As we established in the previous post, stretching is important. So what stretches should you do?
If you’re going to do one stretch every day, I recommend making it this sequence. You start by lying down on your back and tucking a stretch strap (I recommend this one) underneath the arch of your foot. You then use the strap to pull your foot towards your face. You should feel this stretch in the middle of your hamstrings. Hold for 60 seconds.
Once 60 seconds is up, bring your leg out to the side and use the strap to pull your foot away from your body (like in the bottom left picture). You should feel this stretch in the area that runs between your knee and your groin. Hold for 30 seconds.
Once 30 seconds is up, bring your leg out to the other side and use the strap to pull your foot across your body (like in the bottom right picture). You should feel this stretch in your glutes and lower back. Hold for 30 seconds.
This stretch will help loosen up your glutes, which will help relieve and prevent lower back pain. I hold this stretch for about 60 seconds per leg.
With this stretch, be sure to keep your lower back and chest upright. It is common for people to lean their torso backwards too far, which causes their lower back to arch. Your hips should be the only thing that comes forward. I hold this stretch for about 30-45 seconds per side.
While in the same position from the hip flexor stretch, start leaning over to the side. Make sure that you are just leaning to the side, not forward. This will stretch your psoas, which you will feel in your lower back where the psoas connects. I hold this stretch for about 30 seconds per side.
This stretch is a good beginner quad stretch. If your knees bother you when you do it, you can tuck a towel or sweatshirt behind your knees to help ease the strain on them a little bit. You should feel this stretch in your quads and hip flexors. Hold for 60 seconds.
Once you can do the beginner quad stretch easily, you can try this stretch to better stretch your quads. Be sure to lean back so that your butt is touching your ankle to better target your quads. Hold for 30 seconds per leg.
Sit with legs spread out in a V shape. Sit up tall (don’t slouch forward or backward) and then lean over and try to touch your left hand to your right foot. You should feel this in your lower back. Hold for 30 seconds per side.
Sit on the ground and put the soles of your feet together. Use your hands to pull your feet closer to you and use your elbows to push your knees down towards the floor. Hold for 30-45 seconds. This will help loosen your hips, which in turn helps with knee pain and mobility issues.
This stretch will help loosen up your upper back to relieve/prevent neck pain after a long day of sitting or doing back exercises. Hold for 30 seconds per side.
This stretch will help loosen up your chest and shoulders to fix your posture after a long day of sitting or doing chest exercises. Hold for 30 seconds per side and be sure to adjust the height of your hand placement so that you stretch both your chest and shoulders.
This stretch will help counteract the tension from walking/running and from doing calf raises. Hold for 30 seconds each side.
There you have it; my daily stretch routine that I use for both myself and my clients. I encourage people to stretch every day because if you work hard, you make progress, and if you slack off, you lose that progress that you fought so hard to make. If you make enough progress, aches and pains will start to disappear. However, if you stop stretching for too long, those aches and pains will be back like they never left.
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