15 MIN DAILY STRETCH - a full body routine for tight muscles, flexibility & mobility I Pamela Reif

Hello everyone and thanks for joining me for today's routine. We are going to do a 15 minute whole body stretch that is going to increase our flexibility and mobility. You can do that on a daily basis. I like to stretch before I go to bed but you can also do any other time and this makes sure that our muscles and joints are not too stiff and too tight from sitting all day long or working out a lot. We're going to do every exercise for 30 seconds except for the first one. So basically everything is going to be down on the mat except for the first part. We're going to stand up for that one. So let's start with some neck rolls to loosen up our neck and maybe crack it a bit. Okay let's stand up and actually start with the routine. So make sure that your back is straight and you can feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Reach forward and then reach down for your feet. Reach forward and then reach down for your feet. If that's too hard you can also reach for your shins instead. And now you're going to stay at the lower point and only focus on the hamstring stretch over here. I like to basically stand on my hands and then pull my chest and my belly a little more. We're going to move over to a downward dog. So your butt goes high in the air. Your neck is in one line with the arms. You can walk your feet a little bit. That's a very good stretch for the entire body. Works the shoulders, works the hips. We're staying in the downward dog but then including a push-up and a cobra. Back into downward dog, push-up, cobra. Opening the chest, stretching the chest and the stomach. Back in downward dog and cobra. Now stay in this cobra position and add the push-up motion. This is amazing to increase the mobility of your spine. Now lay down on your belly. Put one arm to the side in a 90 degree angle and then twist with your body to the side of your arm. This opens up the shoulder and stretches the chest. Switch sides. Arm goes into a 90 degree angle. Try to keep your shoulder on the ground and then open up this part by twisting the lower body to the side. I love that one. Now we are going to start working on our hip flexor. So kind of come into a lunge position like this and then sink into the stretch noticing how it works your hip flexor and your thighs. Now put your knee on the ground and then we add a back bend. Increasing the stretch in the hip flexor even more. You can also only bend to one side. Put your hands to the ground, lift your knee up again and add a big rotation with your arm. Look up towards your hand and sink down with your hip. We're going to switch sides. Come up with the knee again and just find your balance. Sink down into the stretch. Notice it on this side. Sink down with your knee as well and then we add a big back bend. And then I also like to stretch to the other side as well. Put both hands on the ground again, bring up your knee and then we add a big rotation. Walk your foot to the other side of the mat, sink down your knee and come into a pigeon position. This is a good stretch for the butt. I can feel it very well. You can sink down your upper body as well, but I like to stay up for some reason. Now reach with your one arm for the back leg. So it's opposite arm, opposite leg and pull your foot towards your butt. And now you can start feeling your thigh as well. So we have butt and thigh right now. Let's switch legs. Back into the pigeon position. Notice the stretch over here. And now I'm reaching with my opposite arm to the back leg, pulling it very gently towards my butt so I can feel a stretch in my thigh. We come to my favorite stretch which is the pea in the woods. That's awesome if you do a lot of squats and if you want to open up your hip. So you sink down as deep as you can and I'm having my elbows in here for stabilization. You can also throw in some twists to the right and to the left. And now we are going to stretch our thighs and our tummy again by leaning backwards, pushing our hip to the front. And don't forget to breathe. Very good. Let's go into a forward fold, reaching for your toes, noticing the stretch in the hamstrings. If that's not possible, reach for your shins or for your knees, whatever you can. And then try to straighten your back. For the next 30 seconds I want you to breathe in, bring out your chest and when you breathe out, try to sink a little bit deeper. Breathe in and breathe out. Breathe in and sink deeper. Very good. Open up your feet as wide as you can. And now reach forward as far as you can. I kind of make sure that my toes point to the ceiling and rather twist a little bit outwards, don't collapse them in. And always try to reach a little more forward. Now reach for one side and then I'm twisting my upper body and giving my chest some space in here. Sinking down a little bit deeper, trying to lay my head on my knee. And we switch sides. Reach for your foot and try to put your head on your knee. If that's not possible, that's totally fine. But just so you know the direction that we are stretching in. I love the stretch in the side of my body here. And for the next exercise I always have to put out my shoes. I don't know why. Makes it feel better. Come into a butterfly pose like this and then try to bend forward. Put down your elbows and your underarms on the floor and notice the stretch in your inner thigh. Gives me such a nice stretch in the thighs. That's why we are going to stay here for 60 seconds in total. Lay down on your back. Bring up one leg and then lay it over to the side. I call this the pretzel. Try to keep both shoulders on the ground. We switch sides. Bring up the other leg and put it over to the side. Both shoulders are on the ground. That's super good for the mobility of the lower back and the hip. And we kind of look like a pretzel. Now let's give our lower back some love by rolling in, meeting the floor with our feet and stretching this part of our body. I sometimes get a headache in this position but we're only gonna hold it for 30 seconds. You can bend your knees or you can have your legs straight. Very, very good. And now for the last minute, we're gonna go into cat and cow. So you round your back, look down to the cat position and round your back again, working the mobility of your spine. And now for the last 30 seconds, I want you to inhale and then squeeze your tummy draw the navel towards your spine and just hold it there. So we kind of do like a tummy vacuum over here. That was everything. Thanks for joining me for those 15 minutes. They flew by. That's a very nice way of stretching the entire body. As I said, I do this preferably before bed but you can also do it after a workout or in the morning to wake up your entire body. Thanks for joining me and I wish you a wonderful day.