HOW: Begin in a standing position with your feet about shoulder width apart. Hinge forward at the hips, and bend your knees into a deep squat all the way down to grab onto your toes. Once your hips are as low as you can go, rotate your chest to one side bringing that arm straight up and the other arm straight down, then do the same on the other side. Finally, raise both arms up overhead and return to the standing position. 

 

FEEL: You should feel your leg muscles working. You should also feel a stretch in your  shoulder and mid back.

 

COMPENSATION: Keep your feet flat on the ground. Make sure you are as deep as you can squat before you rotate your chest.

HOW: Get set up in a side plank position with your forearm on the ground, elbow underneath your shoulder, and your legs together with your knees bent. Push into the ground with your bottom knee, causing your hips to lift off of the ground. As your hips come up, rotate your top knee up performing a clam. Perform each rep all in one, fluid motion. 

 

FEEL: You should feel your glute and hip muscles working the most. You should also feel your core and shoulder muscles working. 

 

COMPENSATION: Make sure you lift your hip off of the ground and rotate your knee up all in one motion.

HOW:  Start one hand against a wall. Push into the wall with your hip, knee, and ankle. This is your starting position. Slowly bend your hip, knee, and ankle to “load” your leg. Then, explosively push away into the wall.

 

FEEL:  You should feel the side of your hip working hard to push into the wall.

 

COMPENSATION:  Adjust how far away from the wall you stand to make sure it feels natural.

HOW: Lie on your back and put one foot on the swissball. Lift your other foot in the air like in the video. With the foot on the swissball, straighten your leg and perform a bridge by diffing your heels into the swissball to lift your hips up. Once up, slowly roll the swissball towards you by bending your knes. Once the swissball has rolled towards use, slowly roll it back out. Rolling it back out with control is the hardest and most important part! You can use your hands at your side if needed.

 

FEEL: You should feel your hamstrings working very hard to control the swissball movement.

 

COMPENSATION: Do not let the swissball move from side to side. It should only be rolling forward and backwards. Make sure to only extend at the hips, and not the lower back!

HOW: Start by standing on one leg balanced with the other foot in the air and the knee slightly bent behind you. Perform a single leg squat by reaching the foot in the air behind you and repeat.

 

FEEL: You will feel all of the leg muscles on the side that is still grounded working.

 

COMPENSATION: Maintain optimal squat form with your knee not collapsing in or bowing out, do not let your pelvis excessively drop, do not lose your balance. 

HOW: Stand on top of an elevated surface. Shift your weight to one leg and bend the other knee up. Begin to bend the knee you are standing on as you straighten your other leg down to mimic you stepping off of the surface. Once you have reached a point that is as low as you can comfortably go, push back into the surface and return to the single leg balance position. 

 

FEEL: You should feel the muscles in your thigh working. 

 

COMPENSATION: Don’t twist your body as you squat down on the one leg.

HOW: Keeping your hands on the wall for balance, hop on both legs. Don’t allow your knee to collapse in, most of the motion should be coming from your ankles. Think of yourself as a rubber band or a spring loaded coil. Be bouncy!

 

FEEL: You will feel the calf muscles working with this exercise.

 

COMPENSATION: Do not let your ankle “roll out”. You should feel even pressure between the inside and outside of the balls of your foot. Don’t fully lock out your knees, have a slight bend as you hop up and down.

HOW: Get set-up with your back supported against a wall and your feet about a foot away from the wall, feet shoulder-width apart. Lower yourself down towards the ground until ideally your thighs are parallel to the ground, your knees should be positioned over your toes. Then re-adjust your feet by bringing them in towards midline, pick one foot up, stay grounded on the side you want to target. While maintaining this position, perform heel raises.

 

FEEL: You should feel your thigh muscle (quads) and calf working hard with this exercise.

 

COMPENSATION: Do not lean side to side, do not move the rest of your body, just your knee should be moving up and down as you perform heel raises.

HOW: Get set up in a side plank position with your elbow on the ground straight down from your shoulder, forearm pointing straight out, and your top leg’s heel is in front of your bottom leg’s toes. Lift your hips off the ground creating a straight line with your body, From here, bring the bottom leg’s knee up to your chest while maintaining the plank position. Move that leg up and down for the prescribed amount of reps. 

 

FEEL: You will feel your core, hip, and adductor muscles working. 

 

COMPENSATION: Don’t let your hips drop down as you lift your leg up, maintain the plank position.