Do These 5 Exercises Every Day Before It’s Too Late

If you wake up with stiff hips, a tight lower back, or that locked-up feeling that makes you move older than you actually are, this video is for you. In this five minute bodyweight mobility routine, I’m going to show you five exercises you can do anywhere, with no equipment, to start restoring the h

Stop me if this sounds familiar. You wake up and your hips are stiff or your low back is tight or stiff. Well, I’ve got a five exercise routine here that takes just five minutes to do and you can do it in just a little amount of space on the floor and I promise you it’s going to change your life because it’s going to change the way you move. First exercise up though is going to target hip internal rotation. And a lot of you probably already saying, I never even thought of it.

Don’t do it and I don’t know what to do. So, it’s really easy. You get down in this position here on your feet and with your hands on the floor. The first move all you got to do is spin [music] your knees to the left and then push further. Right?

So, I’m going to do is I’m going to drive this hip [music] into internal rotation and use this down hand with the back of my elbow and my hand on the floor to push further into internal rotation. >> [music] >> And we know about internal rotation loss is it starts to happen as an early indicator of degeneration of the hip. So, before it gets too late and that bone on bone condition starts, you want to be able to actually restore that motion. So, go for that lost hip internal rotation and try to bring it back. Five repetitions on each side.

Next, we can’t ignore the external rotators of the hip. It’s actually still part of the same one exercise but now as we spin, we use the inside elbow to push further back into external rotation. So, this hip is now externally rotating. We’re going to use the arm to push back into more external rotation. Same thing on this side.

Push and drive back. Twist, [music] push and drive back. Again, trying to get more and more five repetitions in [music] each direction here. Again, all out of this hip flexion position. Cuz again, we know that the second thing that’s lost as a hip degenerates is hip flexion.

[music] Don’t let it get that far. You need to intervene at a point where you’re in that mild to moderate stage unless you want those long-term changes that you really can’t reverse. The next exercise up is one that involves a muscle in that low back. Cuz this muscle gets tight when you sleep. And we slide a leg back and then drop the hip down to the floor.

This arm stays pretty straight. Now [music] you can see all that stretch in this muscle called the QL. And it’s a hip hiking muscle. But for a lot of us, depending upon the position we sleep in, [music] we get tight on one side. And because we stay in that position for so long, it tends to wake up feeling really stiff.

This will undo that in this dynamic stretch by just dropping the hip down side to side. Drop. And then >> [music] >> allow that big bend through that muscle itself doing it in this alternating fashion for five reps on each side. Just like that. And you should feel it right in this area right here.

Next, third exercise up. Once again, from what? That deep hip flexion position. I want you to get comfortable being down here because a lot of us have lost the ability to get this deep. Now, if you continue to do this each day, this is now the squat reach.

So, in this position here, all I’m going to do is use this arm to again leverage and post off of that inside leg, and then rotate up and reach as high as I can. You’ve probably seen this if you’ve used one of my routines before. It’s really, really good. It’s really important. And that’s why it’s here also.

Right? You’re reaching >> [music] >> and twisting. And what this does is it really targets the thoracic mobility, that area of your spine above your lower back. And that needs to stay extended and rotated if you want it to maintain its natural range of motion. And when it doesn’t, it gets stiff, >> [music] >> it starts to shift those forces to other places in your body and spine specifically that can’t handle that.

So, if you let it go, it’s going to be harder and harder to get it back. So, intervene this way. Five repetitions on each side. Okay? Nice and simple.

All done from one easy position here on the floor. The next one is going to target your hamstrings, and it’s also to target that thoracic spine once again. So, all I’m going to do, you’re going to be down in this position, sink down. Try to get your arms out, sink your butt down, and your head down, chest down towards the ground to get that thoracic extension through your mid-back. >> [music] >> From here, bring your hands in, feet go down, drive your knees back as far as you can to try to stretch the hamstrings dynamically.

Down, slide your hands out, sink down. From here, and then again, slide them and drive the knees back. Heels down if you can. If you have really tight calves, it’s going to be difficult, but work on improving that. Five repetitions each, down, and then back into that hamstring position there, like that.

That’s four of five exercises. [music] Last one here works on hip flexion and mobilizing those hip flexors so that we’re getting into hip extension. So, what do we do? We get in this position here. One leg goes out in front.

You’re going to lean as far forward as you can. Okay, what this does is, yes, it does stretch the hip flexors on the back leg, but it’s really getting into deep, deep hip flexion. Chest to knee if you can. From here, slide and lean forward as much as you can, and then push back off that leg, >> [music] >> allow the butt to come forward, put your hands and body to go backwards. So, now we’re getting that big hip flexor stretch on the opposite leg.

If I show you on this leg here, it’s going to look like this. This is the leg that’s going to go into that deep hip flexion. Slide forward, put your chest on top of that knee like that. You’re getting some stretch here, obviously, in hip extension, but when we then come off of that and lean forward, you can see I can drop into more hip extension here and exaggerate [music] that stretch because I’m going to elongate the torso. Give you even more of that stretch on the psoas.

So, down, lean, come up, and lean more so this time with the butt driving it forward. Five on [music] each leg. Again, if you wait too long, you lose it. When you lose it, then you have a really hard time bringing it back and restoring that lost function cuz once you start to lose the function and the mobility, it becomes something different. It becomes a degenerative issue rather than just a hip tightness or mobility lack.

You can do this, guys, if you do it with a quick little routine like this. I hope you found it helpful. There’s others on this channel. Make sure you click subscribe. If you’re looking for a complete program, guys, you can find it over at athlenex.

com. Physical therapist created. And of course, the right exercises done at the right time for the right results.