This week, we are focusing on the ankle. A lot of the problems that show up in our feet and our knees, are usually due to the fact that our ankles don’t move correctly. The moves below work on both dorsiflexion (toes towards the shin) and plantar flexion (toes pointed away from shin).
I threw in a bonus exercise for those of you that need some mobility laterally with your ankle movement.
Bonus Exercise!
All month long we are going to be focusing on keeping your joints happy and healthy (and hopefully, creak-free).
This first week, we are working on the lumbar spine. Need some mobility in that area? Try this first exercise to get it moving. Need some stability? Try the second exercise to turn on those low back stabilizers and give your spine some support. Want to have a healthy back? Do both. 😜
This whole month we are going to be playing with rotation. It sounds simple , and it is, but it is no easy. Most people who experience stiffness and lack of fluidity in their movements are lacking rotational mobility. Hang out with us all month long for new videos and for some movement motivation.
We are going to start with the hips. If you have been stretching your hips, but they never seem to get looser, try some rotation. Rotating the hips could be the missing link in your mobility program.
Next, let’s keep that new hip mobility by strengthening into hip external rotation. Try this little, but mighty move to help your hips stay healthy.
For the cyclists out there, your spine needs movement. You have been holding it in a “C” curve for so long. Do this first video after your ride and bring that spine back to life. Follow it up with this simple strength exercise in the second video. Stretching your chest is not enough. There is more involved in the beautiful complex that is the shoulder. Try this move out to gain some strength in the back of the shoulders, help improve your posture and counteract any slouching you may have been doing on and off the bike.
If you ride a bike, your quads are tight. This tightness can lead to pain around the knee cap. In this first mobility exercise, we use a pin and stretch on the roller. This addition to the regular quad rolling can release some of the tension in the front of the thighs and allow the kneecap to move more freely.
Cycling involves so much forward folding and hunching. We need to counteract that with some strength in the opposite direction. In this second exercise, we are back on our bellies, working that back line.
All month long, we will be going over moves and stretches to keep you healthy on and off your bicycle.
This week, we are focusing on hip extension (when the leg extends behind the pelvis). We are starting with an anterior hip release so that we can open the front of the hips and then moving on to an exercise that allows us to strengthen in hip extension.
For our 2nd week of Foundations Month we are moving from the spine to the feet and we are going to progress our hinge.
Having a good connection of our feet with the ground is important for proper movement. If our feet our stiff, our movement above can be stiff and/or sloppy. Whether you are trying to generate force from the ground up, the pedal up, or maybe the rollerblade up, you need your feet to connect to generate power.
Also, let’s progress our foundational move, the hinge, to a squat. Same concepts as last week, but with a bit of a knee-bend.
For our final week of Trail Month, we have one, final standing stretch. This one to open up your sides which can start to feel compressed after a long day out. We are also working on our cores with this banded exercise.
For the month of June, we will be working on getting ourselves trail ready. Check out our stretches and moves all month and keep yourself safe out on your adventures.
This week, we are stretching out our quads with a standing stretch that can be done anywhere. Then we are keeping our hips (and knees) happy with a lateral hip strengthener.
Jumping requires us to stay balanced as we move up and down. These 2 exercises help us strengthen the ankles and hips so that we are less likely to collapse when jumping.
Brenna Backe 