4 Stretches You Should Be Doing EVERY Morning!
Waking up feeling stiff is extremely common, especially if you work out the day before. In this video, I’m going to show you the 4 best stretches to do every morning to help loosen up and increase your flexibility for the rest of the day. Much of what you are trying to overcome are the tightnesses that develop from our sleeping posture. Each of these stretches is going to help hit these key areas and allow you to do it quickly so as not to take up much time.
The first move is actually not a static stretch but rather a dynamic movement. The goal is to groove the hip hinge while at the same time stretch out the hamstrings a bit since many of us have chronically tight hamstring muscles from sitting all day. The reason we do this RDL movement however is not to statically stretch the hamstring but simply to warm them up. In the case of an anterior pelvic tilt you would not want to perform long stretches of the hamstrings, as they tend to be taut from pelvic positioning not actually muscle tightness.
From here you want to drop down into a deep squat position with your hands between your legs and flat on the floor. The goal is to turn your hands away from you with your fingers pointed backwards. This will stretch out the forearms and finger flexors while at the same time providing a nice stretch for the biceps. Believe it or not, the biceps do tend to get tight when sleeping because we sleep with our arms in some variation of a bent elbow position for hours on end.
The goal of this deep stretch however is to loosen up the hips and groin. If you are a side sleeper you will have your legs likely pulled up into your chest and your knees pressed against each other. This will tighten both the hip flexors and the hip adductors or groin muscles. There is nothing more important in the morning than trying to re-establish a looseness to these muscles since asymmetrical pulling on the pelvis can cause lots of postural low back pain and stiffness throughout the day.
Use your elbows to drive your knees apart and deepen the stretch while at the same time let your thighs help to reinforce the straightness of your arms for that good biceps and forearm stretch.
Next you want to really get at those hip flexors and stretch them out. The best way to do that is with an overhead leaning lunge stretch. Here you want to grab a wooden dowel, broomstick, etc that you can plant into the ground in front of you outside of your forward leg. Drop the opposite leg behind you until you feel a deep stretch on the upper front side of your thigh. From here, reach up to the top of the stick with both hands and twist/lean towards that side to enhance the stretch. If you do this right, you will be extending through the thoracic spine to regain any lost mobility from sleeping with a rounded upper back supported by the pillow.
Finally, you perform the standing shoulder stretch with the dowel or stick as well. This is an incredible stretch that will help to externally rotate your shoulders and work on loosening up the posterior deltoids as well. When laying on your side or on your stomach, your shoulders are often positioned into internal rotation. Again, the problem here is that you aren’t just staying like this for a few minutes but rather hours! If you want to loosen up the tightnesses that you cause by sleeping this way you have to devote just a few minutes each morning to doing that.
Each of these stretches can have a profound impact by just being held for 45 seconds or so, every morning. It won’t take you long to start to see and feel the benefits of adopting these four into your morning routine.
If you’re looking for a complete program that helps you to not just feel loose but get strong, ripped and athletic at the same time, be sure to head to the link below and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start looking like an athlete by training like an athlete beginning today.
For more videos on correcting posture and the best stretches to improve your posture and flexibility, be sure to subscribe to this channel at the link below and never miss a video by making sure to turn on your notifications.
Build Muscle in 90 Days –
Subscribe to this channel here –
3865157 Views – 140951 Liked
#Stretches #Morning
*
NOTIFICATION SQUAD GIVEAWAY Want to win an ATHLEAN-X program for free, no strings attached? Click the link below to find out how! https://giveaway.athleanx.com/how-to-win.html
Incredible
I feel like this is a lot of what my PT has me working on right now to stabilize and strengthen my low back/hips/legs. Great stuff.
It also helps that when you workout you exercise muscles in pairs so both sides are tight and will therefore counteract each other.
Awesome! love this.
I can't even do the correct form on the last one. And barely on the third one. Where are we supposed to place our legs? Like a lunge, or something else?
Hey Jeff, amazing content! Thank you for sharing! I am a climber and I am looking for some more specific exercises any advice? Thank you
I would appreciate information re: QL – reasons for imbalance together with stretching and strengthening. TYIA
Thank you Jeff!!
It does look horrible. I definitely have to try it!
İ loved you, you ateş perfect thanks
Can tight hamstrings cause heel pain? Please tell me. I’ve seen some information about it but not a ton. I’m trying to fix my heel pain but my podiatrists can’t seem to figure it out. I’m fixing my pelvic tilt with your steps by strengthening my butt and stretching my hip flexors. Hits helping a lot. I had crazy tight hamstrings but the issue was stretching my hamstrings. You’re super smart. Please help. Thanks
Nice! 🔥
❤️
Thank you so much for this video as well as other "back" issue video's. I had not injured my lower back in a long time but recently, all I did was bend "slightly" over to grab the milk carton out of the fridge and BAM! I felt it. It's amazing how many of your video's popped up about lower back issues and how to strengthen those area's when I started searching for back issues. I have been following many of your video's in the past but didn't realize that I did not set the "bell" to ring when you had new video's. I work in the medical field so a strong back is critical when dealing with patients. So glad to find your vids again! keep up the wonderful work you do for all of us and for every age !
It actually feels horrible, but amazing at the same time 😂
I don’t think I can bend that way
I thought doing a hip hinge type movement would break my back, lol.
Love to learn, especially as I get back to it… again.
I'll probably be re-watching this video quite a bit.
hard for me to take someone not wearing a shirt seriously
For the second stretch, are you supposed to drive your elbows into your legs pushing them out at the same time as pushing your thighs into the back of your elbows??? Please someone help lol
I'm obviously doing it wrong, but I didn't feel much of anything in stretch 1, 2 or 4…
I’m so stiff, i can‘t even do those exercises 😢
Who knew a video of Jeff in bed is what I needed in my life?
Good instruction. I would like to see a real-time follow along after the unstruction.
God bless this man
Please post something about sleep position if you have sciatica.
How many seconds each exercise? 30?
For biginners also?
Every since I started watching him ,my workouts have tremendous improved.dude is the best there is
As often as jeft does videos without a shirt on I'm surprised he doesn't have adds tatooed on his chest, back or arms lol!
Jeff any advice on stretch #2 if you are too tight to get down that while also getting hands flat on the floor like that? It seems it is my calves that are the culprit, so tight that it lifts my heels off the ground as I get towards the bottom and this throws my arms off. Thanks for the vid the other 3 stretches are already helping me.
Thankyou
I'm surprised he's recommending doing these cold. Shouldn't you be slightly warmed up at least? But really great detail.
To best way to have inner and outer balance is to take time to train!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ddwy9F5TY
sleeping is killing your gains lol
jeff, this is all great info but I when i go to do it i have no idea what to do in real time.
Jeff, can you post a video comprised only of short clips of you pretending to sleep? Thanks
Exists
Jeff: you need to do something about that