Stiff In The Morning? Here’s Why (It’s Avoidable!)

Mobility coach Marina Sarenac shows us how to get things moving better:

Bringing your body to life

…and bringing life to your body!

By this we mean: chances are, your body feels stiff because it adapts to how you live—which for many people means long hours sitting—and generally isn’t an adverse effect of how hard you train. Mobility training resets your joints, improves how you move, and makes workouts and daily tasks feel smoother. This is because stiffness is mostly a matter of reduced range of motion.

So, how to correct that? Here are a couple of ways of improving things for each of the most common “this body area is stiff” contenders:

Ankles:

• Kettlebell ankle mobilization: from a lunge, push your knee forwards over your toes while keeping your heel down to open your ankle joint.
• Barbell calf stretch: place a bar across your calves, and sit on your heels to release deep tension.

Hamstrings:

• Single-leg hamstring good morning: hinge from your hips with dumbbells at your sides, moving slowly to build control throughout your range.
• Jefferson curl: hold a dumbbell and roll your spine down slowly for strength through length.

Groin:

• Half frog get-up: load your adductors while keeping your extended-leg toes pointed up.
• Standing single-leg pancake: keep your chest up, reach towards your foot with a dumbbell, and (as she puts it) wake up your groin.

Hips:

• Banded seated figure four: use a band to open your hip capsule and give your glutes and lower back space.
• Couch stretch: keep your chest tall and your glutes tight to undo hours of sitting; remove dumbbells if needed.

Shoulders:

• Band pass-throughs: use a light band, keep your ribs down, and retrain your shoulders to move in a full circle.
• Plate shoulder rotations: keep your core engaged and move smoothly for stable, controlled shoulders.

You don’t have to do all of these, of course, though it’s great if you do! Most important is to do the ones that are most relevant to you, your body, and your lifestyle.

Writer’s example: I spend a lot of time at my desk, but it’s a standing desk and I habitually stand on one leg (I’m trying to correct this a little by consciously standing on my left leg more, since otherwise I unconsciously tend to favor standing on my right leg, so I need to balance it out). This might sound like a strange habit to you, but it’s just one more way all our bodies and lifestyles are unique. But! This means that for me, ankle mobility issues aren’t really a thing, my lower body is very strong, etc. However, my vice is that sometimes I lean in to the screen when reading things, not because of any problem with my eyesight, but just, “I am leaning in and reading interesting paper that has fully absorbed my interest such that I forget my posture”. As a result, sometimes my neck posture isn’t ideal, and if I’m leaning on my desk, my shoulders can have a lot of unbalanced tension (especially because I’m probably on one leg, which means leaning with a shoulder becomes the other support, if I’m just reading instead of writing—for writing, my posture is perfect, because my ergonomic keyboard position demands it, but reading is a wildcard). So for me, shoulder stretches can be important.

How about for you?

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

The Most Underrated Hip Mobility Exercise (Not Stretching)

Take care!