We sit on our ass too much, there simply is no question about it. Sitting in a chair is not a position that was designed for us, and it’s killing our mobility day by day. Most of us know it but have no immediate idea on how to easily increase our mobility, and some of us say “no time”.
I’m here to call out bs and give you some ideas on how to work on your mobility at a time that’s convenient for anyone, that time is while you’re watching TV. There is no excuse, get off the couch and on the ground. The video above demonstrates several positions you can use to watch TV/movies while working on your mobility.
Get to know all positions, use those that are easy first, increase your range and difficulty over time. At first, only use these positions during commercial breaks, eventually increase the time in each position and over time these will become like second nature to you, they will feel comfortable, and you will drastically increase mobility. Over time you might be able to perform the epitome of stretches.
If you’ve been following Cavemantraining for a while, you know that we share a lot of free content without asking for much in return, so I’m hoping you will do this. Please share this video/page with your own words of why others should spend some time on mobility and that there is no excuse.
With over 33 thousand subscribers on our YouTube channel, 22 thousand users a month on this website, a combined audience of over 50 thousand on Facebook, getting at least 1,000 shares should not be too difficult!?
Let’s do this, not just for yourself (i.e. have a think about the ‘why’) but also for others, who knows whom you might inspire with your words.
All photos step-by-step
Below I have taken some time to put all positions in order of progression together with some more notes. If you’re already a free Cavemantraining community member you just need to sign in to get access. If you don’t want to create a free account, simply help by sharing this content with others, after you follow the step to share the content it will become accessible below.
Note: The duration for all these positions to be in, are just like anything else you do, sitting, standing, etc., they’re just for several minutes, they’re not meant to be in for hours. Move from one to the next, learn to flow. If you want to learn a lot more about mobility, check out the Caveman Mobility Program.
Great position to start with. Use the support from your arms to take out the hip flexors.
Another quite basic position compared to the others, but one you need, it works on your thoracic, in particular, thoracic extension which is exactly what you need for a good squat, especially once you start adding weight.
The same position as the first one we started with, but we’re putting one leg with bent knee over the straight one. You can use one hand to push down on the knee and get a deeper stretch.
Great to open up the hips, especially the adductors, again, use the support of your arms behind you if your hamstrings are tight and making it hard on your hip flexors.
Eventually, you want to take away the support from the arms behind you and be able to sit in the above position, from here you can even work to put your elbows on your legs and become even more comfortable while watching TV.
This position gets deeper into the adductors, the muscles on the inside of your thighs. You want to push the elbows out and work to get the knees lower to the floor over time.
Kneeling is such a basic position, yet so painful for many, especially in the ankle area. Here is a progression to kneeling with both legs. You can start on the ball of the foot and work to greater ankle plantarflexion (toes away from shin) over time. You swap legs.
After you feel comfortable kneeling on one leg, start with two, but on the ball of the feet. The further you lean back, the deeper the quads stretch is, and the more you start feeling a stretch in the hip flexors.
From the balls of the feet, it’s time to progress to full ankle plantarflexion and have those feet become a straight extension of your legs. The weight of your torso is supported by your arms.
From there you progress to sitting back and let the weight push your hips down toward the ground. Eventually, you want to open up your legs and get your buttocks to touch the floor. These are also great progressions to the reclining hero pose, a pose that’s not easy but extremely good once you’re able to achieve it.
We’re going to work on leaning back more, so let’s work with one leg.
Here we go to the elbow. If you can get both legs in the same position, you’re this close to the reclining hero position. In the position displayed we’re stretching the left quads and ankle, the leaning back on the side gets more of the hip flexors in the stretch as well.
This position will hit your hip flexors and quads, in the photo it will be the right side. You want to push your hips toward the ground and keep them as parallel to the ground as possible. Move from support behind you to pushing down at the front.
Same position as previous pose but from a different side.
From the above position you can move to one side and lean on the elbow.
The above progression is the pigeon stretch, I love this one. You can push away from the ground and get the hip flexors and thoracic more involved, or you can come to the ground and get a deeper stretch.
From the above, we move into the runners lunge with the arms on the inside, not outside. If you want a deeper hip flexor stretch on the left side simple straight the leg more and push the hips down.
This one goes deeper into the hip flexor as you’re taking away the support of the right leg. Push the right knee out and feel the inside of the thigh.
If you’re here you already progressed to a stage where flow becomes important to you, so let’s get into a lunge, stretch the hip flexors on the kneeling side, and lean back to get the thoracic involved.
Let’s add some thoracic rotation by turning to the side.
After doing both sides, pull the leg in and come into a deep squat.
Time to progress to the Cossack squat with support, bring one leg out with a straight knee and toes up. Other foot should remain flat, if you can’t, you’re not at this stage yet.
Time for back to basics and focus on the ankles. In a deep squat move from side to side reaching max dorsiflexion.
Let’s include some overhead work and slight rotation with the deep squat and one arm overhead.
We finish with the deep squat into straight legs, this will target your hammies and back.
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