HOW: Place a folded towel on the ground. Stand on the towel with just your big toe on the towel. Use a wall or something to hold onto with balance. Bend the other knee up off of the ground. Push into the towel and ground and lift your heel up slowly, and return to the starting position. 

 

FEEL: You should feel your calf working and a stretch in your big toe. 

 

COMPENSATION: Make sure just your big toe is on the towel.

HOW:  In a kneeling position with one leg up and your foot flat on the ground. Lean forward as much as you can bending your knee and slightly bringing your heel off of the ground. Hold that position when you feel a good stretch in your calf. 

 

FEEL: You should feel a stretch in your calf and even into your Achilles’ tendon.

 

COMPENSATION:  Make sure the heel lifts off of the ground, but not too much where you don’t feel a stretch in your calf.

HOW: Start in a quadruped position with your hands and knees on the ground. Slowly rotate to one side by bringing your arm under your body and through to the other side. To increase the stretch, you can “crawl your fingers” and exhale at the end of the stretch. Then reverse the rotation and rotate the other direction, exhaling at the top. You can use your eyes to increase the stretch

 

FEEL: You should feel a nice and gentle stretch in the middle region of your back when you perform this exercise.

 

COMPENSATION: Make sure to keep your hips on top of your knees, or even sink your hips back more towards your ankles. Do not let your hips come forward like in a modified plank position

HOW: Start on your back with one knee bent on the floor and the opposite leg bent in towards your chest. Tighten up your stomach first, then your glutes. Next, drive your heel into the ground and lift your hip up towards the ceiling with the bent knee. 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: Lay face down with your forehead rested on a towel for comfort. With your arms elevated 90 degrees out to your side and your elbow bent about 90 degrees. Lift your arms first up towards the ceiling, make sure to pull with the shoulder blade. Then reach both hands overhead, attempting to bring your biceps up towards your ears. Point the thumbs towards the ceiling as you reach overhead. Move slow and controlled with this exercise.

 

REGRESSION: If this is too difficult for you can either perform this one arm at a time, or perform this off of an elevated surface like a bed or table so your arm doesn’t have to go through its entire motion.

 

FEEL: The muscles on the back of the shoulder blade and the shoulder will be working with this exercise.

 

COMPENSATIONS: Avoid arching the low back or shrugging the shoulder blades as you bring your arms overhead.

HOW: Begin lying face down with your legs straight and toes pushing into the ground. Your arms should be up with your forearms and elbows on the ground but relaxed. While keeping your knee straight, lift your leg off of the ground and return when it is as high as you can go without using your low back. 

 

FEEL: You should feel your hamstring and glute muscles working. 

 

COMPENSATION: Don’t bend your knee when lifting your leg up. Don’t use your low back or twist it.

HOW: Start by lying face down with your arms out to the side of your in the shape of a “W”. Tuck your chin slightly and lift your head off the ground while still looking down. Then lift just your upper back off the ground – not your lower back. While keeping your upper back off the ground, squeeze your shoulder blades to now lift your elbows and hands off the ground in a W formation. Lift up as high as you can towards the ceiling. You should initiate the motion from the shoulder blade, then allow the shoulder to follow up as high as you can. Hold for a few seconds and slowly return back to the starting position.

 

FEEL: You should feel the muscles in your upper back, neck and back of the shoulder blade area and shoulder region working with this exercise.

 

COMPENSATIONS: Avoid arching the low back, only lift your upper back. Try your hardest not to let your chest lower as you go through your reps on this exercise. Do not shrug the shoulder blades as you bring your arms overhead.

HOW: Grab onto one hand with the other with your elbow slightly bent. Pull the hand downward with your palm facing you. At the same time, straighten your elbow and begin to push the thumb side of your hand outward creating a stretch on the back of your forearm. Hold that for as long as prescribed. 

 

FEEL: You should feel a stretch in the back of the forearm that you are pulling down. 

COMPENSATION: Don’t straighten your elbow right away, make sure to pull down and out on your wrist as you straighten.

HOW: Perform this exercise with your foot supported on the ground for a regressed version of the exercise, this will decrease the demand placed on the core. I progress this exercise by elevating my entire leg to allow myself to ONLY make contact to the floor with my hips!

 

FEEL: You should will the core muscles working here.

 

COMPENSATION: Try to only rotate from the hips down, keep your forearms stable on the ground.

HOW: Lay on your side with your head and neck in line with your spine in a neutral position. Perform a chin tuck by pushing your head slightly back while imagining elongating your neck. From here, rotate your chin to one shoulder and then to the opposite side for the prescribed amount of reps. 

 

FEEL: You should feel your neck muscles working. 

COMPENSATION: Maintain the neutral spine position for the entire time you perform this exercise.