Mobility Exercises for Beginners

Hello, everyone. Maximo Pascual here, and before we get started, I just really wanted to thank Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey for their amazing commitment in promoting health education, and also for allowing me this opportunity to share these valuable fitness tips with you.

Now, today, I wanted to go over some simple mobility exercises that you can do from the comfort of your own home.

Now, the importance of these mobility exercises is that it’s going to get rid of a lot of stiffness that you might have, a lot of different little aches and pains that you might feel in your body.

It’s going to make you a lot more agile, and it’s going to keep your joints a lot more smoother and younger in the long run.

All right, guys - let’s get started with the first exercise.

We’re going to start off with exercise number 1, which is looking all the way up, and then looking all the way down.

Neck mobility exercise number 2: let’s look side to side.

Neck mobility exercise number 3: let’s try to put our ear on our shoulder.

Neck mobility exercise number 4: we’re going to try to do a full range of motion circle with our head, all the way down, all the way to the side, all the way back, and then bringing our head all the way back down.

We’re going to do 10 going one way, and then 10 going the opposite way.

For shoulder mobility, we’re going to be doing two different exercises.

The first one, we’re going to roll our shoulders forward, full range of motion, and then we’re going to do it backwards as well. 10 repetitions of each position.

For shoulder mobility exercise number 2, we’re going to do arm circles.

So we’re going to put our arms as straight as we can, and slowly we’re going to do circles forward and gradually make the circles bigger and bigger until they’re really, really big, and I’m doing a gigantic circle.

Then we’re going to do it the opposite way, small circles backwards, slowly get them bigger and bigger, and then very, very big.

For elbow mobility, we’re going to raise both arms straight, and we want to make sure that this upper arm part is going to be straight and stationary, and we’re only moving the forearm to hammer out.

It’s going to be like you’re holding two hammers, and you’re going all the way up and then all the way back in, like towards your ears.

Let’s do 10 in this position, then we’ll flip the hand over, fingernails facing you - again, 10 full range of motion. And then we’ll do 10 with the fingernails facing away from us.

For wrist mobility, we’re going to do wrist circles, so we’re going to pick up the arms and just using the wrist we’re going to move the fist in a circular full range of motion movement.

We want to do 10 going one way, and then 10 the opposite way.

We’re going to do a torso mobility exercise. In order to do this, we’re going to turn our body all the way to the sides, almost as if I want to pass an imaginary ball to someone that’s behind me, and then I’m going to the other side.

Now, notice, as I go from side to side, I also turn my leg to help me turn.

You want to get as much range of motion as you can from your torso, turning over.

For our lower back mobility, we’re going to put our hands on our hip, and we’re not going to bend the back, but what we’re going to do is, we’re going to stick our hip out with the leg straight, and then stick our hip back in. Hip out, hip in.

For our hip mobility, we will be doing six different exercises.

For exercise number 1, we’re going to stand straight with our legs together, hands on our hip, and I’m going to stick my hip out from side to side.

I want to make sure that you get at least 10 repetitions on each side.

For hip mobility exercise number 2, we’re going to do hip circles.

So we’re going to stand about shoulder width apart, hands on our hip, and we’re going to do 10 big circles one way, and then 10 big circles the opposite way.

Make sure you’re sticking your hip out all the way to the side, all the way back, back to this side and then all the way in - full range of motion.

For hip mobility exercise number 3, we’re going to stand tall, we’re going to lift up one leg, and what we want to do is move this leg all the way to the side.

You want to make sure you’re as straight as you possibly can, and only this part of your leg and your hip is moving. Again, you’re not swinging it fast - full range of motion.

See how far you can go out to the side, and bring it back in. This might require some balance, so if you feel like you’re unbalanced, you can also lean against a wall a little bit to help you out.

For hip mobility exercise number 4, we’re going to lift up our leg, keep the lower part bent, and it’s like I want to swing my knee up towards my chin and then all the way back to the wall behind me.

It’s like a constant swing. This one you could do a little faster compared to the other ones.

For hip mobility exercise number 5, we’re going to lift up the leg in this bent position, and this position is going to be straight now.

We’re not moving from this position. The only thing that’s going to be moving is your hip.

So this bone here is actually going to move the rest of my leg, so I’m going to move as much as I can to the right, and as much as I can in and to my left.

Now, I don’t want to do this quick. The purpose of this is to do it nice, slow and controlled, so that your hip is taking over the exercise.

Even though it looks like I’m moving my foot, what’s really moving is this thigh bone, and this thigh bone is what’s causing the rest of my leg to move. So make sure the movement is coming from your hip.

For hip mobility exercise number 6, we want to make sure that our legs are together, and we’re going to lift up the lower leg on one side. As you can see, both knees are together.

If we do a side view, I don’t have one leg in front of the other. They’re actually side by side.

Now, similar to exercise number 5, using only my hip, I’m moving my entire leg side to side - all the way to the right, all the way in.

Again, you don’t want to do this fast. The purpose is to have control of your hip, so side, and bring it back.

For knee mobility, we will be doing two different exercises. For exercise number 1, we’re going to lift up our leg.

We’re going to keep this upper part stationary - there’s no more movement here - and now I’m going to fully extend out my lower leg and then bring it back to the starting position.

Now, keep in mind, you want to control the movement as you straighten out your leg and control it on the way back. Try not to kick. Full range of motion, and full control.

For knee mobility exercise number 2, we’re going to stand with our legs completely together, knee to knee here, and I’m simply going to make believe like I’m going to kick myself using my heel.

The side - try and get it up as high as I can, trying to bring the heel to the glutes.

For ankle mobility, we will be doing three different exercises.

Exercise number 1, you’re just going to do full range of motion, bringing your foot all the way down, like if you’re touching a pedal, and then your toes all the way back up, like if you want to touch your knee. All the way down, all the way up.

For ankle mobility exercise number 2, we’re now going to move that ankle side to side. So it’s like if I want to show the bottom of my foot to that wall, and then to that wall over there.

So leg is straight, and I’m just side to side. There’s a short movement. You might feel some restriction. But the more you practice, the more mobility you will get.

For ankle mobility exercise number 3, you’re going to stick out your leg completely straight, and you want to point your foot down.

Now, I want you to make believe like your big toe has a pen on it, and we’re going to draw a big circle using the imaginary pen that’s on your toe.

So you want to make sure you go all the way down, all the way to the side, all the way up, all the way back down. 10 one way and then 10 the opposite way.

Now we just went over each and every exercise of this routine, and I’m pretty sure you’re feeling a lot more confident about doing this routine alone at home.

Now, one big tip I can give you is, remember, you are a beginner, so you might not be able to master each and every exercise on Day 1.

But I promise you, if you’re consistent enough, eventually you will get stronger, more mobile, more agile, more flexible, and you will be able to master each one of these exercises.

All right, guys. Till next time.