This post is directly inspired by all my busy bees out there. Nurses, doctors, med school students, lawyers, single moms… anyone who’s time is extremely limited on a day to day basis. These high stress jobs can often leave these clients feeling rundown, stressed, and just flat out exhausted.
So its not uncommon for workouts to (unfortunately) take a backseat. These individuals are working so hard to help others that taking care of themselves becomes less of a priority.
HOWEVER…
On a plane, do you know why you’re instructed to put on your oxygen mask before helping other people put theirs on?
It’s because you’re not gonna be able to help anyone else if you can’t help yourself first.
Same goes for life.
I know many of you truly do have very limited spare time. But you should still do something geared towards improving, or at least maintaining, your fitness and/or mobility. This doesn’t necessarily mean strength training, HIIT, or the higher intensity methods that you might initially think of.
I’m talking like 5-10 minutes worth of movement. You might not think that’s worth it… but something is aaaaalwaaaaays better than nothing.
So I’ve put together 7 simple mobility flows that you can do first thing in the morning, on a lunch break, after dinner, or whenever. All it takes is 5 minutes. 10 if you’re feeling like a saucy little minx.
I only go through one round of each for the video demos, but you would go through however many rounds you feel like or have time for (3-5 rounds or 5-10 minutes worth)
Pick one, pick two, mix and match, who cares. Just do something, keep your joints moving, and don’t let life gradually rob you of your mobility and movement quality.
1. Hinge w/ T-spine rotation 2. Toe touch squat w/ single arm overhead reach 3. Hip internal rotations 4. 1/2 kneeling T-spine rotations 5. Lunge to active hip flexion (keep abs tight, don’t round low back) 6. 1/2 kneeling T-spine rotations 7. Lunge to active hip flexion 8. Overhead squat
1. 90/90 glute stretch 2. 90/90 T-spine rotation 3. 1/2 kneeling overhead hip flexor stretch 4. Bear sit 5. Repeat steps 1-4 on opposite side
1. Lateral lunge w/ overhead reach 2. Wide stance inchworm 3. Spiderman stretch w/ rotation 4. Pigeon stretch 5. Spiderman stretch w/ rotation 6. Overhead squat
1. Child’s pose 2. Cobra stretch 3. Cat camel 4. Quadruped adductor stretch w/ rotation (R) 5. Quadruped adductor stretch w/ rotation (L)
1. Hip bridge march 2. Rolling squat 3. Bird dog 4. Kneeling Spiderman stretch w/ opposite side windmill (R) 5. Kneeling Spiderman strecth w/ opposite side windmill (L) 6. Toe sit
1. Scapular floor slide 2. Hip bridge w/ opposite side reach (R) 3. Hip bridge w/ opposite side reach (L) 4. Rolling squat 5. Inchworm 6. High side plank (R) 7. High side plank (L) 8. Overhead squat
1. Low yoga plank 2. Side plank (R) 3. Side plank (L) 4. Inchworm to stand 5. Forward lunge to overhead reach and rotation (R) 6. Forward lunge to overhead reach and rotation (L)