Mobility Exercises You Should Do Before Every Workout

When it comes to a good workout, nothing is more important than a solid warmup. This usually consists of stability and mobility exercises that help you warm your joints for the powerlifting up ahead. In order to prevent injury, you should activate all groups of muscles inside your body. That is why warm up mobility exercises should be all-encompassing and engage all the important muscle groups.

Mobility Exercises You Should Do Before Every Workout

 

Stretching your Wrists

It might seem like a silly thing to do but giving your hands wrists proper stretching can prevent all sorts of injuries. The best exercise to do so is getting down on all fours with the shoulders placed over the wrists and knees under the hips. Then you lift your shoulders slightly upward and forward so your hand wrists make an upwards motion. The palms should be the ones doing all the lifting, while the fingers should remain on the floor. A single set of 8 to 10 reps is enough to get you started.

Check out these 12 Wrist Mobility Drills from BarBend.

Compression Breaths 

Mobility Exercises You Should Do Before Every Workout

The next exercise is aimed at activating your lower back and the leg muscles. You need to lie face up on the floor and raise your legs over the hips at a 45° angle. Then you need to slightly move your legs forward and backward, all the while taking care of inhaling and exhaling properly. If done correctly, the exercise should engage your abs as well. Again, a single set of 8 to 10 reps is enough.

Arch and Curl

The next mobility exercise requires you to get back on all fours. You need to slowly arch the spine, lifting the chest alongside the tailbone. During this same time, the bellybutton should make its way downwards. Once you slowly return to the starting position, you have successfully finished a single rep out of 8 to 10 recommended ones.

Shoulder Mobility with Resistance Bands

The shoulders are one of the most vulnerable parts of the muscular system. That is why you need to approach shoulder exercises carefully, using physical therapy resistance bands. There are several exercises but the most suitable one requires you to stand straight and place the bands in front of you, holding them with both hands at the height of your chest. Now you have to stretch the arms and shoulder blades apart until your hands are fully wide. Then return to the initial position, all the while keeping the spine in the neutral position.

Front Raises

Mobility Exercises You Should Do Before Every Workout

Another exercise that works the arms using resistance bands are front raises. This time you should step onto the bands to secure them tightly to the floor with your feet touching each other. Then raise your arms in a straight line until your hands are in line with your shoulder. Like the previous exercise, the spine should be neutral during the resistance band exercises. In general, you can do these exercises for one minute and slowly as possible.

Working the Ankles

What wrists are to your hands, ankles are to your feet. They are the most vulnerable section of your leg as they often have to transfer huge energy loads into the ground. That is why warming them up should be a mobility exercise you really ought not to skip. This is perhaps the easiest warmup exercise as all you need is a stepper or a step.

Stand onto its edge, with only your toes preventing you from falling as you are using one hand to lean against the wall. Go up and down with your feet, this moving the entire body up and down. If you dep this exercise as too easy after a while, you grab a weight or two to increase the intensity.

All the mobility exercises listed have one thing in common: they warm up the muscles to prevent injury. Furthermore, they increase the mobility of your joints, allowing you to lift heavier loads. After several months of performing them, you will develop a resilient nervous system meaning that your soft tissue will have no trouble shifting to accommodate for your training routine.


Read More: 

How to improve your mobility in your 40s and beyond

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