Tight Hips? Stiff Back? These 5 Exercises Improve Everything

Movement coach Alisa Zuravskaja shows us how:

On the move

These movements address most tight hips, stiff shoulders, and back pain that stretching alone doesn’t fix:

• Inchworm to cobra: this sequence counteracts prolonged sitting by opening your posterior chain during the inchworm and your anterior line during cobra, moving from a forward fold to a high plank, dropping your hips into cobra, pressing back into downward dog, and returning to standing for five reps or 60 seconds.
  World’s greatest stretch with arm reaches: this lunge-based movement opens your hip flexors while restoring thoracic spine rotation and extension by rotating your chest towards your front leg and reaching your arm up and back, holding about 60 seconds per side.
• Reverse tabletop and drive through: this exercise opens your shoulders and chest while activating your glutes, core, and posterior chain, lifting your hips into reverse tabletop before driving your hips through your arms for about 60 seconds, or holding the tabletop if the drive through isn’t yet possible.
• Cossack squat: this lateral squat restores side-to-side hip mobility often lost from only moving forwards and backwards, shifting deeply into one bent knee while keeping the opposite leg straight, then alternating sides for about a minute or as many controlled reps as possible.
• Deep squat with heel lifts: this movement improves your ankle mobility and strength while reinforcing deep hip mobility, holding your deepest squat with your chest lifted and lifting your heels briefly before lowering them back to the ground, modifying by holding the squat or using support if needed.

The reason they work is because together, these five movements address full-body mobility, flexibility, strength, lateral movement, spinal rotation, and ankle control, which all adds up to a daily routine that targets the areas most affected by modern sedentary habits.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Take care!