We use this exercise to get the lower abs firing! When the lower abdominals are working, they take pressure off your lower back and lift your torso from your pelvis. This in turn decreases the pressure on your hips, knees and ankles.
This is a great exercise that targets abdominal muscles, especially lower abdominals, and also adductors.
This exercise can be done anywhere, which makes it a no excuse exercise if you will.
This is a cool way to get activation and pump through the quads. It is a standard squat but at the top of the movement, we do not activate our glutes and squeeze our glutes, we have a tilt forward in order to keep the quads tight and clenchable!
The good old wall sit. What a hate crime. I mean.. what a great exercise! Definitely an exercise to show your stamina for quads an glutes. This exercise can also be a great way to finish off those muscles in a superset.. as I said – a hate crime.
Looking to warm up? It’s likely your shoulders will be in the mix so let’s get them warmed up too. Inside your shoulder joint there are a variety of muscles that keep your humerus bone in that socket. Inside the your socket there is synovial fluid that needs to warm up too! This is a great and gentle way to get things moving!
No wedge or step to do calf raises? No problem! This exercise allows you to utilise the flexion of the ankle to form the stretch component of the movement while then going to tippy toes in the same position allows for contraction. Means this can be done anywhere and is a unique take on the traditional calf raise.
This exercise starts with body weight only but can be loaded with weight by placing weight plated across the thighs.
Nordic Hamstring curls are very much a WOAH exercise. Why? Simply because the first time you do them, you will feel those hammies engage and well.. WOAH is the G rated way you will announce your shock đŸ™‚
You can do these two ways..
1. Lower yourself down to the ground like a draw bridge and you will get to the point where you will have to
This stretch will increase the flexibility in our hamstrings and lower back. It’s also a good stretch to continue doing over time to see whether your flexibility has increased!
This slow and controlled exercise will help strengthen all of the muscles in your upper back.
An evolution from the Bent Hollow Hold, this exercise is a more challenging position to hold your abdominals tight in. As you get more proficient and stronger with the movement, you can extend your legs and arms further.
The Shoulder Extension Stretch is to help stretch out your shoulder muscles and also your chest muscles.
This is a great exercise to help with your overall core strength. This even helps with how to do a handstand!
This is a great exercise for engaging your oblique muscles. Evolutions of this exercise can involve dropping and elevating your hips from that standard straight bodied position.
Often it can be a case that lower back pain is compounded by certain structures getting tight which makes it difficult to allow the lower back to be in the correct anatomical position. Your Quadratus Lumborum (QL) and Latissimus Dorsi muscles are two such muscles that can be inhibiting your lower back to be neutral! You QL attachment points are the Iliac crest of your hip and the twelfth rib and the tranverse processes of your lumbar vertebrae L1-L4. This stretch is great for stretching these structures!
Body weight exercises are the best way for PTs to illustrate that you can indeed to exercise nearly ANYWHERE at ANYTIME. I say nearly because a funeral or during a fire drill are 2 such examples of times and places that they are not appropriate. Where was I? Oh yes – Bicycles. Great core exercise that really allows you get those pesky obliques!
This one is just for you Lilian!
Your big swinging, pronounced movements!
One of the first exercises that come to mind when you think fitness! Push ups are a great way to exercise your chest, shoulders and arms. If you are new at this exercise and do not have the strength to perform it, you can either bend your legs at the knees to take off resistance or perform the exercise against the wall instead of the floor.
For the most advanced lifters, you can place your feet at a high surface such as a bench in order to increase the resistance and to target the upper chest more.
This is a great exercise for those who struggle to get those glutes to work and also to keep them in an activated state. The bridging component helps keep tension on the glutes to ensure they keep you in the right position!
To make this one more challenging, you can add weight onto your hips.