HOW: Lay face down with a towel or strap around your ankle. Use the strap to pull your ankle towards your butt. Make sure to keep the pelvis tilted posterior (tucking your tailbone to keep a flat low back) while performing this stretch.

 

FEEL: You will feel the stretch on the front of your thigh.

 

COMPENSATION: Avoid arching your back as you perform this exercise. You can prevent this by tucking your tailbone underneath you prior to bending your knee.

HOW: Place a pad on the ground. Kneel on the pad with one knee and place the other foot flat on the ground with your knee bent in front of you. Wrap a band or strap around the foot that is behind you. Grab onto the strap with one hand behind your shoulder. Pull your foot up creating a stretch in your quad. Once you feel that stretch, lean forward for a few seconds and repeat.

 

FEEL: You should feel a stretch in your quad and hip. 

 

COMPENSATION: Keep your back upright while you move your body forward.

HOW: Begin this exercise in a staggered stance position with one foot on an elevated surface, the foot on the ground is the side you will stretch. With both feet facing forward, tuck your tailbone and shift your weight forward.

 

FEEL: You should feel this stretch on the front of the hip on the back leg.

 

COMPENSATION: Avoid rotating the back leg out and arching the back

HOW: Start by lying on your back with both legs up on a wall or doorway. Move your hips as close to the wall as possible. Let one leg down as you keep the other leg straight up on the wall, relaxed. Move that leg up and down for the prescribed amount of reps. 

 

FEEL: You should feel your hamstrings muscles stretching.

 

COMPENSATION: Keep the leg on the wall relaxed, don’t move the foot.

HOW: Begin on your side with your shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles stacked over each other. Place the resistance band just slightly above your knees. In this side lying position open your top knee up towards the ceiling as high as you can. Your feet can stay in the same position, make sure this motion is driven from the knee.

 

FEEL: You should feel the outer hip, particularly the glute muscles with this exercise.

 

COMPENSATION: Avoid rotating your entire trunk with this exercise. Make sure the shoulder that is facing the ceiling stay in front of the shoulder that is against the floor.

HOW: Start on your back with your knees bend and slightly spread apart. Tighten up your stomach first, then your glutes. Next, drive your heels into the ground and lift your hips up towards the ceiling. At the end position your knee, hip, and shoulder should be in one straight line. Hold the end position and squeeze the glutes, then slowly return to starting position.

 

FEEL: You should feel your glutes work to control this motion. At no point should you feel your low back muscles doing the lifting motion. If you feel it only in your hamstrings, try bending your knees a bit more and repeat.

 

COMPENSATION: Avoid arching at the low back as you perform this. 

HOW: Begin the exercise by laying on your side, the side closest to the ground will be doing most of the work. Lift up into a full side plank with your feet stacked or one foot in front of the other, keeping your body in one straight line from your heels to your hips to your shoulders.

 

FEEL: You will feel your shoulder, hip, and core working – specifically the side facing the floor.

 

COMPENSATION: Avoid allowing your shoulder blade to sag back. Avoid allowing your hips to dip towards the floor when holding at the top

HOW: Start this exercise on your back in a 90/90 position, with your knees over your hips and your arms in front of your shoulders. Keep the small of your back pushed into the floor by activating your core. While maintaining core activation drop one leg and the opposite arm towards the floor. The closer you drop the arms and legs towards the floor the more challenging this exercise will be. Return to starting position and repeat on the opposite side.

 

FEEL: You should feel the abdominal muscles engaging while you perform this exercise.

 

COMPENSATION: Do not let your low back arch

HOW: Start by lying on your back. Bend your opposite knee. The first step is to perform a very strong quadricep set by squeezing your thigh as hard as you can. Keeping this constant squeeze, tighten your core muscles and then lift your leg up into the air. Think of making your leg as long and as straight as you can while lifting it. Then slowly lower back down to starting position and repeat.

 

FEEL: You should feel an entire contraction of the front thigh muscles and your leg working hard.

 

COMPENSATION: You should not be feeling these exercise exclusively in the front of your hip. If you only feel the muscles in the front of your hip working, it means you are not squeezing your thigh hard enough or you’re are not squeezing the quads when you are lifting your leg. Maintaining the thigh squeeze is the most important part of this exercise!