6-Minute follow-along routine to improve your mobility and flexibility. Great morning or pre-workout exercises to stretch out of aches and pains and also warms-up and stimulates muscles and joints prior to activity.

(ROUTINE STARTS AT TIMESTAMP 1:27)

===============================
OTHER TONE AND TIGHTEN VIDEOS YOU MAY FIND USEFUL

✅ 6 MIN LOWER BODY STRETCHING ROUTINE:    • 6 Min Lower Body Stretch Routine [Fle...  
✅ FOLLOW-ALONG STRETCHING ROUTINE FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN’T FLEXIBLE:    • 8 Minute Stretching Routine For Peopl...  
✅ BEST STRETCHES FOR TIGHT HAMSTRINGS:    • How To Stretch Your Hamstrings The RI...  
✅ STRETCHES YOU SHOULD DO EVERY MORNING:    • STOP Morning Aches and Pains! | Morni...  
✅ BEST STRETCHES FOR LOW BACK PAIN:    • WORKS FAST! Best Stretches For Low Ba...  
===============================

MOBILITY VS FLEXIBILIITY
Flexibility is a muscle’s ability to elongate over a joint. How far can it stretch and how long can we hold it there. Flexibility is crucial in maintaining proper muscle and joint health and should certainly be worked on and improved.
Mobility, on the other hand, is not only how far can we move a muscle or joint, but how can we CONTROL that motion? How can we control that motion and turn it into functional movement? When I think about mobility it’s not about how far an area can move, but what is the quality of that movement and how can it translate into function?

This routine will actually help you out with both! These are 5 of my favorite mobility drills to help improve not only your range of motion, but the quality of that motion as well!

This is a great mobility routine to perform first thing in the morning to eliminate morning aches and stiffness. I actually perform it before each of my workouts as a great pre-workout warm up routine. It’s a great way to stimulate a lot of muscles and a lot of joints while stretching key areas prior to exercising them.

I’ll take you through 5 of my favorite mobility exercises to increase mobility and flexibility through the most mobile joints in your upper body (your shoulders), lower body (your hips) and spine (your thoracic spine or “upper back”).

Below you will find descriptions and time stamps of each of the exercises in this video. Follow along with me in real time or jump to a specific exercise at any of the below markers.

⭐️ BEST EXERCISES TO IMPROVE TOTAL BODY MOBILITY ⭐️

✅ (1:34) INCHWORM (4 reps)
Great stretch for your calves, hamstrings, and hip extensors. The axial load through your shoulders is great stabilization stimulus for your rotator cuffs and scapular stabilizers.

✅ (2:20) DOWN DOG TO RUNNER’S LUNGE STRETCH (3 on each side)
Down dog still promotes elongation through the hamstrings and glutes, but we’re also working to open up the chest and promote thoracic extension. We still get loading through the shoulders but now adding an overhead flexion component to it.
Take it a step further with hip flexion and rotation through the forward leg and an extension stretch through the hip flexors on the rear leg.

✅ (3:28) THORACIC SPINE ROTATION STRETCH (3 on each side)
Great exercise to promote thoracic rotation and and extension - during most movements the majority of your spine motion needs to come from your thoracic spine and not your lower back.
Try to get your top shoulder down to the ground.
Also taking the shoulder though a large range of motion by abducting, flexing up, and extending down.

✅ (4:57) BRIDGES WITH OVERHEAD REACH (5 on each side)
One of my favorite total-body mobility drills.
Activate the hip extensors (glutes) working with hamstrings working with lower back - introducing some active motion through these areas with extension through the hips.
Extend through chest with overhead reach and thoracic rotation.

✅ (5:57) LUNGE WITH EXTENSION (5 on each side)
Getting into a deep lunge will promote hip flexion and glute stretch on one side while we’re getting a large amount of hip extension and hip flexor stretch on the other side.
Adding the overhead reach will promote even more extension through the entire spine and flexion through the shoulder.

This is a great flow of exercises for anyone looking to improve total body mobility and flexibility and I hope it helps you out!

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Tone and Tighten here on YouTube if you haven’t already. Give the video a THUMBS UP to LIKE it and be sure to SHARE it with a friend! Until next time - see you soon!