In this article we’re going to look at how to improve movement quality in the upper body with mobility, stability, and motor control focused exercises. Sports-specific needs aside, the bulk of my initial programming for my clients’ upper body work focuses on the posterior chain, and there's no change here. I believe in lengthening the front and strengthening the back of the body first.

Decades of sitting at  a desk can wreak havoc on your muscles.

And all his desk work, which may appear to be mainly work of the mind—reading and writing—also trains his muscles. Teaches his muscles how to be, or how not to be.

Sitting in a chair, he unconsciously teaches groups of muscles on the front of his body, flexor muscles, to tighten—including upper-body muscles that pull the arms and shoulders forward, such as the biceps and pectorals, and lower-body muscles, at the junction of the pelvis and legs, that pull the hips forward.

The pernicious engagement of those muscles—as well as disengagement of the opposite sets of muscles on the back of the body—helps explain why, after sitting for a while, he feels stiff and starts to ache.

“Left to its own devices, your flexors will tighten up and take you back to the fetal position, whence you came—if you don’t do something about it.”

So, before the sitting starts, Stocking tries to compensate for some of his extensor muscles’ impending deprivations.

The biggest muscle in the butt, the gluteus maximus, is a priority because it is the biggest, thickest, most powerful muscle in the body—and the significance of this muscle would be difficult to overstate.
No other mammal even has a gluteus maximus.

Stocking’s strategies for avoiding gluteal amnesia include the hip thrust. With the lower edges of his shoulder blades pressed against the side of a bench, a bed, or a sofa, and with his feet flat on the floor in front of him, his knees bent and his trunk muscles braced—to keep his spine in neutral position—Stocking extends his hips and contracts his glutes.

Stocking’s favorite exercise for the upper body is the row. His favorite form of the row is the reverse pullup.

A consistent mobility practice that includes flexibility exercises can help runners maintain proper form and mechanics, and prevent injury.

• Child's pose to upward-facing dog
• Primal squat with alternating reach
• Cat-cow
• Quadruped thoracic spine rotation
• World's greatest stretch with down dog
• Dynamic kneeling hamstring stretch
• Roll down to plank walk-out

https://www.runnersworld.com/training/a44418434/mobility-exercises-for-beginners/

• Knee hug to hip stretch
• Leg swing
• cat-cow
• quadruped hip cars
• Hip flexor stretch with overhead reach
• Down dog to cobra

https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a63446746/stretching-for-beginners/

• Child's pose
• Thread the needle
• Thoracic extension
• Seated pec stretch
• Hip flexor stretch

https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a64578236/hip-mobility-plan/

• Hip circles
• Seated Hip Lift
• Crescent lunge

Do you feel like your hip flexors (or quads) are always pretty stiff, even when doing regular, dedicated stretching? What if I told you the culprit may not be your tight muscles at all and no amount of passive lunges and hip stretches would really make a difference?

https://www.daniwinksflexibility.com/flexopedia/hip-flexor-stretches#active-stretches

If you suffer from sciatica nerve pain or hip flexor pain, here are the three stretches our in-house personal trainer recommends to improve symptoms.

Frog pose

feet in line with knees!

MODIFIED PIGEON

Typically the quadriceps win the strength battle and begin to pull the pelvis into a slight anterior rotation or forward tilt (picture a slight arch in the low spine). The hip flexors get in on this action, too, and assist the quadriceps. As the pelvis rotates anteriorly, it raises or elevates the hamstring attachment site, which means the hamstrings get pulled up, and as the pelvis shifts, they become over-lengthened.

Over-lengthening a muscle greatly increases its risk of injury. Along with over-lengthening the hamstrings, pelvic anterior rotation also shortens our back muscles. The typical scenario is tight, shortened quadriceps; tight, shortened hip flexors; tight, shortened back muscles; and tight but over-lengthened hamstring muscles.

1. Stretch and roll your quadriceps and hip flexors regularly. Try this standing quad stretch.
2. Gently stretch your hamstrings:
3. Warm up your spine and perform a cat-cow, a low-back stretch and pelvic tilt exercise to stretch your low-back muscles:
4. Strengthen your core muscles, especially the abdominal muscles, by incorporating planks into your routine:
5. Strengthen hamstring muscles with single-leg glute bridges:

All the tips you need to prevent running injuries, including form tips, strength and mobility moves, and more.

Complete the recommended reps for each of the four moves and repeat the circuit two to three times.

1. Hip Shifts (30 secs)
2. Loaded Beasts (Do 10 reps)
3. Elevated 90/90 Hip Switch (3 reps on each side)
4. Supported Marches (hold for 30 secs, 3 reps each side)

Ankle Dorsiflexion range of motion is one of the most neglected - but important - ranges to work. If you have a history of ankle sprains, overpronation or flat feet, chances are your ankle dorsiflexion needs to improve.

But conventional static stretching will not give you the results you're after and could even increase your risk of achilles tendon issues or calf muscle strains.

In this presentation, you'll learn exactly why dorsiflexion ROM is so important, how it contributes to both performance issues with squatting and sprinting, as well as injuries like achilles tendinopathy, ACL tears, ankle sprains, hamstring tears, patellar tendonitis / PFPS and more.

You'll also discover my powerful 4 exercise routine called the Ankle Dorsiflexion RSR, which stands for 'Range Specific Routine', that will increase your dorsiflexion ROM in as little as 2-4 weeks when you do it 2-3 times a week (it only takes about 15 minutes to do).

ANKLE DORSIFLEXION RSR

00:00 - Intro and Routine Details
04:44 - 3 Indicators You Need More Dorsiflexion
05:13 - Test Your Dorsiflexion ROM
06:46 - Exercise #1: Active Self-Myofascial Release Technique
08:28 - Exercise #2: Banded Dorsiflexion Mobilization
09:46 - Exercise #3: Ankle Dorsiflexion Level II ERE
11:56 - Exercise #4: 1-Leg Anterior Reach

You have 10 minutes.

Bottoms down.

Exposure to positions!

Physical therapist Dan Giordano demonstrates his 5 favorite foot stretches to promote better mobility and relief pain.

Big Toe Rockback

Only hold until you feel that stretch and then rock out of it and rock back.” Do five to eight of these.

Seated Knee Lift

Half-Kneeling 3D Ankle Series

This exercise moves in three directions. As you stretch out towards your front pinky toe, be sure to keep that heel grounded.

Downward Dog Calf Stretch

Foot Rolling

Do this for 30 to 60 seconds to increase blood flow to the area and give yourself a self-myofascial release.

Men over 40 can add the scorpion stretch, a floor based mobility exercise, to combat lower back pain and promote better movement.

Spiderman to Scorpion: Eb and Swole

To start, lie face-down on the floor, with your arms extended out on either side. Bend your left knee toward your glute, then squeeze the muscle to raise your left leg straight up, keeping your knee bent. Bring your left leg across your body—if you're able, try to touch the floor on the other side. Your torso will raise off the floor, but don’t let your hands move. Rotate your head along with the movement. When you’ve brought your left foot as close to the ground (and eventually, your right hand) as possible, hold the position for a beat. Then, slowly return to the starting position. Repeat the same movement for the right side of your body to complete one rep.

7 MIN PRE RUN YOGA! The perfect and compact yoga practice to prepare the body for a jog or a run. Mindful and thorough. I've taken all your requests and put them into one practice. Warm it up and then go get em tiger!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgz7Ikf7ATk

Hamstring stretching is a common, generic exercise given as part of low back pain program as well as improving athletic performance. Here’s what you need to be asking yourself: Is stretching my hamstrings necessary? What is the goal/purpose of stretching our hamstrings? When is it the right time to do so?

Sitting with bad posture all day may up your risk of injury.

• Hip Flexor Stretch
• Glute Bridge
• Upper Trapezius Stretch
• Updog (Lumbar Mobilization Stretch)

Here are seven stretches to do after lifting sessions for the areas of the body we often forget about.

1. Half Kneeling Lat Stretch

Position yourself close to a post and get into a lunge—or a half kneeling position. With your outside arm, reach over your head and grab the post. Place your inside hand below that. Then lean away from the post and into your outside lat.

Hold for 1 minute per side. I find this stretch particularly useful after a big pulling session.

2. Bottom of the Feet Massage

I like massaging them by rolling them out on a lacrosse ball.

3. Simple Wrist Stretches

Spend a good 30 seconds in each of these two positions and make sure you keep your elbows straight on both of these.

4. Frog Stretch

Though I often see people stretching their glutes, hamstrings, and quads, I rarely see people stretching their inner thighs and groin.

Hang out for at least a minute after a big squat day.

5. Shoulder Extension Stretch

I like this dowel shoulder extension stretch. The narrower your hands are on the dowel and the higher you can raise your hands, the deeper the stretch will be.

Spend 1 minute in this position.

6. Dowel Sit

Grab a dowel and place it behind your knees and then sit down on your shins. Every 20 seconds, roll the dowel one revolution until you’re eventually down at your Achilles.

Spend a solid 2 to 3 minutes working your way down your calves. If you do a lot of running or jumping, this one is particularly useful for your calves.

7. Low Back

This is just a dead-hang hold from a bar.
Spend 1 minute or so in this position. This is particularly useful after a big hamstring and glute lifting session.

Strengthen Your Hip Flexors

• Sit to Tuck
• Hip Flexor Strengthening
• Hip Flex to Squat
• Hip shrimp
• Squat Walk

Below are four awareness exercises to improve mobility through the pelvis.

So you want to get mobile. You have dreams of dropping into a deep squat with ease, of being the person that can fold forward into a pancake position. Or maybe your goals are a little less lofty. Maybe you just want to be able to bend down and not feel like things are going.

This workout helps runners gain a greater range of motion, increase their mobility, and increase their flexibility.

Proper mechanics during the squat is all about maintaining proper core stability. If core stability is compromised strength and power is lost.

https://squatuniversity.com/2018/06/21/the-mcgill-big-3-for-core-stability/

Level 2 Corrective (Bird Dog)

Stage 3 Corrective (Zombie Squat)

Recommended sets/reps: 2-3 sets of 5 repetitions

Side Planks

Goblet Squat Hold