As athletes, we’re at an increased risk of injury.
And while there’s no way to completely prevent an injury from occurring, there are ways we can drastically decrease injury risk. One of those ways is by making sure that our joints stay mobile as we pack more lean mass onto our frame.
So in this video I’m going to give you three mobility exercises you should be doing, no matter what sport you’re in.
The World's Greatest Stretch
The name says it all. This is one of the best mobility exercises you can perform because it’ll mobilize multiple areas at one time.
This is an especially useful exercise if you’re short on training time and you need to shorten your warm-up.
This movement will hit the ankles, the hips and t-spine rotation. It’s a great full-body warm-up for either before training or in a daily mobility routine. This is a dynamic movement so aim to perform around 10 reps on each side for 1-2 sets.
Hip 90/90
So we’re putting focus on the hips again because they’re so important when it comes to athletic movements and they tend to become stiff. But here we’re going to be working on the hip’s rotational capabilities, both internally and externally.
This is another dynamic movement where we should aim to keep our core braced and both our legs at 90-degree angles.
While keeping the feet in place, we’ll pick our knees up and drop them off on the other side. In this position one hip will sit in external rotation and the other will sit in internal rotation. Two birds with one stone.
Just like the world's greatest stretch, there isn’t really a number set in stone, but around 8-10 reps on each side for a set or two should suffice. This is another movement that can work great in movement prep before a training session.
Bench Thoracic Extension With a Dowel
Now we’re moving to the upper body. And when it comes to upper body mobility, we’re going to be spending a lot of time on the thoracic spine.
The thoracic spine has three movements: flexion, extension and rotation. We knocked out the rotation movement already with the world’s greatest stretch.
And when it comes to flexion, most athletes tend to be over-flexed in the t-spine so it’s not usually an issue. However, t-spine extension is usually something that athletes need to work on, and this movement is great for it.
So you can use a dowel here or anything that’s shaped like a dowel, like a broom, stick etc. Using a bench or a surface 2-3 feet off the ground or so, we’re going to be resting our elbows at a 90 degree angle with our palms facing towards us, dowel in hand.
From a kneeling position we’re going to draw our ribs in, tuck our chin, and let our head sink into the space between our arms. We’ll hold for 2-3 seconds, then come out of it and repeat.
This is a great way to get our t-spines to extend. If we’re too over-flexed in this area, it’s going to open us up for shoulder injuries, especially if we’re overhead athletes like baseball players, quarterbacks etc.
If you want to watch our full-length video on this subject, click here.
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