Doing this morning stretch routine before you get out of bed can be very helpful. These morning stretches will not only get the blood circulating in your body, but they will also loosen up the joints to get you moving without pain. In this 7-minute, real-time morning stretch video, you can follow along with me to get you ready for your day.
For the stretches, we will do just 30 seconds 2 times verses three to save some time and since you probably haven’t warmed up, these are really just to get the blood flowing before you get up. Start off with some knee to chest stretches. Bend one knee and bring your leg up to your chest as far as you comfortably can. Hold this for 30 seconds and do it two times on each side.
Next, you will stretch your hamstrings. This stretch is called an active assisted stretch because you are actively doing the stretch. Grab the back of your thigh, and bring your hip to about 90 degrees. Slowly start to straighten your leg until you feel a good stretch as seen in the video. Not everyone will be able to straighten their knee completely. Do two sets of 30 seconds on each side.
Now try some gentle trunk rotation stretches on your back with your knees bent in hooklying. Gently rotate your bent legs from side to side. You can hold them on each side for 3-5 seconds or you can continuously rotate them back and forth. Again, try to keep your lower back on the ground.
Finally, you will do bridging. Push your bottom up off the ground, but try to do this slowly, and do one segment of your back at a time curling upward. Then slowly go down the same way, one segment at a time.
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