1. Single Leg Raises From Floor
- Lay onto your back, knees bent to 90 degrees, feet flat on the floor hip bone distance apart
- Pull your belly button inwards towards your spine and pull your lower back down against the floor
- Try to keep your back down against the floor and slowly as you breathe in, raise your leg into the air until your thigh is vertical and your knee is locked at 90 degrees
- Breathe out and keeping your back as flat as possible and your knee locked at 90 degrees, lower your leg back down
- Alternate legs
2. Single Leg Lowers
- Lay onto your back, with your legs in the air so that your thigh is vertical and your knee bent to 90 degrees, keeping your knees hip bone distance apart
- Pull your belly button inwards towards your spine and pull your lower back down against the floor
- Try to keep your back down against the floor and slowly as you breathe in, lower your leg until your heel gently taps the floor
- Breathe in and keeping your back as flat as possible and your knee locked at 90 degrees, raise your leg back up
- Alternate legs
- Progression – straighten your leg but don’t lock out your knee and keep it fixed in position so that it doesn’t bend or straighten and your heel then taps the floor further away from your body.
3. Seated Reverse Plank
- Seated on the floor, feet hip bone width apart, feet flat on the floor
- Fold your arms across your chest, ensuring your shoulders are pulled backwards and not rounded forwards
- Take your feet off the floor, lean your upper body backwards slightly and balance with your knees bent and then locked in that position, feet remaining hip bone width apart (Progression) →
- Progression – Straighten out your legs to any angle except locked out straight (ensure you always have at least a soft bend in your knees
- Sit on a cushion or 2x cushions stacked one on top of the other to make your position less stable)
4. Shoulder Bridge
- Lay on your back, feet hip bone distance apart with your lower back in a comfortable position
- Breathe in, pull in through your belly button and press your lower back into the floor as hard as you can by tilting your pelvis up and squeezing your buttock muscles
- Breathe out and keeping your belly button pulled in and buttock muscles tight, slowly unpeel your spine up from the floor, without losing the tension in your buttock muscles
- Breathe in deeply when you have reached your highest point, ideally forming a straight line through from your knees to your shoulders
- Breathe out and slowly roll yourself down, replacing your spine from the top all the way down to the base against the floor
- Repeat the movement above
5. Prone Cobra Stretch
- Laying on your front, take both arms in front of you so that your palms are touching the floor
- Keep your hips pressed into the floor and push yourself up so that your elbows are locked out straight and are tucked in tightly towards your body
- Make sure your shoulders are drawn down your back keeping them as far away from your ears as possible
- Stretch up through your upper body, head and neck as much as you can
- Hold in the stretch for 3x breaths in and 3x breaths out, lower yourself down slowly and repeat
6. Lumbar Rotations
- Laying on your back, take your arms out to the side of your body with your palms facing the sky and your body in a ‘T’ shape
- Bend your knees so that your feet are flat against the floor, and your ankles and knees are stuck together
- Keep your knees and feet together, one foot in contact with the floor at all times, and your shoulders down against the floor throughout
- Breathe out and drop both knees as far as you can to one side whilst turning your head to look in the opposite direction
- Breathe in and pull your knees and head back up to the middle and breathe out and do the same thing to the other side
- Try to push your body from your hip closest to the sky as your legs go across your body
Provided by Martin McFadden – martin@mcfaddenandrayner.com / 07736 930 003
