These stretches are great for warming up the whole body and getting you moving before you do more specific stretches. Take them at your own pace and feel free to pause at any time or repeat them as you like.
Circling Arms Out
This is a great warm-up stretch that opens your chest and shoulders and gets the blood flowing right away. Think about opening up and stretching out in all directions with your arms.
Arms Parallel, Push One Higher
By reaching up on one side against tension, you can stretch a lot of the fascia and deeper muscles in your torso, even stretching all the way down to your hips. Think about reaching up, not sideways.
Bent at the Hips, Walking Forward and Backwards
This exercise stretches the backs of your legs, and by walking forwards and backwards with your hands and tensing your hamstrings you can break apart old, tight or stuck fascia in the backs of your legs. The key is to keep the tension going in the backs of your legs and to only go as far as you can comfortably.
Sit Cross-Legged. Lean Forward
A great stretch for your abductors. Make sure your feet are under your knees and not further back. If you are very stiff you can also move your feet further forward if that is easier, and do not push too hard or lean forward further than is comfortable.
Reaching Up, Out And Back
The purpose of this stretch is to stretch the whole front of your body by pushing your hips forward and arching your body backwards, and the back of your body by bending forwards.
Parallel Arms, Push to the Side
Curving yourself sideways like a bow, you stretch one side of your body all the way down to your hip and outside of your leg. (Be careful if you have any back issues and start with smaller movements first.)
Satellite Arms
This stretch is unusual in that you stretch in both directions, so it is really two stretches rolled into one; for the upper back and for the chest. Because of this you have to remember to keep the resistance on in the correct area in order for the stretch to work.
Wide-leg Hamstring
This stretch is a variation on an old classic, but you need to resist continuously, move slowly and you do not need to stay at the end of the range of motion for very long. Think about tensing the muscles on the inside as well as the back of the legs and keeping your back long.
Rocking Hips
This stretch is great for warming up the hips and pelvis. Think about tensing the muscles on the inside as well as the back of the legs and keeping your back long. This stretch is great for opening and warming-up the hips.
One Hip Circling
One hip circling warms up the muscles and fascia around your hip. Try to keep your hips flat on the floor and keep your core engaged so that you don’t wobble from side to side.
8 Point Hips
This warms up all aspects of the hips as you move in 8 different directions.
It can be hard to keep your tailbone tucked under if you are not used to it. You can think about it as trying to keep the small of your back as straight as possible. Keeping your hands on your hips to guide you so that you can feel what your hips are doing may be a good idea.