- Want to improve your posture, strengthen your legs,
and alleviate pain in your back, hips and knees?
(hands slap)
- That's right, we have seven daily exercises
that you can do, and they're specific so that
they're gonna improve your posture, get you stronger,
so you not only feel strong, but you look incredible.
(both laugh)
What do you say to that? It's true.
Good posture, (Mike claps)
you look better, yeah.
- Onward and forward.
(bright upbeat music)
The first exercise we're gonna show you
is called the split squat,
which we've talked about many times.
You can do this mini variation,
but you're gonna put one foot forward, one foot back,
use support if needed, and you're gonna go down.
You could touch your knee to the floor if you need,
don't ram it it to the floor hard, though,
and go nice and controlled,
try to do 10 reps, if you can, on each leg.
Switch after 10,
and you're gonna get a good single-leg strengthening aspect
to this exercise.
- And we get some stretching on the hip flexor here,
so it's a real nice, complete exercise for the legs and hip.
The next one is snow angels,
it's gonna be done on the floor, carpeted or hard floor.
Take a sack, ball it up like this.
And you're gonna put that right here below your neck.
And this is gonna help your posture,
and mobilize the thoracic spine
and the upper area between the scapulas.
Ah, there we got it, feels good,
and simply lie and relax, up like this
if you can keep your hands dragging on the floor.
Now my left shoulder was tight for a while,
and it would literally come off the floor
and I'd feel a stretch,
but after working on it for the last month or so,
now I can go flat to the floor, and I'm very happy.
Typically, 10 repetitions is all you're gonna want to do.
You can do more if you'd like.
- So the next exercise is actually a stretch.
So you lay down on your back,
and you're gonna start with both knees to your chest,
making sure your back feels comfortable.
You're gonna scoot to the edge of the mat,
however much you can and feel safe.
And you're gonna lower one leg down,
while keeping the other knee towards your chest.
And you're gonna try to hold this for 30 seconds.
- So I noticed he's bringing his foot under here,
that helps stretch the hip flexors and thigh here.
And this is gonna be done on the edge of your bed,
so you can obviously accomplish this,
or you could try it on a table,
if you've got a good, solid table.
- [Mike] Yes.
And then you're gonna bring both knees back to chest,
and then switch legs.
You could do two sets of 30 seconds on each leg.
- And relax and breathe with all of these,
right from the beginning.
Alright, the next stretch is the doorway stretch.
And if you're not tall enough, as you'll see,
you'll use a broomstick or a doweling like this,
or a Booyah Stik.
So you'll see it very briefly,
and we may have different clothes on this.
- Who knows? (Brad laughing)
Okay, the first exercise we're gonna do
is actually a stretch.
So what you're gonna do is bring your arm up here,
and you're gonna push into the top of the doorway,
and then you're gonna lean into it.
Try to get that shoulder blade to go back up in place.
And you can hold this for 10 seconds or so,
and then come out, and try to do that three to four times.
- I'm here yet.
So let's go this way.
I just wanna explain why this works.
So here we've got his shoulder blade,
and he's gonna actually drop his weight down.
Can you do that?
And this is gonna pull the shoulder blade up,
stretching these muscles here, allowing that shoulder blade
to get up where it needs to be,
so we don't have that impingement,
and those other irritans going on,
causing that shoulder pain.
How do you feel, Mike?
- I feel good.
Now we're gonna show you another option
if you can't lift your shoulder this high
- Or if you can't, yeah.
You know, if you got a really tall door.
- Or if you're short. - Yeah, yeah.
- Okay, an alternative if you can't reach up to a doorway,
or your shoulder pain is limiting you,
go as high as you can on a stick,
mop handle, broom handle, whatever.
You could be sitting or standing for this,
and then try to lean into it.
It's the same exact concept.
Take it away, Brad.
- Yes. So I'm using, you know, a mop.
Usually this is a little short,
so if I do it seated, it's too short.
So you can put it up on the table, or the cupboard,
up like this as far as you can.
And I'm gonna drop down.
And that's stretching these muscles,
allowing that shoulder blade to get up where it belongs.
Again, the same time, 5 to 10 seconds,
three to four repetitions, and do it, you know,
four or five times a day.
- And the next exercise is wall slides.
You will need a wall for this.
Put your arms, thumbs up, pinkies touching the wall,
and go straight up the wall as you can tolerate,
and then come back down.
- Now there's a few things that you really need
to focus on with this.
You're not gonna be pressing hard into the wall,
it's a gentle slide up, very little, just a touch.
And now when you start to go up,
there's one thing you need to focus on.
And we're looking at (chuckles) the scapula here.
Now, lift up your shoulder blades.
Ah, so you elevate the shoulder blades.
I want you to think about that, and come back down.
This is kind of hard to visually see.
Let's tighten up that.
Now, elevate the shoulder. There you go, right there.
And you'll feel your scapula actually
move across your ribcage when you do that.
10 repetitions is good.
Great for posture, neck pain.
If you have headaches, all these can be helpful
because of repositioning the soldier,
the shoulder blade, (laughing) with this exercise.
- The soldier blade.
- All right, sideways walking.
For this, we're gonna walk sideways, obviously,
but one, have soft knees.
In other words, flex the knees, get in a good posture.
You can put your hands on your hip and do this
without resistance like I'm demonstrating now,
10 to 15 feet to the left, 10 to 15 feet to the right.
If you want more resistance, and some of you will,
you may want to get a loop band like Mike has.
Go ahead, show 'em how to do it.
- I have a little booty band.
Make sure it is taught, not slack.
Bring your knees out, and you're gonna step sideways.
Obviously my range of motion
is gonna be a little bit smaller than Brad's,
because this has resistance to it, so this is kind of hard.
I'm feeling the burn here.
- This specifically strengthens the hip abductors,
which is great for your gait, your stability in walking,
as well as that low back.
You can do it if you have bands like this, works great.
If you wanna get it a little more resistance,
you can pull it up like this, or reposition your feet,
and that makes a big difference.
You'll clearly feel these muscles burn
after just a minute or two of doing that.
- Also great for line dancing.
(both laughing) - Right.
- And the last exercise we're gonna do
is called glute pumps.
So you're gonna get on all fours,
or you can get on your elbows as well,
depending on what's comfortable for you,
and you're gonna kick your butt up towards the ceiling.
But you're not gonna go through the full range of motion
like this.
You're gonna pick a range in here,
and just kind isolate it, and go up and down like this.
Try to do 30 repetitions total.
- And a little key on this one,
to isolate the glute, is to rotate your heel
or your leg like this, and then do it,
and you get a little more isolation
into that glute, which is helpful.
If you don't want to go in this position,
you can go up to a cupboard or a table like this,
and again, do the same thing.
I'm gonna rotate that femur, externally rotate it like this,
and work those small, isolated,
kinda like doing plyometrics, but it's not really.
Do that for 15 to 30 seconds.
Feel those glutes burn.
All right, there you go.
That's seven exercises all together, do 'em all.
And you may not wanna do all of 'em, but you can.
Do 'em at least once a day.
And some of 'em you can do throughout the day.
- Yes.
And make sure to be healthy. - Be happy.
- And be helpful.
- And... - Be careful.
- Yeah, goodbye. It was a good time.
(bright upbeat music)