extend your arms and spread your shoulder blades. Keep your torso in line with your right leg.

Step 3. Twist your torso to face the left knee, bring your arms back, and straighten your left leg, lunging back to your right.

2. Mobile Table

Reps: Go for 60 seconds

(See 2:56 in the video above.)

Step 1. Sit on the floor and bend your knees so your feet are flat. Press your palms into the floor behind you. Your fingers can face any direction that’s comfortable (many people prefer fingers pointing out to the sides).

Step 2. Roll your shoulders back and drive your arms down as you extend your hips, raising your butt off the floor as high as you can—ideally until your torso and upper legs form a straight line (think: table top). But stop before your shoulders shrug. It’s OK if you can only lift your butt a few inches off the floor, as long as you keep your shoulders drawn down.

3. Spinal Roll To Mountain Climber

Reps: Go for 60 seconds

(See 4:51 in the video above.)

Step 1. Stand with feet hip-width apart and tuck your chin to your chest. Slowly bend forward at the spine, lowering your head down your body, one vertebrae at a time. Allow the weight of your head and arms to drag your torso down.

Step 2. Place your hands on the floor and step your legs back into a plank position (the top of a pushup, with your body forming a straight line from your head to your heels).

Step 3. Step your left foot forward so it’s in line with your left hand, and try to straighten your back again as much as you can. Now twist your torso to the left and reach your left arm overhead until your shoulders are stacked.

Step 4. Return your hand to the floor and walk your right foot forward so that it’s even with the left foot. Bend your knees forward and begin extending your spine, slowly, to come back up to standing. Repeat on the opposite side.

4. Internal Rotating Squat

Reps: Go for 60 seconds

(See 7:06 in the video above.)

Step 1. Step your right foot out to just outside shoulder width. Bring your left foot in so the ball of your foot is lined up with the middle of your right foot. Plant the left foot with your heel raised.

Step 2. Squat down (you’ll only be able to go to about one-quarter depth) and rotate to the right so that your left shoulder is lined up with your left knee. Come back up, and repeat on the opposite side.

5. Shoulder Roll

Reps: Go for 60 seconds

(See 9:50 in the video above.)

Step 1. Press your fingers into one another so your palms are open and straight, and glue them to the sides of your legs—try to keep your hands tight against your legs while your shoulders slide. Maintain that tension.

Step 2. Shrug your shoulders as high as you can, and then retract your shoulder blades to pinch them together.

Step 3. Draw your shoulders down so you feel a stretch in your traps, and then push your shoulders forward, spreading your shoulder blades apart. Continue making shoulder circles, striving for fluid movement between all positions.

6. Squat Sprawl

Reps: Go for 60 seconds

(See 11:30 in the video above.)

Step 1. Place your feet a little outside hip width and squat down until your knees are bent about 90 degrees. Keep a long line from your head to your pelvis so your lower back stays in its natural arch. Place your hands on the floor and extend your legs behind you so that you’re in the top of a pushup position.

Step 2. Lower your hips to the floor as you drive your palms down and extend your back, drawing your shoulders back and down (an upward dog position in yoga).

Step 3. Reverse the motion to return to pushup position, and then step your feet forward again so you’re back in the bottom of your squat. Stand up.

To increase the challenge, jump your feet back to the pushup position instead of walking your feet back.

See another bodyweight circuit in our guide to circuit training.

The post Partner Mobility Workout appeared first on Onnit Academy.

So what the hell does the average guy or gal have in common with Brian Butz? Well, as it turns out, much more than you think.

The most impressive thing about the former Onnit Gym coach from Latrobe, PA, isn’t his physique or feats of strength, but rather his evolution from a husky farm boy who grew up playing magic tricks rather than sports and eating bowls of Frosted Flakes^® snowed under in added sugar. Contrary to what his growing Instagram account may lead you to believe, Butz isn’t the poster boy for good genetics and divine favor. Instead, he’s living proof that we all have to start somewhere, and that anyone can leave that place behind if they choose to.

Butz, 29, spoke to us about his life and fitness journey, how he’s trying to single-handedly elevate the coaching profession, and his new workout app, the Mobile Mammoth Level 1.

Onnit: First, we need you to clarify something. We’ve never seen you and Thor in the same place before, so can you conclusively prove that you’re NOT, in fact, a Marvel superhero?

Brian Butz: [Laughs] That has become my nickname among some people. I’ve actually never seen any of those movies, but I get “You look like Chris Hemsworth” from people my age, and “You look like Brad Pitt” from older generations a lot. 

Were you always a physical specimen?

Not at all. My parents had zero concept of nutrition. I drank a lot of soda growing up, and my after-school snack was a giant bowl of Frosted Flakes^® with two strawberry Pop-Tarts^® broken up on top of them and four tablespoons of sugar on top of that. I didn’t have time to play sports because I grew up on a farm, and I was either working on that or working for my dad’s construction company, laying stone and pouring concrete. I started helping him when I was six and worked as a laborer every summer. When I did have time, I was into magic [laughs].

So how did you get into fitness?

I was 14, and my mom asked me one day if I needed a bra because I had such big boobies. She wasn’t kidding.

That’s when I said, “Fuck this.” I had seen commercials for the P90X^® transformation program, and I spent $140 of my own money to get it and started working out. I couldn’t even do a pushup at first. Nowadays, I can deadlift 710 pounds and do full splits, so people like to say, “It’s easy for you to talk about fitness, because you’ve always been like this.” That’s when I tell them, “Eh, not really.” [Laughs]

So I did P90X^® in my room every day. That program ended up being a big influence on my Mobile Mammoth Level 1 program that I offer now. You can do it in your garage. Since the pandemic began, many people have gotten a squat rack or other equipment that fits in a home gym, so, if you’re like I was back in the day, intimidated or uncomfortable going to a gym, you can train in your own room like I did with P90X^®. One of a coach’s jobs is to eliminate barriers to exercise for clients, so creating a program that allows you to train in a place where you’re not self-conscious and you’re free from distractions was important to me, because that’s how I started.

After I lost some weight with P90X^®, I wanted to go out for wrestling, because I knew all the wrestlers in my school were in great shape. I had a gym teacher who was also the wrestling coach. He was a really good guy—didn’t swear, but he was built like a tree, and his training was really diverse. He had us do synchronized swimming as part of our preparation. It turned out that I was pretty terrible at wrestling—I got my ass beat all the time. I’m not a tough guy. But Frank, the coach, supported me anyway. He was the first person who told me, “You can do this.” He told me I could be the first person in my family to go to college. That was a novel thing for me, because, at that time, I had no confidence. I never got much better at wrestling, but I did start believing in myself and pursuing other goals.

At the end of high school, I applied to Indiana University of Pennsylvania and got into their exercise science program. When I told my dad, he said, “That’s awesome. Now how are you going to pay for it?” I had always wanted to go into the Army anyway, so I signed up for an ROTC scholarship. They paid for three years of school, and I went into the Army afterward.

In 2016, I got stationed in Colorado Springs as a platoon leader. I didn’t become a war hero or a bad ass, but, as a First Lieutenant, I had $59 million of equipment under my supervision, and 80 personnel below me. I had to grow up really quickly. The attitude in the Army was, “You’re in charge, so don’t fuck this up.” I had to train people for combat, so I became good at planning, time management, and communication—because that’s how you get people to do things you need them to do when they’re wet, tired, hungry, or pissed off. That really paid off later when I became a trainer.

When did you know you wanted to do fitness for a living?

I married an Army nurse and, when I got out of the military, I moved to San Antonio to be with her. It didn’t work out—we were young and stupid, and some would say I still am [laughs]—but I stayed in Texas. It was really weird because I had an exercise science degree and an Army resume, but I couldn’t find a job anywhere.

I tried to do construction, but I couldn’t get work and ended up sitting on the couch watching The Sopranos. One day, I was working out in Gold’s Gym. I had been training back and was all pumped up, and, out of frustration, I walked into the manager’s office and said, “Hey, man, can I get a job here?” Maybe it was because of the way I looked, but he just said “Sure” right away.

I had some experience as a trainer because I had trained guys in the military—I was responsible for the physical fitness of the platoon. But I went out and got a training certification, and started training people at Gold’s. I really didn’t know what I was doing. The management told me to just go and get clients, so I applied the work ethic I grew up with. I was in the gym 12–14 hours a day, going from treadmill to treadmill talking people up, trying to win clients. I worked up to doing 70 sessions a week, seven days a week, and I became one of the best salesmen at the gym.

Part of my success was due to outworking the competition, but it was also my personality. I was very empathetic to people. My old coach, Frank, used to say that people don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care, and that stuck with me.

How did you find Onnit?

I had heard [Onnit co-founder] Aubrey Marcus on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast when I was in high school. He was talking about an ayahuasca experience that he had had and was actually crying. That made a huge impression on me. 

Remember that I grew up around farmers, construction workers, and wrestlers. I was raised to think that if you were having an issue, the only solution was to raise yourself up by your bootstraps. There wasn’t a lot of space for a man to have feelings. But Aubrey was a guy who was jacked, and hunted fish with a speargun—and was also sensitive enough to cry in public. He showed me that a bad ass can also be in touch with his feelings. So I had known about Onnit for a while, and I had actually been taking Shroom Tech^® SPORT before workouts for years and loved it.

Trainers know that if they get more certifications, they can charge more money, so I said to a bunch of the Gold’s trainers that we should go up to Onnit in Austin and take a cert course. In 2019, we went and did the kettlebell cert, and I left it telling myself that I had to work at Onnit someday. It became the mecca for me. 

What about Onnit impressed you so much?

The kettlebell course was amazing, but there was something about Coach John Wolf [Onnit’s Chief Fitness Officer] that inspired me. He’s a very powerful guy who speaks and teaches well. Like Aubrey, he had a quiet confidence about him and showed that you can be strong and smart and friendly—a balanced person. He owned the room when he taught.

You know, I truly believe that fitness is a vehicle for teaching lessons in life. When I was younger, bodybuilding was very important to me. It was how I dealt with friends who were dying in the military. I worked off a lot of that stress and anger by lifting heavy weights. Then, one day, not long after I went to Onnit the first time, I did a workout where I front squatted 315 for 25 reps. It was awful. I sat down on a bench afterward and thought, “I’m not angry anymore. I want to heal.” Shortly after that, I took Onnit’s Durability certification. Shane Heins [co-creator of Onnit’s fitness education] actually said, “When I saw you come in, I saw this very big guy who looked like a lumberjack, but I could tell that you were just ready to change. I’m excited to see where you take Durability.”

That cert changed my life, and it’s now the basis of everything I do. First of all, Durability made me realize how tight I was. When I tried to do a shinbox sit, my front knee was five inches above the floor. So I stopped lifting entirely for six months and did the Durability moves every day—the mountain climber series, shinboxes, etc. I just did Durability and ran, and that’s it.

Then, in the fall of 2020, [Former Director of Fitness Programming] Juan Leija posted that Onnit Gym was looking for coaches. I messaged him saying I wanted the job, and he invited me to come do a workout with the other coaches. That was part of my job interview. He put us through the ringer, running with an 80-pound sandbag on our shoulders, among other things, but I was in great shape from all the cardio and mobility training. Juan offered me the job, and I moved to Austin.

I worked at Onnit a year, and it was a great experience. I learned a ton. But I recognized that it was getting time for me to step out on my own. There were people waiting a half-year to train with me at the gym, and I felt like I had to find a way to get my training to the masses.

John Wolf had told me that Onnit is a place where coaches come, learn and develop, and then move on to something else. It’s a springboard, not necessarily a destination. So, while it was terrifying to move on, I decided to step away from Onnit so I could develop the Mobile Mammoth plan. 

Where did the idea for Mobile Mammoth training come from?

I had three questions I couldn’t get out of my mind. “What is fitness and why do we need it? What is being offered now in the market and what does it not address? And why is everybody getting hurt?” I thought that if I could answer those, I’d have a training system that would serve more people.

I wanted people to link fitness to life outside the gym. You should know what aspect of your life you want to improve with fitness, and how to train to get there. No one really wants to work out just to get better at working out. Most trainers I see don’t help their clients identify and set smart, specific goals, and I wanted to offer a program that did, no matter who you are. And as for the third question, why is everybody hurt, we need a better model to teach people how to take care of themselves. I’ve trained over 1,000 people now, and I’ve seen that, more than any other factor, what stops them from making progress always comes down to injury. We’re always hearing about female soccer players blowing out their ACLs, and 70% of people who go to physical therapy drop out after the third session—so it falls on trainers to not let them get injured in the first place. 

So, in my system, posture is really important. We work on basic movement skills. I try to educate on simple but important things like how to breathe, how to brace the core. You know, for a long time, I was afraid that clients wouldn’t stay with me if I trained them like that. If I made them do bodyweight squats before barbell squats, focusing on fundamental positions. But I found that when you take the time to explain what you’re doing and why, and you show that it’s because you care about the client, they appreciate it and run with it. And believe me, I can make an exercise hard without adding weight to it. There are all kinds of ways to add intensity to your training, like adding a tempo to your reps, decreasing rest periods, upping the volume, working off one foot rather than two, and so on. 

I have a weird amount of empathy and awareness. I can feel how people are, and I believe that how you show up for people and the attention that you give them is reciprocal. For the hour I’m in the gym with a client, we’re alone. I want them to leave thinking, “Wow, he really paid attention to me.” That can have a huge impact on people, and their fitness. I look at it this way—most people see their doctor maybe once a year, but if you have a trainer, you see them three times a week. We have a big responsibility, and an opportunity to really change lives.

Your mobility now is amazing, especially for a guy your size, but you mentioned that you used to be very inflexible. What do you recommend for people who want to start limbering up?

Spend time in the positions you’re trying to improve and work on owning the end ranges of motion. But also, work on the basics of a healthy lifestyle. Honestly, drinking more water and sleeping eight hours at night had the biggest impact on my mobility. It took me out of that fight-or-flight state, and rehydrated the tissue. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to do mobility, as basic healthy lifestyle guidelines would cover most of it.

In the Mobile Mammoth app, I put people in positions that challenge them while still letting them do exercises that are familiar and that they enjoy. For instance, there’s biceps curls in the program, but sometimes you’ll do them in different stances. You’re still training biceps, but when you do them in a staggered stance, there’s a balance component, you work hip extension, and you have to be mindful of keeping a neutral pelvis, so mobility and posture are built into the training.

Tell us more about your new app, Mobile Mammoth Level 1

It’s available July 4 on Google Play for Android and iOS for iPhone. You get access to a program for 12 months—three days a week of resistance training and two days of cardio and mobility. You also get what I call Mobility Mammoth Minutes, which are 15-minute routines for when you don’t have time for a full workout. The workouts use equipment that most people have at home—a squat rack, landmine, and dumbbells or kettlebells.

I designed the app to teach people the fundamentals they need to do a hard reset on your fitness, and it will help you answer the question of where you can take your fitness afterward. It’s heavy on education, so it’s not just another program you do and are done with in 30 days. It will feel more like a course you take to learn about training. You can repeat the program again and again, progressing and regressing the exercises as needed.

Download The Mobile Mammoth Level 1 app at  train.themobilemammoth.com, and follow Brian on Instagram, @themobilemammoth.

The post Meet The Mobile Mammoth: Q&A With Brian Butz appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– Mobility is the practice of increasing your capacity to move your body through greater ranges of motion with control and without pain.

– Your potential to build muscle, burn fat, and stay healthy depends immensely on your ability to move properly.

– Use the exercises in Shoulder Complexes A, B, and C to improve range of motion and prevent injury.

– In the accompanying shoulder mobility program, exercises should be done 5 days a week, 3–5 times per day, for 3–5 sets of 3–5 reps.

Shoulder Mobility For Strength and Injury Prevention

When you start on the path to a fitness goal, you’re bound to learn some things about your body along the way. A new workout or activity places new demands on your system, and whether you were previously inactive or extremely active, it can become painfully obvious early on that your body is having trouble keeping up with what you’re asking it to do. For example, you start a new running program and your knees begin to hurt, or you get a set of kettlebells, and now you notice that one arm feels strong while the other can’t even lock out the elbow when pressing overhead. 

Regardless of what your ultimate fitness goal is—be it ripped abs, stronger lifts, running your first marathon, etc.—increasing the amount and quality of movement you’re capable of is one of the most important and yet oft overlooked factors in reaching it. Improving movement skills—mobility training—is a must for being able to perform the type of exercise you love pain-free, and at the highest level possible.

First, I’ll explain why better mobility could be the corrective step that helps you smash plateaus that may have derailed or discouraged you in your training in the past. I’ll also detail how it can help you come back from injuries that may have plagued you for years, and prevent injury that could be just around the corner due to poor training habits. Then I’ll lay out an easy-to-follow plan for improving mobility in your shoulders—a commonly tight and injury-prone area—so that you can make the New Year one of pain-free workouts and high performance.

What Is Mobility Training?

I define mobility training as the practice of increasing your capacity to move your body through greater ranges of motion WITH control and WITHOUT pain. It’s these two qualifiers that distinguish mobility from the more commonly known term “flexibility.” Most people are flexible enough to move a joint from point A to point B, but that doesn’t mean they can do it while keeping the body in a safe anatomical alignment. Mobility requires mastery of another term you may have heard of—stability—which is the ability to control your body position and avoid unwanted movement.

It’s important to realize that mobility isn’t another word for stretching. Because of its stability component, it’s stretching AND strengthening all at once.

Just what the hell am I talking about? Let me illustrate it with an example.

Picture doing a bodyweight squat. You may be capable of squatting all the way down to where your butt touches your calves (that’s flexibility), but if you have to rise up onto the balls of your feet and bend forward in your lower back to do it, you really aren’t demonstrating that you have the mobility to squat. In other words, you’re moving, but you’re not moving correctly or safely. You don’t have stability/strength in your spine or the range of motion in your hips and ankles to squat soundly.

Now imagine if you could squat deeply while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis stacked vertically, your heels anchored to the floor, and your knees lined up with the first two toes on each foot—and the movement felt natural, comfortable, stable, and smooth. You would be squatting perfectly, and demonstrating optimal mobility in your hips and ankles, and stability throughout your spine. It takes not only flexibility in the muscles and joints to move that way, but also the strength to control that movement and avoid moving in ways that break that good body alignment.

That’s the kind of movement that translates to performance in the real world. To get it, we only need to practice a few drills per day that challenge us to explore new ranges of motion while keeping sound body mechanics. It’s not as complicated as it sounds!

Benefits of Mobility Training

Good mobility unlocks the body, and by extension, its potential. For one thing, if you lack mobility, gaining more will allow you to achieve greater muscle activation, which leads to better muscle and strength gains. It also means that the right muscles will be engaged, so the muscles and joints that aren’t supposed to be so involved in a movement don’t kick in to compensate for a lack of mobility. That can go a long way toward preventing injury. For instance, if you’re doing an overhead press (with a barbell, kettlebell, or anything else), and your thoracic spine (mid back) can’t extend enough—i.e. you can’t stand up straight like your mom told you to growing up—you won’t be able to press the weight in a straight line overhead. You may end up hyperextending at your lower back to compensate, and that places tension on the low back muscles and spinal disks that can lead to injury. If you’ve hit pressing plateaus in the past, this is a likely reason why. It’s not that your shoulders weren’t strong enough to lift heavier weights, the problem was you couldn’t maintain the right body position that makes it possible. Poor mobility causes form to break down!

In addition to letting you perform your exercises as intended, having good mobility creates more energy expenditure, so you can burn more calories. That goes a long way in helping you lose weight, i.e. see your abs. A person who can squat ass to grass is going to get his/her heart rate up higher than someone who can only manage half-squats.

In short, your potential to build muscle, burn fat, and stay healthy depends immensely on your ability to move properly. You simply won’t reach your highest level of performance without it, or be able to avoid the aches and pains that come with years of hard training and threaten to sideline your fitness.

Unfortunately, most of us have serious mobility deficiencies. When we become aware of how to move properly, we often see that getting into the ranges of motion we need for certain exercises while using the correct body mechanics is a big challenge. None of us are born tight and achy, we just lose range of motion and function in certain joints and connective tissues over time. Prolonged sitting is a surefire way to let the hips tighten up, and slouching over a desk in front of a computer will lock up the shoulders and thoracic spine. Previous injuries also play a factor. If you sprained your ankle in high school, or tore a hamstring lifting weights last year, these events can affect the way you move going forward—especially if you didn’t rehab them properly.

Even when the pain of injury goes away, you’re often left with compromised joints and tissues that can’t handle what you ask of them when you undergo a rigorous training regimen, and it’s only then that you recognize the problem and see you have to correct it in order to make progress. But, as you begin to mobilize tight areas, you’ll see your technique and range of motion improve on your exercises, and you’ll feel greater control over your movements. Activating the correct muscles takes burden off ones that were compensating for poor movement patterns, and that often resolves pain issues. It’s also the best prehab work you can do to bulletproof the body.

Where Should I Start With Mobility Training?

When introducing mobility training to anyone that has yet to experience it, my advice is to keep things simple and focus on what is most practical and accessible. Once you gain an understanding of how impactful mobility training can be, it’s easy to take it up a notch with more mobility exercises and more challenging drills. Your entry point into mobility should require no investment in equipment, take up minimal space, and demand very little of your time to see results.

When training clients in-person, I take them through a full-body mobility routine at the onset of EVERY session. That is a non-negotiable, as it allows me to see how the person is progressing day after day. You and I may never train together, but I recommend that you perform some mobility training daily as well. It’s a great way to measure your progress, as well as assess your capacity to move and perform on the given day (if you plan to work out or play some sport/participate in an activity afterward).

With that said, I understand that asking you to spend 15 minutes or more mobilizing the whole body, joint by joint, is too much for most busy people. But fortunately, that isn’t necessary either. In an effort to minimize the time and energy required, I suggest targeting just one area of your body and focusing your efforts on getting a measurable improvement in range of motion there. As this region loosens up, you’ll begin to see the value in what you’re doing, and you’ll be motivated to step it up even more. The area you choose should be whichever one you feel is the tightest and most injury-prone.

For most people, the big three to choose from will be the shoulders, spine, and hips. And for the rest of this article, I’ll discuss the shoulders, as they tend to get a very high return on investment in a short period of time. If you feel good about your shoulders and want to prioritize another area, check out the Morning Mobility Series in our new Onnit In 30 library of digital fitness products.

Shoulder Mobility Exercises

Modern lifestyles wreak havoc on the shoulders. Interfacing with computers and hand-held devices encourages a hunched, round-shouldered position that causes a shortening of the muscles on the front of the shoulder and an overstretching of the ones on the back. If you add a bunch of pressing exercises to the equation, done without an even greater amount of pulling exercises that strengthen the back of the shoulder, you’re really lighting a fuse that burns down to a shoulder injury. 

The following mobility drills will go a long way toward restoring balance to the shoulders and upper back, and expanding their ranges and stability. Perform the exercises slowly, focusing on exploring the ends of your range of motion. That is, move your shoulders as far as you can in each position with maximum control, being aware of how far you can comfortably go. Integrate your breath to help your body relax into greater ranges (more on this below). As you do the exercises, take note of two things:

1. Any discomfort or pain you may feel

2. Any differences in how you’re able to do the drill on one side versus the other

If a movement creates noticeable discomfort or pain, shave off the range of motion that creates that response, and explore what range you can access safely. Realize that any movement that causes irritation when done without load will surely feel worse when loaded, so be sure to adjust any shoulder training you’re doing accordingly. Using your mobility practice to create awareness around your current pain-free movement capacity helps guide sound decisions around what movements we should or should not include in our training, and allows us to problem-solve whatever may be causing the issue. 

As you explore your movement, you’ll probably become more aware of asymmetries—differences in how you move on one side versus the other. So long as these differences do not cause the type of discomfort or pain discussed above, you simply want to take note of them and think about how they might be affecting your training. Are they negatively impacting your ability to develop a skill you’re working on? Is the discrepancy forcing you to compensate by relying more on one side than the other side? You may decide to spend more time doing mobility work for the lagging side, and favor it in your workouts.

It’s important to look at mobility training as an intentional practice that leads to a greater awareness of the body. It’s not something you should do casually, mindlessly checking off the sets and reps until it’s over. Using your mobility training time to check in with the current state of your body and make note of daily changes helps inform you of whether you’re moving in the right direction with your training or not.

Directions

Begin performing the following mobility drills on a daily basis. You can perform them before a workout, at the end of a workout, or any other time of day (I’ll explain more about this in the next section). The exercises are organized as complexes—a pairing of two moves that are done back to back. Complete 3–5 reps for the first exercise, and then do 3–5 reps of the next one right away. That’s one complete complex/one set. Rest a few seconds, and repeat.

Shoulder Complex A: Push-Pull Drill and Flexed Lateral Roll

This complex helps free up the scapula (shoulder blade) to access both retracted and protracted positions, which contributes to greater activation of the stabilizing musculature necessary to build strength around the shoulder girdle. Coordinating the movements with your breath, inhaling and exhaling as directed, will allow you to push the range of motion deeper on each rep, as breath mobilizes the rib cage and helps to relax overly tight muscles.

1. Push-Pull Drill

Reps: 3–5

Step 1. Stand tall and inhale deeply as you draw your elbows as far back as possible with palms facing up.

Step 2. Exhale fully as you push your palms away from you, and rotate them so your fingers point up. Spread your shoulder blades apart as you do so, rounding your upper back. That’s one rep.

2. Flexed Lateral Roll

Reps: 3–5 each side

Step 1. Beginning in the end position of the push-pull drill (back rounded, arms extended), tilt your torso to the left, stacking your right shoulder over your left. Inhale through your nose as you direct your breath to the right side of your ribcage. Exhale to deepen the stretch.

Step 2. Inhale as you return your torso to the starting position, and then repeat the tilt on the opposite side. That’s one rep.

Shoulder Complex B: W Neck Tilt and Arm Screw

This simple sequence will help to increase stability in your scapula when it’s locked down—a strong and safe position used for virtually all pressing exercises. As you hold the depressed scapular position, you’ll free up the sides of your neck, which can get very tight after hours of playing on an iPhone.

The arm screw looks (and feels) like you’re twisting a sponge, and it will literally wring out the tension throughout the shoulder girdle, helping you to move the shoulders more freely. This is a great combo drill to use before shoulder pressing workouts! 

1. W Neck Tilt

Reps: 3–5 each side

Step 1. Stand tall and reach your arms out to your sides. Now bend your elbows slightly and turn your palms up so your arms form a W shape. Pull your shoulders down and back as you tilt your head toward your left shoulder and exhale.

Step 2. Inhale as you bring your head back to center, and repeat on the other side. That’s one rep. Avoid shrugging your shoulders! The goal is to keep your shoulders pulled down and retracted while your neck moves freely.

2. Arm Screw

Reps: 3–5 each side

Step 1. From the beginning position of the W neck tilt (arms in the W position, shoulders down), inhale as you lift your right shoulder toward your ear. Turn the front of your right shoulder toward your chest and rotate your arm inward. This will cause your torso to twist to the left.

Step 2. Continue rotating your right arm, twisting it like you’re wringing out a sponge until your right palm is facing upward (or as close as you can get it). Exhale. At the same time, reach your left arm out, palm facing up. Allow your torso to bend to the left as you reach.

Step 3. Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side. That’s one rep.

Shoulder Complex C: Bow Draw to Rear Reach and Backstroke

These two drills are all about being able to rotate your thoracic spine, which is an important part of maintaining optimal shoulder function.

1. Bow Draw to Rear Reach

Reps: 3–5 each side

Step 1. Stand tall with both arms extended in front of you and palms together. Inhale as you draw your right elbow behind you as far as possible, as if drawing back on the string of a bow, and keep your left arm reaching forward.

Step 2. Allow your torso and head to turn back in the direction your right arm is reaching. Slowly extend your right arm and reach your fingers as far back as possible while your left arm reaches as far forward as possible. Try to create one straight line with your arms, pulling your upper back and shoulders apart. Feel the stretch!

Step 3. Reverse the movement, and repeat on the opposite side. That’s one rep.  

2. Backstroke

Reps: 3–5 each side

Step 1. From the starting position of the bow draw to rear reach, raise your left hand overhead as high as possible and allow your torso to twist to the left. Simultaneously reach your right arm forward to stretch your back and shoulders again.

Step 2. Maintain the intention of keeping your fingertips as far apart as possible as you raise the right arm up and draw the left one down in a backstroke motion.

Step 3. Continue the arm movement until you have rotated to the opposite side, reaching with both arms. That’s one rep. 

The Shoulder Mobility Program

Improving your mobility comes with practice—the more you do it, the better you’ll get. You wouldn’t expect to learn to play the piano by practicing just once a week, or perfect your golf swing by hitting the range every now and then, and mobility works the same way: you need to make time to do it regularly.

But that doesn’t mean it has to take up a huge chunk of your day. The trick is to do a little here and there, frequently, so that it never feels overwhelming but adds up to a lot of work overall. I learned this concept, called Greasing The Groove (GTG), from strength coach Pavel Tsatsouline. Basically, you maximize the volume of your work by doing a little at a time—fewer repetitions than would create fatigue done many times throughout the day snowballs into a lot of cumulative practice. This way, your shoulders will never feel tired and you’ll never have to set aside 10 or 15 minutes or more in one block to train mobility, but you’ll end up doing a huge amount of mobility training by the end of a week.  

Perform the shoulder complexes I gave you above as follows.

Frequency: 3–5 times per day, 5 days per week

Sets: 3–5 of each complex

Reps: 3–5 for each exercise

For example, on a busy work day, you might perform 3 sets of 3 reps of the exercises in Shoulder Complex A in the morning after you get up. During your lunch break, you could then do 3 sets of 3 for Shoulder Complex B, and then, when you get home after work and have a little more time, you might tackle 4 sets of 5 reps for Shoulder Complex C. None of the complexes should ever take more than 10 minutes to complete, and most of the time, they’ll take closer to five.

This framework provides a lot of flexibility when it comes to how you tackle the five-day assignment, while at the same time making sure you still get enough volume to see noticeable results.

Make sure to comment on social media (@onnit) and let me know how this program works for you. I am looking forward to hearing from you!

P.S.: If you are interested in a more comprehensive mobility practice that you can do daily to get your whole body moving better, make sure to check out the Morning Mobility Series from our new Onnit In 30 workouts. You get 10 follow-along mobility workouts, led by me, for under $10.

You can also try one of the workouts before you buy!

The post Shoulder Mobility For Strength and Injury Prevention appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– Slouching and poor training habits lead to restrictions in shoulder mobility.

– Tight shoulders can make it difficult to press overhead safely, and limit the exercises you can perform. Lack of mobility can warp the technique you use on certain lifts, and hurt your ability to make strength gains.

– Shoulder mobility can be improved with several different stretches and exercises. If pressing overhead with a barbell or dumbbell is painful or problematic, pressing with a landmine, kettlebell, or steel club can serve as an alternative.

6 Great Shoulder Stretches and Mobility Exercises

Do your shoulders hurt? Chances are you’re reading this article because they do, and in that case, we want to welcome you to one of the most popular and prestigious clubs in all fitness and sports (please note the sarcasm).

Shoulder pain is everywhere. Researchers estimate that roughly 67% of people will experience it in their lifetimes, and if you lift weights, particularly at a competitive level, your shoulders are almost sure to take some bumps. According to a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the shoulders are one of the three most injured areas among weightlifters and powerlifters. But endurance junkies aren’t off the hook either. The North American Journal of Sports Physical Therapy revealed that as many as 87% of competitive swimmers will suffer from shoulder problems at some point.

Maybe you don’t notice any pain yet, but if your shoulders ever feel tight, you find you can’t press overhead without your arms drifting in front of you, or you can’t reach behind your back without twisting your body or feeling a pinch, there’s a good chance the fuse is burning toward injury.

Consider any discomfort or tightness you feel a “check engine” light for your shoulder joints. If you don’t fix the underlying issue and you keep going HAM at the gym, something catastrophic could happen down the road, when you’re lifting heavy or playing sports. Let this guide introduce you to some stretches that can restore mobility to the shoulders, and exercises that can build shoulder strength and muscle as safely as possible. Get your membership in the Shoulder Pain Club revoked for life!

What Causes Shoulder Tightness?

Your shoulders were designed to move well. The main shoulder joint is the glenohumeral joint, and it’s one of the most mobile joints in the body, capable of many degrees of movement. (Think of swooping your arms in big circles… your hips sure can’t do that.) But, in the modern world, we rarely need to use the shoulder joint’s full range of motion by reaching overhead or behind us. We also sit a lot, slumped over a desk or in front of a TV. Lack of use and daily, prolonged time in poor postures encourages shoulder tightness.

“This can lead to a loss of motor control,” says Taylor Weglicki, DPT, of Trevor Kashey Nutrition. “Think about riding a bike. If you haven’t ridden for a while, you can still get back on and ride it. But you won’t necessarily be able to ride a technical, single-track trail with the same precision and fine motor control components you used to. So what happens with the shoulders is that if you’re not using all of the different possible planes of motion, your body just doesn’t prioritize maintaining and utilizing those motions.” The result: restricted and poor quality movement. 

Then we head into the gym, usually skipping the mobility exercises and stretching we should do as a warmup, and hammer our shoulders on the bench press and other press variations. As the front deltoid and pectoral muscles get stronger, our shoulders tighten up even further—unless we take the time to work on stretching them, and include a good amount of upper back and rear deltoid work (think rowing variations, band pull aparts, and face pulls) to complement them.

Specifically, tight shoulders can result from weakness of the muscles that control the scapulae (shoulder blades), or poor scapular movement patterns. Sitting and slouching leads to tight lats and an inflexible thoracic spine—an inability to sit up straight like your mom used to tell you to. If you can’t properly extend your thoracic spine, you’ll have a tendency to push your arms forward when your press overhead, and that can put more strain on the shoulder joints when you lift.

Another shoulder-tightener most people don’t even think about is breathing incorrectly. Proper breathing has you engaging your diaphragm, expanding your abdomen while keeping your ribs down. This allows you to take full advantage of your lung capacity. But many people are what are known as chest breathers, relying on the muscles of the neck, chest, and shoulders to work harder than they should to draw in air. Their chests and shoulders elevate and their ribs flare on each breath in, and this tightens these muscles up. Becoming more aware of your breathing, and trying to breathe more into your belly, can help reduce tension throughout the upper body.

To gauge your current shoulder movement quality, Doug Kechijian, DPT, co-owner of Resilient Performance Systems, suggests you give yourself the following test.

Wall Overhead Reach

Step 1. Stand with your back against a wall and arms at your sides. Fully press your back into the wall—your low, mid, and upper back should all be flat against it.

Step 2. Maintain this flat position as you reach overhead, keeping your arms straight. Try to touch the wall with the back of your hands.

PASS: You can touch the wall with at least the tips of your fingers without having to peel any of your back from it to reach.

FAIL: You can’t touch the wall without your back peeling up, or you can only touch the wall by angling your arms outward in a V shape.

Benefits of Stretching Your Shoulders

Whether you failed the wall overhead reach test miserably or just missed the mark, any degree of restricted mobility makes it more difficult and risky to do an array of lifts that can not only benefit your shoulders, but also every other muscle in your body. Think: Push presses, overhead squats, clean and presses, and more. These all work your upper body, core, and lower body.

Restricted shoulder mobility can hold back your strength too. “Think of doing a kettlebell press,” says Natalie Higby, an Onnit Coach, and co-owner of The Durable Athlete (she also models the exercises below). “If your fist is stacked over your wrist, elbow, and shoulder, then it’s much easier to move more weight.” Good shoulder mobility allows you to achieve the proper body alignment on your exercises, and that leads to the greatest transfer of power from your muscles into the object you’re lifting.

If you epically failed the overhead reach test or can’t currently lift overhead, launch a full assault to unstick your shoulder joints. Do all six mobility exercises shown below daily. If you just barely failed, try all the drills to discover which one seems to work best for you, and work at that one. “People often lack awareness of how their shoulder joint functions and moves,” says Higby. “It’s key to figure out how your own body is connected and what works for it.”

Finally, if you passed the wall overhead reach test, give yourself a pat on the back. (Hey, you can actually reach far enough to do it!) But you should still integrate the following drills into your training anyway, as they will only reinforce and solidify good movement, keeping you strong and healthy.

Exercises to Improve Shoulder Mobility

Here are six of the best stretches and drills you need to practice for healthy, mobile shoulders.

1. Chair Hang

This move is Kechijian’s go-to. He’s found that it works for most people most of the time, and he treats clients ranging from Special Forces operators and professional athletes to desk workers. It’s a three-pronged assault on the most common causes of tight shoulders: tight pecs, tight lats, and an inability to breathe deeply while keeping your ribs down. Kechijian recommends doing it daily.

Directions

Step 1. Grasp a pullup bar with an overhand grip, hands shoulder-width apart (grip it with palms facing each other, if your bar has handles that allow it). Raise your knees up until your quads are parallel to the floor, and your hips and knees are at a 90-degree angle. You’ll look as if you’re sitting on a chair.

Step 2. Flex your glutes so your pelvis is slightly tipped upward, which will help keep your ribs down. (Your knees will raise higher, almost to your chest.) Hold the position and breathe deeply from your nose, filling your belly when you breathe in. Slowly, but forcefully, blow all the air out of your nose (you’ll really feel the stretch on the exhale). One deep breath in and out is one rep. Do 2–3 sets of 10 reps.

2. Scapular Four-Way Drill

Weglicki points out that a lot of shoulder restrictions can be traced back to weak scapular muscles. “The shoulder moves with the scapula. So the shoulder blade and arm have to work together in coordination with all that soft tissue in reaching overhead,” he says. “If all those parts aren’t playing together, you’re not going to be solid [with any overhead training you do].” This move teaches you to activate the muscles that control your shoulder blades, strengthens them, and is also easy to do at home or anywhere else you don’t have equipment.

Directions

Step 1. Get on your hands and knees as if about to crawl. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades straight back, pinching them together, as you take a deep breath into your belly. Try to expand your stomach 360 degrees. Now spread your shoulder blades apart as you exhale, crunching your stomach in. Do 10 reps.

Step 3. Now begin moving your shoulders blades straight up and down, shrugging your shoulders and then depressing them. Breathe in on the way up, and out on the way down. Do 10 reps.

3. Chest Smash

Religious devotion to bench press Mondays is a surefire way to tighten your lats and chest—two muscle groups that, when tight, lock down your shoulders. “Rolling the muscles with a lacrosse ball or foam roller can help free up how high your arms can go overhead,” says Higby. It’s often ideal to do this right before a workout, to help restore range of motion. Then you can train in that range of motion for stronger, more efficient movement.

Directions

Step 1. Get a foam roller, softball, lacrosse ball, or any other firm but rollable object that can move around under your muscles. Lie facedown on the floor and put the object under your left pec. Now put as much of your weight as you can tolerate into the object without pain (the intensity should be around a 7 out of 10). Extend your left arm down by your side with your palm turned up to the ceiling.

Step 2. Raise your arm out and upward toward your head, turning your palm over to face the floor. You should feel your pec stretching against the tension created by the ball. Continue raising your arm until it’s overhead, and rotating your wrist, until your palm faces in again. Reverse the motion.

Step 3. Linger over any particularly sensitive areas, moving your arm back and forth until they relax a bit. Work the left side for 60 seconds, and then repeat on your right pec.

4. Lat Smash

Step 1. Lie on your right side, wedging the ball or roller under your right lat (the meaty part between your shoulder and ribs). Extend your right arm straight overhead, your palm facing the ceiling.

Step 2. Begin drawing your arm down in front of your chest, turning your palm toward the floor as you do. Reverse the motion. Repeat for 60 seconds, lingering over any especially sensitive areas. Switch sides and repeat.

5. Band Pull Apart

Some shoulder tightness, pain, and even a slumped posture is caused by weakness in the rear delts and upper back muscles relative to the pressing muscles. The band pull apart and face pull hit these areas all at once, which can balance you out, prop up your posture, and maybe even end your pain. Band shoulder work has been a staple among powerlifters for decades, as it works to offset heavy pressing.

Directions

Step 1. Hold a resistance band with an end in each hand, palms facing up. Extend your arms out in front of you so they’re parallel to the floor.

Step 2. Keep your arms straight as you draw them back to 90 degrees from your sides, pulling the band apart. (Your body should form a T in the end position). Avoid shrugging your shoulders as you pull—keep your shoulder blades down. Do 3 sets of 20 reps.

6. Band Face Pull

Step 1. Attach a resistance band to a sturdy object at about face level. Grasp the free end with both hands, palms facing down, and step back to put tension on the band with your arms extended. You may stagger your stance to help you balance.

Step 2. Pull the band to your forehead, spreading it apart as much as you can to get your hands back as far as possible. You should feel the exercise in your rear shoulders and upper back. Do 3 sets of 10–20 reps.

Bonus: T-Spine Mobilization

Sometimes people can’t get their arms fully overhead because their thoracic spine is too tight from slouching over a keyboard at the office or chest pressing at the gym, says Higby. By mobilizing this area, you’ll unlock your upper back, freeing your arms to move vertically.

Directions

Step 1. Stand with your knees slightly bent and feet hip- width apart. Lift your arms so they are parallel to the floor, bend your elbows, and flare your elbows out to the side so your fingertips touch in front of your upper chest.

Step 2. Rotate your body to the right, aiming to point your elbow to the wall behind you. Allow your right hip to twist with your shoulders. Extend your arm at the end of the range of motion, so your fingers are pointing behind you.

Step 3. Try to keep your right shoulder and arm pointing back as you squeeze your glutes and twist your right hip back to face forward. Then rotate your torso forward again and bring your hands together in front of you. Repeat on the left side. That’s one rep. Do 3 sets of 10–20 reps.

As you gain greater mobility, you’ll find that you’ll have an easier time doing pressing exercises, or that the irritation you usually get from these movements subsides—but don’t get impatient and go too heavy too soon. “Simply stretching into a range of motion doesn’t automatically gain you control of that new motion,” says Weglicki. “You won’t necessarily be able to lift and control loads in that range. You have to practice loading reasonably over time to build tolerance.”

Shoulder Exercise Alternatives

If your shoulders currently hurt when doing conventional pressing exercises, it’s best to avoid them while you work on restoring mobility and function. But this doesn’t have to mean laying off all shoulder work, or switching over to boring machine exercises. There are several exercises that train the shoulders through a long range of motion and can be loaded fairly heavy while at the same time carrying a low risk of aggravating joint problems.

Higby loves landmine presses for people with irksome shoulders. The landmine is a metal sleeve anchored to a base, and when the fat end of a barbell is loaded into it, it turns the bar into one long lever. Pressing in this manner moves the bar on a diagonal arc, so the load isn’t centered so squarely on the shoulder joint as it would be pressing straight vertically. It also drives upward rotation of the scapula, activating the muscles that safely anchor the shoulder blades to the rib cage. Landmine presses are perfect for people who want to train the deltoids but can’t press overhead. “When you press with a landmine, the angle of the load is friendlier,” says Higby.

Pressing with kettlebells, steel maces, and steel clubs is also great for building scapular control. Their loads are offset from the handle, which makes them difficult to balance. When you lift them overhead or in front of you, the weight wants to pull your shoulder blades apart or forward, so fighting to keep them locked down and back makes the area more stable. The stability you gain will translate to stronger overall pressing and pushing, and help to prevent injury. Offset-loaded tools also allow you to train rotation—an oft-neglected movement pattern—and really strengthen your grip. “You might be surprised how weak you are in certain areas when these tools expose it,” says Higby.

In the case of the kettlebell overhead press, the offset load actually helps to pull your arm back, in spite of any tightness you may have in your shoulders or back. This results in your pressing straight up with your wrist, elbow, and shoulder all aligned. In other words, just lifting a kettlebell teaches good form all on its own.

Standing One-Arm Landmine Press Directions

Step 1. Anchor the end of a barbell into a landmine device, wedge it into a corner, or slide it into the handle of a kettlebell that’s lying sideways. Load the other end of the bar. Bring the loaded end of the bar up to your left shoulder and stand with legs staggered. Draw your shoulder blades back and down (think: “proud chest). Extend your right arm to help you keep balance, and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the bar overhead. It won’t move straight up, but on an arc. Allow your shoulder blade to rotate upward as you press. Do 3 sets of 5–10 reps on each side.

Half-Kneeling Kettlebell Single-Arm Press Directions

Step 1. Get into a half-kneeling position with your right knee on the floor. Both knees should be bent 90 degrees and your torso should be upright. Hold a kettlebell in your right hand at shoulder level with your palm facing in. The weight should rest on your forearm and be in tight to your chest. Tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor, and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the weight overhead, rotating your palm to face forward at lockout. Keep your balance. Do 3 sets of 5–10 reps on each side.

Two-Handed Club Front Press Directions

Step 1. Hold a steel club with both hands, right hand on top, and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Tuck your tailbone so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor, and brace your core. The club should be held close to your body, just above the right hip. Draw your shoulder blades together and down (“proud chest”).

Step 2. Press the club to arms’ length in front of you, until your arms are parallel to the floor. That’s one rep. Do 3 sets of 5–10 reps on each side.

The post 6 Great Shoulder Stretches and Mobility Exercises appeared first on Onnit Academy.

At Onnit, we believe that the best way to achieve any goal is to recognize that the body, mind, and spirit are intertwined. Improvement in one area, specifically, will bring progress universally, while a deficiency in anything will hold back everything. If you want to lose 20 pounds, you can’t ignore the mindset that led to your gaining unwanted weight in the first place. Likewise, if you’re a mother who wants to raise the healthiest, happiest children she can, you have to consider the role exercise must play in your own life to help you manage stress, maintain your health, and set a positive example for your kids.

For the doctors and nurses working so heroically to save lives in hospitals across the country to perform at their peak—as well as maximize their own health under these trying circumstances—exercise and good nutrition are vital.

Much research has shown that when a person is vigorously active and in shape, he/she maintains a stronger immune system, in addition to greater mental acuity and physical endurance. Fitter healthcare providers make for a more resilient force on the front lines of this global crisis. For this reason, we’re giving the Onnit 6 Bodyweight program to these workers absolutely free. 

What Is The Onnit 6 Bodyweight Program?

The Onnit 6 Bodyweight program is a five-star fitness plan that goes for six weeks. It requires only your bodyweight (no strength training equipment necessary), so it can be done in the comfort of your own home, and aims to improve total-body strength, stability, and conditioning. It can help promote better movement skills, fat loss, and aid in correcting the muscle imbalances that are at the root of common aches and pains. Since its launch in 2018, O6 Bodyweight has sold more than 16,000 units.

The Onnit 6 Program includes:

· 4 resistance training/metabolic conditioning sessions and 2 non-traditional yoga workouts per week.

· A variety of fun, challenging training methods—including Tabata, EMOM, and circuit training—that leave you looking forward to each workout.

· 3 levels of progression for every exercise, so you can easily scale and customize each workout based on your ability level and experience.

· Video instruction from Onnit Chief Fitness Officer John Wolf; you’ll feel like you’re getting personal coaching from one of the best trainers in the world.

· Delicious, diet-friendly recipes and nutrition tips.

· Mindset strategies from Onnit Founder Aubrey Marcus himself.

Note: The program is only free to US Healthcare providers with an NPI, including those with an MD, DO, NP, PA, and DDS. All applicants will be verified by ID.me.

Not a medical professional but know someone who is? Don’t let them miss this opportunity! Send them a link to this page now.

Here’s How to Get O6 Bodyweight for Free

Step 1. Click on Shop in the menu above.

Step 2. Under the Fitness drop-down menu, find “Onnit 6 – Bodyweight,” and add it to your cart.

Step 3. Go through checkout, and on the Payment page, click the link for “Military, first responder, and medical discounts.”

Step 4. Verify your identity as a nurse or medical professional via ID.me. Upon successful completion, you’ll be redirected back to your cart.

The Onnit 6 Bodyweight product in your cart will change to FREE, as long as your account hasn’t purchased Onnit 6 Bodyweight before. Complete your checkout. O6 Bodyweight will be added to your account’s Digital Library.

The post Onnit 6 Bodyweight is now FREE for Frontline Healthcare Providers appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Dr. Andreo Spina is the creator of both the Functional Range Release (FR)® soft tissue management system and the Functional Range Conditioning (FRC)® mobility development system.

Naturally, we decided to team up with him to bring you this video containing a demonstration of a hip opening sequence you can use to help increase your hip mobility, and therefore, your functional fitness.

Hip Mobility Exercise #1: 90/90 Hip Stretch

To get into the 90/90 position, your lead leg should be directly in front of you, bent to 90 degrees. Line it up with your heel. The trail leg should be to the side also be bent to 90 degrees, with the heel lining up with the back leg.

When you’re in the position, extend your back. Try to get your belly button to hover over your knee. If you lean forward keeping your chest up high, you’ll get a deep stretch in your lead leg. What you’re stretching here is the gluteus minimus muscle.

Hip Mobility Exercise #2: 90/90 Trail Leg Stretch

From the same position, you can work on the trail leg. You’re going to work it into an internal rotation position. Put your hands on your chest. Square yourself off with the trail leg. If you can’t, post your arm behind you and walk yourself into the position.

This stretch is a good indicator of hip health. If you can’t get into this position or if you have a pinching pain in this position, you should talk with a professional to make sure there’s nothing intrinsically wrong.

Hip Mobility Exercise #3: Hinge

Keep all of your weight on your back leg. Post up on the toe, swing the leg open and keep the lead leg down as long as you can. Point your toes down and swing your leg back up to bring your hip back into internal position. After a few reps, do a 90/90 transfer so you end up in the same position on the opposite side.

The post 3 Hip Mobility Exercises & Why You Should Do Them appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Summary

– The quad muscles include the vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis, and rectus femoris. They extend the knee.

– Injury typically occurs when we take our bodies through ranges of motion and movement patterns that they’re not used to.

– Improving hip and knee mobility can help prevent injury to the joints and quad muscles.

– To prevent knee injury, try to keep your shins vertical during any lower-body training you do.

The Best Quad Stretches & Exercises To Fit Into Your Workout

The quads are some of the biggest muscles in the body, and whether you want to build them up further to avoid hearing taunts like “hey, chicken legs,” or so you can run faster, jump higher, and lift heavier, the quad muscles need to be prepared for anything. We rounded up some mobility drills you’ve probably never tried to help you improve performance and reduce your risk of injury.

What Muscles Make Up Your Quads?

The quadriceps femoris (the quads’ formal name) consists of four different muscles—hence the “quad” name. These are the vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis, and rectus femoris. The three vastus muscles originate on the femur (thigh) bone, while the rectus femoris originates at the pelvis. All four muscles come together at the kneecap and attach to the shinbone. The quadriceps muscles work to extend the knee.

The vastus medialis is located on the innermost side of the thigh. Bodybuilders call it the “teardrop” muscle when it’s well developed, as the shape it makes going into the knee looks like a droplet of water. The vastus intermedius isn’t visible from the outside, as it lies beneath the rectus femoris muscle, which runs down the center of the thigh. The vastus lateralis extends down the outer side of the thigh.

Why Should You Stretch Your Quadriceps Before Exercising?

The quads connect at the hip and the knee, and while that makes them crucial for producing lower-body strength and explosiveness, it also opens them up to injury at both junctions. “We tend to hurt ourselves in positions or movement patterns that we don’t train or use very often,” says Cristian Plascencia, a mobility coach in Austin, TX (@cristian_thedurableathlete on Instagram). “So you want to get used to exposing your body to end ranges and planes of motion that it’s not used to.” If you never stretch your quads, but one day decide to run some sprints—or you play softball and you find yourself running for home plate—your quad muscles won’t be prepared for the sudden pulling that occurs when fast running creates extreme hip extension. That puts you at greater risk of straining or tearing a muscle.

Plascencia recommends drills that stretch your quads in the end ranges of hip extension and knee flexion before you do any running, jumping, or lower-body strength training. Not only will they help train your quads to move more safely during athletic activities, but they’ll double as a warmup that gets your body ready to move heavy weight on hard exercises like the squat, deadlift, or lunge, and all their variations.

The drills that follow are examples of dynamic stretches—exercises that take muscles through their range of motion actively, as opposed to statically. Static stretching, on the other hand, is when you put a muscle into a stretched position and hold it for time (toe touches, for example). Both types of stretching have their place, but dynamic stretches have been shown to be more effective when done before activity. They don’t inhibit muscle strength, and may even improve your nervous system’s ability to recruit your muscles. A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research examined the effect of different stretching protocols on quad muscle power. While none of the stretching reduced power, dynamic stretches led to the greatest increases in power during subsequent testing.

Another study found that dynamic stretching before training improved power significantly over not stretching at all.

Quad Stretches to Fit Into Your Workout

Plascencia offers the following dynamic stretches to add to your warmup.

Half-Kneeling Pelvic Tuck

Step 1. Kneel on one knee, resting it on a pad or towel. The knee should be directly under your hip; press your toes firmly into the floor. Tuck your pelvis so that it’s parallel to the floor, and straighten your torso. Draw your shoulders back and down (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2. Bend your hips back while keeping a long spine from your head to your pelvis. Hold for 5 seconds.

Step 3. Drive your knee into the pad as you tuck your pelvis again, and extend your hips to bring your torso back upright. Squeeze your glutes as you extend the hips.

That’s one rep. Perform 3 sets of 5 reps on each side.

Half-Kneeling King Dancer

Step 1. Begin the movement as you did for the half-kneeling pelvic tuck above. Rest on one knee, bend your hips back, and squeeze your glutes as you extend the hips again.

Step 2. Turn your torso toward the back knee and bend your hips as you curl your back leg up. Grasp the top of your foot with your hand.

Step 3. Tuck the pelvis as you extend your hips again while holding onto the back foot. You should feel a strong stretch in the front of the thigh and hip.

That’s one rep. Perform 3 sets of 5 reps on each side. 

Shinbox Tripod Extension

Step 1. Sit on the floor with your feet in front of you and knees bent 90 degrees. Rotate your hips and knees to the right until your knees are flat on the floor, your left knee beneath your right foot.

Step 2. Pull your left foot close to your butt so the top of the foot is on the floor. Press your right hand into the floor and pull your ribs down, bracing your core.

Step 3. Extend your hips, pressing your knees into the ground while you squeeze your glutes. Extend your left arm overhead as you come up. Hold the top for one second. Be sure to keep your core tight so that your lower back doesn’t hyperextend.

That’s one rep. Perform 3 sets of 5 reps on each side. 

How To Stretch A Quad With A Bad Knee

Plascencia says most people are good at moving forward and backward, but injury often occurs when rotational forces are put on the knee—turning, cutting, or when your knee travels laterally or medially during an exercise. “We don’t think of the knee joint as being able to rotate internally and externally,” says Plascencia, “but it does have degrees of rotation. Moving it through those ranges prepares it to take on load when it’s forced into rotation during activity.”

You can use the egg beater drill (see below) if you’re currently nursing a knee injury. It doesn’t require your knee to support any weight, and it will train the hip and knee joints to rotate internally and externally. The mountain climber with hip twist can be used later to prevent further knee problems, as it targets the leg’s lateral line of fascia—the webbing of connective tissue that links the muscles together. “If you can get greater mobility in that lateral line,” says Plascencia, “you can distribute force more equally down the leg and through the knee. It’s telling your IT band, obliques, and all the other tissues that cross the lower leg and hips that you can use this new range when you’re running, landing, or squatting, and that will take pressure off the quad tendon.”

Egg Beater

Step 1. Hold one end of a foam roller or other sturdy object for support. Stand on one leg (the same side as the roller) and raise your opposite leg off the floor, bringing your knee up to hip level.

Step 2. Keeping your thigh level with the floor, extend your knee, kicking the leg straight out.

Step 3. Bend the knee again as you rotate your lower leg away from the midline of your body, moving it purely from the hip.

Step 4. Rotate your leg toward midline, and then extend your knee again. The entire movement should look like you’re beating an egg and your leg is the whisk. That’s one rep.

Perform 3 sets of 5 reps in each direction on each side.

Mountain Climber Hip Twist

Step 1. Get on all fours on the floor with your hands under your shoulders and knees beneath your hips. Extend your knees so that you come up into the top of a pushup—your body should form a straight line from your head to your heels.

Step 2. Drive your left leg forward until your foot is outside your left hand. From there, slide your left foot back and twist your body slowly so that your right hip bends toward the floor. Drive your right leg into the floor to lengthen the leg and stretch the hip as you bring it to the floor.

Step 3. Pivot onto your left toes as you raise your hips up and back to the pushup position. Bring your left foot up to your hand again, and then switch sides.

That’s one rep. Perform 3 sets of 5 reps on each side.

Tips When Working Your Quads

“You can’t train muscles that act on the knee [like the quads] without paying attention to the ones that act on the hip and ankle,” says Plascencia. Improving your mobility in these areas, even if it’s just with some basic hip flexor stretches and ankle openers, will help your legs move more efficiently, again taking the pressure off the quads and knees.

Furthermore, avoid knee valgus when you train. That is, don’t let your knees cave in or bow out on any movement. Whether you’re jumping, squatting, or lunging, good technique means having your shins perpendicular to the floor so you avoid putting excess strain on the knee joints.

Lastly, Plascencia advises doing more exercises that use different planes of motion—moving laterally or with rotation, as opposed to just forward and back. Not only will this help to improve your movement skills to avoid injury, it will change the way your muscles are recruited, bringing up weak areas and boosting your muscle gains. “Instead of doing standard lunges and squats all the time,” says Plascencia, “do a curtsy or stepover lunge,” [see below for the stepover lunge] or try a squat holding one kettlebell in front of your chest so you have to fight to keep your balance. “If you do four or five leg exercises in a training week, have at least one or two work different planes of motion.”

Stepover Lunge

Step 1. Hold a kettlebell or dumbbell in each hand and step forward with one leg, turning your hips so that your knee points about 90 degrees from your body. You will land with your lead foot perpendicular to your rear one.

Step 2. Lower your body as far as you can—ideally to where your rear knee is just above the floor—while keeping your torso upright. Step back to the starting position and repeat on the opposite leg.

The post The Best Quad Stretches & Exercises To Fit Into Your Workout appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Is The Twist and Sit Knee?

The twist and sit–knee trains scapular stability, rotation in the mid back (thoracic spine), and mobility in the hips. Most people have trouble turning their shoulders and/or hips without bending or extending their lower back, which can lead to injury. Learning to move in rotation while keeping spinal alignment creates greater stability throughout the body and reduces compressive forces on the vertebrae. Furthermore, the twist and sit helps you learn to move the hips while keeping the shoulders stable, and vice versa, which applies to sports and other activities where you have to turn on a dime.

How To Do The Twist and Sit–Knee

Step 1: Get on all fours on the floor. Place your hands in front of you, directly beneath your shoulders. Your knees should be directly beneath your hips.

Step 2: Press your hands into the floor, twisting them outward to activate your shoulder blades and upper back (you’ll feel tension and stability in these areas). Draw your shoulder blades back together and down—think “proud chest.”

Step 3: Pull your knees toward your hands, activating your hips. Your knees should rise off the floor so they’re one hand-width behind your arms. Now brace your core. Your body should form a straight line from the top of your head to your hips.

Step 4: Keep tension in your upper body by pushing into the floor, and twist your hips to the right while keeping your shoulders square to the floor.

Step 5: Turn as far as you can, allowing your right foot to pivot until it’s flat and your toes point straight ahead (perpendicular to where you started). Your right knee should point up to the ceiling. Allow the left ankle to hook behind your right heel as you turn. (Your left leg should end up perpendicular to where you started and just above the floor.)

Step 6: Let your hips stretch so your butt touches the floor (or close to it), while at the same time driving your right knee out. Don’t allow the knee to collapse back inward.

Step 7: Repeat the movement to the opposite side.

Muscles Worked in the Twist and Sit-Knee

– Chest
– Shoulders
– Upper back
– Triceps
– Core
– Hips
– Quads

Twist and Sit-Knee Benefits

– Increased thoracic (T-spine) mobility
– Greater scapular control (the ability to set your shoulder blades down and back, i.e. good posture)
– Improved hip mobility
– Core strength

How To Use The Twist and Sit–Knee

– Include the twist and sit in your warmup to prepare your T-spine, scapulae (shoulder blades), and hips to move and stabilize.

– Use it as part of a bodyweight cardio circuit or finisher. Try performing reps for 20 seconds and resting 10 seconds between rounds.

– Alternate rounds of the twist and sit with sets of conventional exercises. If you’re deadlifting, the twist and sit can help relieve pressure on your lower back between sets, reducing the risk of injury. On squats, it can help activate your hips so you’re better able to push your knees apart and squat more deeply.

Regression

If you have trouble keeping your hands on the floor when you twist, do the sit through–knee instead (raise one hand off the floor as you turn). It requires less mobility in your T spine.

Progression

When you’ve mastered the twist and sit–knee, try the twist and sit–leg. Extending the trailing leg as you twist increases the challenge.

Sample Workouts

See the twist and sit–knee in action HERE.

The twist and sit-knee (and its variations) also appears in the Onnit 6 Bodyweightprogram, a six-week transformation plan you can do in your home.

The post Master This Move: The Twist and Sit–Knee Bodyweight Exercise appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Think about it like this. When you do a body-weight squat, can you sink all the way down until your butt touches your heels while keeping your chest proud and your feet flat? That’s good mobility. Or do you have to collapse your chest forward and round your lower back to get down there? If the latter describes you, then you have the flexibility in your hips and hamstrings to squat deeply but not the body control to do it correctly and safely.

That control is what mobility is all about. Flexibility by itself doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the strength to access it in the gym or on the field of competition. If strength training is what we have to do to make ourselves bigger and stronger, think of mobility training as the approach that helps us make the most of that muscle and strength. In fact, because mobility requires us to use muscle strength to control our bodies while moving through ranges, it is itself a form of strength training.

Below, I’ve taken the three movement patterns I see most commonly compromised by poor mobility— squatting, pressing, and pulling—and show you how to progress to performing them flawlessly. As a result, you’ll not only increase your range of motion but gain strength in that range, which will transfer to stronger and safer lifting and on-field performance.

But First, The Secret To Better Mobility

Before I get into the individual mobility drills, I want to discuss one thing you need to keep front of mind when doing them, as well as with any other mobility training you do.

Breathing.

Here’s the deal: you can only own the ranges of motion that you can breathe through. In other words, if you hold your breath during an exercise, you’ll never be able to reach your full range on it. That’s because when you hold your breath your body goes into panic mode. It thinks the way you’re moving is unsafe and it will resist you. Therefore, the first progression in all my mobility sequences for squatting, pressing, and pulling is a move that primes your breathing patterns. It’s important that you don’t just go through the motions on these. Breathe through them and be very conscious of your range on each, as they serve an important function.

When you breathe in, take the air in through your nose and into your belly, expanding your abdomen 360 degrees. If your chest and shoulders rise when you breathe, you’re doing it wrong. Picture the breath as water going in and filling up your stomach first, and then rising into your chest. When you exhale, try to let it out through your nose as well.

Hip Mobility Moves for Better Squatting

1. The Squat Rock

This exercise more or less takes your body through a full squat, only instead of standing you do it on all fours. The floor supports your body, making the movement very stable and therefore easier to train through a full range of motion. It’s a good way to familiarize your body with what a full-range squat feels like, and teaches you to maintain head, spine, and pelvis alignment.

– Get on all fours. Your palms should be directly under your shoulders and your knees below your hips. Tuck your toes so they point into the floor.

– Now push your butt back toward your heels, keeping your back and hips in a straight line. Ideally, you’ll be able to bring your butt and heels together, but don’t force it. Exhale as you push back.

– Rock back forward to the starting position, inhaling deeply into your abdomen as you go.

Beware of the “butt wink” when you do these—the tendency for your tailbone to tuck under as you rock back to your heels. Go back only as far as you can control. If you sense your pelvis is about to tuck, stop there and return to the starting position. Perform 60 seconds of the squat rock daily if you like, but at least four times per week.

2. Frog Rock

Same idea here as in the squat rock, but we’re upping the ante by adding a deep groin stretch.

– From the all-fours position, turn your feet out to the sides so the inside edges of your feet are flush with the floor. If you can’t do that, just practice sitting in this position until you can.

– Exhale as you push your hips back to your heels while keeping your butt elevated. Once again, do not allow any butt wink. Stay within the range of motion you can control. When you get to the point where you’re about to tuck, hold it five seconds while tensing your muscles hard as if you were spreading the floor apart with your knees. Then release and rock back to the start position. You can do 60 seconds every day, but four times per week minimum.

3. Knee Collapses

When coaches troubleshoot someone’s squat, we often hear the cue “knees out” used to help the squatter get his knees and feet to line up outside of hip width and improve his squat depth. This is fine, but it’s only one part of the equation. The internal rotator muscles—the ones that pull the knees inward—need some work too. By solving this muscle imbalance, you create better stability in the hips and, therefore, a more mobile squat.

– Get into the deepest squat you can manage while keeping your chest pointing forward and your head, spine, and pelvis aligned (remember, no tucking).

– Lean slightly to your left side, shifting your weight to that foot. Now turn your right leg inward and lower the inside edge of your knee to the floor until it touches. Think about initiating the movement from the top of your thigh where it meets the hip. The inside of that foot should end up flush with the floor as well.

– Now return to your squat position and repeat on the opposite side. Never alter your squat mechanics to extend your range—so if you can’t touch the floor with one or both knees without falling forward or twisting, just go as far as you can. Breathe in a controlled fashion through your nose—don’t try to sync your breath with the movement, but don’t hold your breath either.

Do 10 knee collapses on each side every day, or at least four times per week.

4. The 5/5 Squat

This is where it all comes together. Perform a squat with a slow tempo—five seconds down, and five seconds back up. You must keep good form throughout. When you hit the range your body doesn’t want to be in, you’ll feel the need to speed up or bounce out of it, but doing the squat slowly won’t let you. If it’s too hard to perform on your own, you can hold on to a rack or other sturdy object for stability. If it’s too easy, try a goblet squat or, if you feel you’re ready for it, squat with a bar on your back.

To review, here’s how a good squat is done:

– Stand with feet at shoulder width and toes turned slightly out. Without letting your feet actually move, try to screw both legs into the floor as if you were standing on grass and wanted to twist it up—you’ll feel your glutes tighten and the arches in your feet rise.

– Take a deep breath into your belly and lower your body down. Push your knees out as you descend. Go as low as you can while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis aligned, and then extend your hips and knees to return to standing.

Squatting very slowly is the ultimate test for having the strength to control the range of motion. Any tightness or weakness that can cause you to lose position will be exposed. You might be able to perform a decent-looking rep or two dive-bomb style, but you can’t fake good form when you go slowly. Start by doing 6 reps. When you can do 10 reps, you can progress to a loaded squat of your choice. Do these only twice per week.

Shoulder and Thoracic Mobility Moves for Better Pressing

1. Foam Roll Wall Push

This exercise really targets the serratus anterior—the finger-like muscles you see at the sides of your chest when you raise your arms overhead. If your serratus doesn’t work properly, your shoulders will internally rotate (round shoulder posture) and your shoulder blades will wing out. These problems set you up for shoulder injury on any pushing exercise you do.

– Stand a foot or so behind a wall and hold a foam roller against it with the edges of your forearms, right below your wrists. The roller should be at chin height. Tuck your tailbone under so your pelvis is level with the floor. Keep your ribs down and core braced.

– Keep pressure on the roller and slowly roll it up the wall as far as you can, spreading your shoulder blades apart as you move but don’t let your elbows flare out. Then roll back down. Exhale as you roll up and inhale as you come down. The wall push can leave you very sore, so do it only every other day or every few days for 15 reps. However, on any day you train upper body, you should do it as part of your warm up.

2. Kettlebell Arm Bar

You aren’t really moving with this exercise, but that doesn’t mean you’re not training mobility. Stabilizing the weight in an awkward position with the arm extended forces the muscles that act on your shoulder blades to clamp down hard. This will allow you to perform pushing movements without the shoulder joints taking the brunt of the load.

– Lie on your back on the floor with a moderate-weight kettlebell in your left hand (less than you’d use for a Turkish getup, for instance), your left knee bent, and your right arm extended overhead. Press the kettlebell to lockout over your chest.

– Now use your planted foot to turn your body 90 degrees to the right and then drive your left knee into the floor while keeping the kettlebell pointing straight up. Try to internally and externally rotate your arm at the shoulder, gently relaxing your upper body until your chest comes more into contact with the floor (and your raised arm drifts slightly more behind you).

– Hold the weight for at least 30 seconds. Your arm may twitch and move slightly in different directions—that’s OK, just try to stabilize it. If you feel you’re losing stability entirely, reset your position and start again. You can make the exercise harder by looking away from the kettlebell. Without visual feedback on where your arm is in space, your nervous system will have a harder time controlling it. Do 3 sets on each arm, breathing at a comfortable pace. If you find that your breathing becomes labored, stop and reset. Practice the arm bar four times per week.

Shoulder and Thoracic Mobility Moves for Better Pulling

1. Maxwell Stick Mobility Complex

I got this exercise from strength coach Steve Maxwell, and it’s great for people who are trying to do their first pull up all the way up to advanced athletes. Performing the same basic pullup motion on the floor allows you to do so in a safe, supported position, which lets you focus your attention entirely on your back.

– Grab a dowel rod with hands at shoulder width and lie on your belly on the floor. Hold the rod under your chest with your elbows pointing back.

– Extend your back to raise your chest off the floor as in a cobra pose. Pull the rod against your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades together and downward. Hold this tension for 5 seconds.

– Raise the rod from your chest to just under your chin and hold again for 5 seconds, keeping your shoulders back.

– Extend your arms in front of you and hold at lockout 5 more seconds.

Now reverse all three steps, holding in each position again. All of that is one set. Repeat for three total rounds. Your breathing should mimic a piston, inhaling and exhaling at a regular pace, which will intensify as the set goes on. Breathe only through your nose for maximum effect. Do this before any pullup workout, or three times per week total.

2. Flexed Arm Hang and Slow Negative

The following moves really grease the pullup groove. If you can’t do pullups with your body as one straight column—and without swinging at the bottom to initiate a rep—you must do these.

– Grasp a pullup bar with hands at shoulder width and palms facing you. Pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar, or help yourself there by getting up on a box or bench. Hold the position with your back contracted and your ribs down for as long as you can.

– From the top of a chinup, simply control your descent back down into a full hang. Aim to take 3–5 seconds to lower yourself down. As you get stronger, increase the time you take to perform the negative (lowering phase), and try to do the same on the positive portion of the rep —pull yourself up slowly.

Perform either of these variations twice per week, aiming for 60 total seconds of work in each—spread over as many sets as needed to complete it. When the flexed arm hang becomes easy, put all your effort into the slow negative.

The post 8 Mobility Moves For Better Squatting, Pressing, and Pulling appeared first on Onnit Academy.

After 30 years of consistent martial arts training and competing, I guess my body was asking for it.

I’ve always been flexible and never had problems with any of my joints, so I suppose I took my flexibility and mobility for granted.

In Tae Kwon Do and Kuk Sool, two martial arts that I trained extensively in, we did joint mobility.

But since I was young, I thought we were just going through the motions; I never realized how important joint mobility was.

Joint Mobility Worked for Dad

When I first moved to Los Angeles 15 years ago, I was living with my father. My father is a retired professional boxer with over 30 fights under his belt. As most of you know, road work (running) is an integral part of a fighters regimen.

So even in his mid 50’s, running was somewhat of a habit with my father. He would wake up at 5 AM every morning to do his 3-mile run. One day he asked me why his knees were hurting. I asked him if he warmed up.

He said no, so I told him the importance of warming up and gave him a few knee mobility exercises to do. He was amazed at how much it helped him. To this day he still runs and does his warm up/joint mobility.

Thirteen years after the previous story, I found myself in the same situation. I neglected joint mobility and stretching. My left elbow was always throbbing. It particularly hurt when I would do my one of my favorite kettlebell exercises, the high pull.

Needless to say, it was frustrating.

Then I had the pleasure of being invited to my friend John Wolf’s first Evolution Kettlebell Groundwork (EKG) workshop. In this workshop, he covered mobility exercises. That’s when I realized how important it was all over again.

I started working the exercises I learned from John and incorporated them into my warm ups. Low and behold, my elbow pain went away!

The Importance of Knee Mobility Exercises

When performing joint mobility exercises, our body produces a lubricant called synovial fluid. This fluid helps lubricate our joints and can even help regenerate certain parts of the body.

If done on a regular basis, it will help you move freely and pain-free. I do an extensive joint mobility warm up in all of my classes, and my students love it!

The beautiful thing about it is that you do not need a gym to do joint mobility, it can be done anywhere.

Top 5 Knee Mobility Exercises

Our knees are probably one of the most problematic parts of our bodies. Knee issues are one of the most common problems I encounter with my clients.

So, here are my top five joint mobility exercises that I use with my clients. Try them out for yourself, and you will reap the benefits!

Knee Mobility Exercise #1. The Ski Move

I named this exercise the “ski move,” because it resembles the movement used when people ski. It involves a side to side movement that is low impact and gets the knees moving.

Knee Mobility Exercise #2. Tootsie Roll

This movement resembles a dance from the 90’s and involves circling your knees inward. Naming exercises is important so your clients can remember them. I tend to add a bit of humor when I name exercises.

Knee Mobility Exercise #3. Butterfly

Similar to the Tootsie Roll, but involves and outward rotation of the knees. I recommend doing each one for 30 seconds.

Knee Mobility Exercise #4. Egg Beaters

This is an exercise swimmers use to tread water. But, in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, we perform the same movement while lying on our backs. It involves making circular motions while lying on your back with your feet raised.

Knee Mobility Exercise #5. Rocking Chair

I remember when I first did this exercise. It hurt my knees. This told me I needed to work on my knee mobility. Since it hurt, my coach showed me an alternative way.

If you try this exercise and you feel pain in your knee, place your hand on the floor of the same side you roll up on. This will take pressure off. After a while, you should be able to perform the rocking chair with ease and with no hands.

To see these exercises in action, check out my video that goes along with this article. In the meantime, do not neglect your joint mobility! Practicing joint mobility on a regular basis can ensure healthy, pain-free movement!

The post Joint Mobility Training: Top 5 Knee Mobility Exercises appeared first on Onnit Academy.