Stuck in your squat mobility? Try this circuit before your warm up!
𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗸𝗲𝘆𝘀:
1. Dig heels back to find hamstrings
2. Tuck belly button to belt buckle to find abs
3. Perform each exercise for 30-60 seconds or 8-12 reps per side
𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀:
1. 90/90 bridge w/heel tap
2. Leg lock rolling (thanks @alex_effer)
3. Wall sit w/heel tap
Post questions, comments, etc below!
Your hamstrings are always tight and you are always stretching them. Or you got a bit smarter and tried to strengthen them with exercises like leg curls, RDLs or bridging.
While all of these exercises can be useful, they are limited either due to high loads, limited position, or poor carry over to close chain movement (aka walking and running) What we need to understand is that to really train a muscle to it's full potential, it must maximally lengthen so it can maximally contract (sort of like pulling back a rubber band more makes it snap back further).
Often, our muscles get stuck in the middle due to sitting, standing and crappy training. Our hamstrings are knee flexors and hip extensors but also influence abduction and adduction.
Here are three exercises I really like that move from maximal stretch to pulling us through gait as they are intended. Give these a go and let me know if you have any questions!
The middle of your back aches some or all of the time. Sometimes it starts on the left or moves to the right but always ends up back in the middle. It feels better when you pull your knee to your chest and worse when you sit with your knees bent or stand for long periods.
These are all signs of a extension based back pain and sacral pain due to an inability of these two areas to flex and tip backwards. The reason why this happens is that we lose the ability to move small segments of our spine individually due to standing or sitting statically for long periods of time.
𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴? What we can do is restore this area's ability to move freely, mindfully and often. As we increase pain free range of motion, the body should recognize less threat and let go gradually.
The one thing that is certain is that if the exercises we utilize work, we will see immediate changes in certain tests which apply to this area. For today, I am including two tests (videos 4 and 5) which correspond with backwards tilt of the sacrum. Try these before and after our exercises and see if there is a difference. If they don't work, try something else!
Exercise interventions (videos 1-3):
1. Side lying hamstrings with reach
2. Lateral egg rolls 3. Supine cat-camel (try this as a sub for regular cat-camel)
Test/re-test (videos 4-5):
1. Squat
2. Side lying hip extension
