- What's up Dark Horses, and welcome to another video.
This week we're going to be talking
about how to get your body prepped and ready for a workout.
What do we call that?
Preworkout.
How do we activate, stretch, mobilize,
basically get your body ready
so that when you approach a workout,
it's ready to move.
You're not just going from cold to intensity,
so let's get into it,
let's figure out the best things
that we can do for your body to make sure
that it is working at maximum performance.
(bouncy, energetic music)
I get a lot of questions in the comments
on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook.
What are the best things that I can do for my body
to make sure that it's prepped and ready
to go for a workout.
That's exactly what we're gonna tackle today.
Stretching, activation, and mobilization,
the three most critical components
to making sure that your body is primed
and ready to go for the movements
that you may see in your workout that day.
So let's tackle that.
Some of the tools that I keep in my garage
that you can as well.
They're not necessary, but sometimes they're useful
to have around.
I'm not going to use them all today,
but I just want you to know some of the things
that I use pretty frequently.
One would be a lacrosse ball,
two would be a band.
I would encourage you to have
a variety of resistances.
I believe I picked up a pack of thin
all the way up to thick for maybe $30 on Amazon.
A standard yoga mat is always good,
as well as a foam roller.
All four of these things are really versatile,
useful tools to have around.
Again, I'm not gonna use them all today,
but they are great for all three of the purposes
which are stretching, mobilizing, and activating.
Now I'm gonna go ahead and link to those
in the comments below.
I'm just gonna find
the least expensive options I can for you.
In case you wanna pick 'em up,
go check them out, I'll have the links down there.
What's the value of this you might be asking.
Why do I need to be spending 10 to 20 minutes on this,
when I can just go get my workout in,
or I don't have a lot of time, I just need to workout.
Well, let's just run through the quick value of it.
The body needs to be spending time
in positions that are different than what you're doing
in your day-to-day life.
Think about this.
How much time do you spend in your every day life
in a seated position?
If we were to consolidate all of that time,
it's probably quite a bit.
You sit to eat.
You sit to work.
You sit to drive.
You sit on the couch when you're watching TV,
or at your computer.
All of these times we spend sitting.
That means that the body gets locked
into this seated position,
meaning this hip and knee are at 90 degrees,
and our body starts to bind itself down
into that position.
So what we wanna do,
and the reason that we spend this time mobilizing,
and activating, is to put ourselves
in positions that are different
from what we are achieving in every day life,
because our joints and our body are so complex,
they have all this range of motion
that needs to be exercised, used and practiced.
It can't just be forgotten,
because we've organized our lives
to this seated position, so all of this activity,
so much of it, comes down to the fact
that we need to be spending time with our bodies,
getting into different positions
that are different
from what we're seeing in our every day life.
By doing that you're going to start to reinvigorate
and bring some life back to your tissues.
By doing that, you're gonna see less injuries,
more energy, and you're just going to feel better.
Aches and pains are gonna start to fall away,
because you're gonna be way more comfortable
and not always living here getting frozen.
You're gonna start to be able to explore
this incredible range of motion
(bouncy, energetic music)
that your body is meant to do,
and that our joints and everything are supposed
to be able to handle.
Let's start by moving from least active
to most active.
That way we can start with
a little parasympathetic response,
that calming relaxed state,
and then move into the more active,
the sympathetic response priming the system,
or priming the pump
so that your body gets ready to move.
We're gonna start with a very simple stretch.
This is they call the seated forward fold.
We're gonna do this for two minutes.
The focus that I want you to give to this
is that every time you exhale,
you are going to be diving deeper into the stretch,
allowing the body to relax a little bit more.
It may not feel like you relax a whole bunch.
The whole point is that you are just starting somewhere,
so join me for two minutes.
(calming orchestral music)
Next, we're gonna do another two minute sequence,
but this time it's gonna be single leg.
We're going to do a passive forward lunge.
I would suggest that you find something
to hold onto that gives you some stability,
I've got a sledgehammer here,
whatever works, a couch, a bosu ball,
a tree trunk, whatever you've got,
go ahead and do that,
but you're simply going to establish yourself
into a longe and then slowly, and passively
fall deeper and deeper into that lunge.
The point being to stretch your back leg, all right.
This will be two minutes per leg.
(calming orchestral music)
This is one of my personal favorites.
This is the pigeon stretch,
in which you're basically going to do a figure four
with your front leg in front of you,
rear leg is going to be straight back,
and you're just going to relax.
This is gonna tap into the glutes,
lower back, hamstrings.
Again, find the position that is the most comfortable.
There's no correct position here.
If it hurts, you shouldn't be doing it,
so try to find a position that's okay with it.
This will be another two minutes per side.
(calming orchestral music)
Next, we're gonna start to build up a little bit
off the ground.
Next is going to be a weighted ankle.
I'm gonna call this immobilization.
It's a bit of a stretch as well,
but I need some kind of load
that I'm going to place on top of my knee
to help stretch through my achilles and my calf,
and we're gonna run about a minute.
It's not going to be exact.
I'm just going to go
until I feel like I've achieved
enough out of the mobilization.
You're gonna grab your weight.
You're going to settle into this lunge
seated on your leg position.
Take that weight, place it on top of your knee,
and you're just going to let it start to stretch
into that ankle.
(calming orchestral music)
Next, we're gonna use what's called
a banded hip distraction.
I'm a huge fan of this, especially for the purposes
of mobilizing your hamstrings and posterior chain.
You're gonna need a band for this one,
and you need a solid anchor,
not something that's just kinda heavy
and could move.
You want it to be connected,
so that it doesn't come sliding towards you.
You'll see why in a second.
All you're gonna do is take this band,
loop it around your anchor point,
at about knee to hip height,
and then you're going to step through.
Then you're going to lean against the band.
You're gonna fold at the hip,
and you are going to start with your hands on the ground,
then extend and bring your nose to your knee,
then rebend, extend, nose to the knee.
You're gonna do 15 of those per side.
(calming orchestral music)
Next is what's called the perfect stretch,
and you're gonna figure out why as you do this.
It really does hit a lot of different parts of the body.
What's included is that you start with a big knee hug,
then you're gonna step out.
You're gonna take that right into a lunge.
From the lunge, you're gonna drop your elbow
to the inside of your knee, as deep as you can,
keeping the back leg off the ground.
Then you're gonna rotate up to the sky,
hands to the floor, straighten your front leg,
and that's gonna pull on that hamstring.
Then you'll stand up and repeat.
You're gonna do five per leg.
(calming orchestral music)
Next, we're gonna make sure that we're hitting
that upper body as well, getting the upper body warm
and ready for some kind of pulling,
just as a general principle because we spend so much time
with our shoulders in this anterior position,
or internally rotated.
We wanna be spending as much time as possible retracting,
and learning how to pull,
so that, that shoulder gets some counter work
to most of the living that we do here,
we wanna be able to get here.
We're gonna do some banded pulls.
You're gonna take that same band
and you're gonna find another anchored surface,
preferably higher this time.
I am using a beam in my rafters and I'm gonna tie it off.
From here I'm going to do 20 pulls by two sets,
so I'm gonna do 20 rest, and then I'm gonna do 20 more.
I'm gonna step back
so that I can get as horizontal as possible.
I don't necessarily want it all to be down.
I wanna be getting some horizontal pull,
so let's go ahead and do that.
(calming orchestral music)
Next, remember that we're adding to the activation component
meaning getting the body ready,
so that pull was my first movement of real blood flow,
where I'm starting to get things turned on.
Next I'm gonna step into jumping squats,
two sets of 10.
This is to start bringing some blood flow to the legs.
(calming orchestral music)
Finally, I'm going to bring in a little bit
of a strength push to get my upper body push,
activated, blood flow, as well as adding
a piece of mobility, so this is going to be a pushup,
into a cobra press.
Every rep is going to be two reps actually.
You're gonna do 10 of these, pushup into a cobra press,
which is that upward, basically that backward bend
in your spine, if you will.
10 of these.
(calming orchestral music)
If you're walking through that with me,
by now you should be breathing heavy.
You should be feeling warm,
blood flow should be in different areas,
but you should also be feeling more limber,
and lean and like you're ready to move.
The body should just be stimulated and feeling good.
That's the whole point of this.
I encourage you do this with me.
Do this every day.
Come back, follow me for the first 15 minutes
before your workout.
Your body will thank you.
Do this for two weeks.
I challenge you, two weeks, do this every day.
You are going to feel like a new human being
in two weeks.
I promise you, just try it, two weeks every day.
That's only 14 times.
That's nothing.
If you skip your workouts that's fine.
Just do this.
Now guys, thank you, as always,
for joining.
I hope you enjoyed this video on stretching, mobilizing,
and activating your body, getting it ready to move.
What we care about here at the Dark Horse family
is that you are going to be living a happier,
healthier life, and that you are taking charge
of your own life.
That is the thing that matters.
Own what you've gotta do.
Guys, if you loved this video,
make sure that you subscribe,
and if you really loved it,
lik it just everywhere hit you here,
hit that little bell next to the subscribe button,
because it means you're gonna get alerted
every time we come out with a new video,
and as always, we will see you on the other side.
(bouncy, energetic music)