Spending just 5 minutes per day doing mobility exercises within 30 minutes of waking up can provide the following benefits:
- Decreases stiffness caused by sleeping
- Increases circulation
- Helps you wake up
- Increases energy
- Prevents injuries
- Reduces stress
- Improves memory
- Boosts productivity and creativity
- Starts your day with a feeling of accomplishment
Here are 5 exercises that are perfect to prepare your body and mind for the day ahead.
1. Cat Cow
- Start on your hands and knees, toes curled under, aligning your wrists underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips.
- Your eyes are looking straight down to the ground.
- Start by taking a deep breath in.
- Next, move into cat position by slowly tilting your pelvis back so that your tailbone sticks up, your spine flattens and you slowly look up to the ceiling without straining your neck.
- Next, slowly move into cow position by exhaling and tipping your pelvis forward, letting your spine naturally round. Try to look at your navel.
- Slowly move back into cat position and keep repeating as many times as desired
2. Child's Pose
- Begin on your hands and knees.
- Next transition into Child’s Pose by slowly pushing your hips towards your heels as far as comfortably possible.
- Then stretch out by straightening your arms as you lower your chest and face to the floor.
- Hold for 30-60 seconds while taking slow, relaxed breaths.
3. Glute Bridges
- Lie face up on the floor, with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground.
- Inhale and tighten your core and squeeze your glutes as you drive your heels into the ground and slowly lift your hips off the ground until your knees, hips and shoulders form a straight line.
- Pause for 1 second at the top while squeezing your glutes.
- Then relax and slowly lower back to the starting position and repeat as desired (10-12 reps if possible).
4. Hamstring Flossing
- Lie on your back with your knees bent.
- Grab your right leg from the top and gently pull your knee towards your chest letting your left leg straighten to the floor.
- Hold for 20 seconds while taking slow, relaxed breaths.
- Next, grab behind your right hamstring and slowly extend the right leg towards the sky as you exhale.
- The left leg remains straight on the ground.
- After about 4-5 seconds, bend the knee back down and repeat 10 times before switching legs.
5. Side-Lying Hip Circles
- Lie on your side with both legs straight out, stacked directly on top of one another with your and your head resting on your bottom arm which is also straight.
- Place your top hand on the floor for more stability.
- For extra stability, you can also bend your bottom leg.
- Lift your top leg up into the air about 3-4 inches.
- Slowly rotate the top leg round in small clockwise circles for 4-5 repetitions and then do 4-5 counterclockwise repetitions.
- Repeat on the other side if desired.