5 Stretches You Should Be Doing EVERY Morning!

If you wake up in the morning feeling tight and stiff, then there are 5 stretches you should be doing every morning. In this video, I am going to show you a quick 3-4 minute stretching routine that you should be doing every morning to feel amazing.

Depending on how you sleep, you could easily be feeling tight or stiff when you wake up. In order to combat this, I came up with a stretching routine, one that I do myself every day, that takes very little time out of your morning but will have you feeling 10 years younger. So after you roll out of bed and before you have your morning coffee, just find a little space where you can do these stretches.

The first stretch up is a dynamic one called the bridge and reach over. This dynamic stretch starts with a good glute activation by driving your feet into the ground and lifting your butt up into a bridge position. Not all stretches have to be done passively. The active contraction of the glutes will actually help to accentuate the stretch placed on the hip flexors on the front side of the joint and increase your range of motion.

Once you are in the bridge position, you’ll want to reach up and over the opposite shoulder. Doing this will help to mobilize the thoracic spine. Most people have a hard time getting rotation through their thoracic spine and doing this stretch will make sure that you unlock any tightness or stiffness you might have in your upper back.

Next up is something called the QL slide. QL stands for quadratus lumborum, a deep muscle in the back that, when tight, can actually cause back pain. You might think it’s a dysfunction in your spine, but the reality could be that this muscle is just too tight. The problem is, however, that this muscle can be hard to locate and therefor stretch. The good news is that the QL slide will be able to loosen up any tightness and help to eliminate that nagging back pain.

Simply drop a leg back and use your arms to prop up your body into a side bent position. Try and maintain this position for 30-45 seconds each side and look to feel the stretch most in the outside area of your lower back just around your waistline. Doing this will help make your back feel that much better.

The third move up in this morning stretch routine is the squat and reach. This is done by getting into a deep squat with your hands between your feet and elbows driving out into your inner thighs. From here, you are going to want to keep one hand planted on the ground and with the other, reach up high over your head. Rotate your torso so that your arm is directly perpendicular to the ground. Do this on both sides.

This stretch will not only target thoracic rotation, something that we don’t get enough of and leads to upper back pain and stiffness, but will also help to stretch the adductors in the legs and mobilize the shoulders. These are common problem areas for people that wake up feeling tight and stiff.

Now we have to stretch our hip flexors. having tight hip flexors is a chronic problem for people that sit all day when they are working. In oder to stretch the hip flexors, you will want to get into a lunge position to start with one knee on the ground. From here, push your hips forward to feel the stretch on the hip flexors on the back leg. While doing this, put your hands behind your head and rotate your torso to the side of your forward leg.

Once you do that, switch the position of your legs and rotate to the other side. This hip flexor stretch might be similar to one you’ve done or seen before, but the difference is that you push your hips forward so that you stretch the hip flexors instead of the quads.

The last stretch in this morning stretching routine will target your hamstrings better than any stretch you have ever done. Likely, when told to stretch your hamstrings, you bend over and try to touch your toes. The problem with this is the rounding of the lower back, which negates some of the stretch you are looking for.

Instead, from a standing position, I want you to perform a simple hip hinge. As you hinge your hips back, bend your torso down at the waist. You should feel an intense stretch on the hamstrings that you likely haven’t felt before. This will also help to reinforce the hinge movement needed during your workouts.

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