Squat Archives | Movement Vault

Upper Back & Shoulders: July 10

Welcome back! Movement Vault not only has your back, today we’ve got your upper back. Upper back and neck pain was one of the biggest complaints that I heard during the past year plus while everyone was working remotely. This is because most of us spend way too much time hunched over and we don’t even realize it. Over time this can lead to a rounded up back and upper back and neck pain. The goal is to not turn into the Hunchback of Notre Dame in the pursuit of a career. This is where today’s routine comes in. It’s time to reverse that rounded upper back. Have fun!

Equipment needed: 1. Foam Roller. 2. Padded Mat (optional). Today is a great routine for all of you desk athletes out there. We are going to fix your rounded upper back and rounded shoulders. Today we are working on the flexibility, mobility, and stability of your t-spine aka your upper back and shoulders.

We are starting off with an upper back joint mobilization and activation technique. Make sure to keep your abs engaged and locked in. From there, think about using your upper back muscles to pull you into the foam roller. Next we are working on an upper back activation and stretch in the sphinx position. Focus on arching your upper back as much as possible. Next up is a 3-part shoulder range of motion and activation movement. Focus on keeping your arms as high as possible the entire time. We are finishing up with a t-spine rotation stretch and activation. Continue to activate all of the muscles that surround your back and mid section aka your core to try to create more and more rotation.

Hips: July 9

We are digging deep into the Vault for today’s routine. This is a very effective routine for your hip flexors and to improve your end range joint range of motion. I’m keeping it short and sweet today. Let’s put in the effort and crush this one. Let’s go!

Equipment Needed: 1) Kettle bell, Foam Roller, or Mobility Ball 2) Padded Mat (optional). We are working on the flexibility, stability , and mobility of your hips.

We are starting off with a muscle/fascia release for one of your hip flexor muscles, your rectus femoris. Your RF is your middle quadricep muscle and crosses your hip and knee joint. You have the option of using a foam roller, kettlebell handle, or mobility ball. Make sure to bend your knee as much as possible during the release. Next up we have a muscle activation techniques that improves your hip extension and hip rotation. These movements take ultimate concentration and focus. Try to only move the joints that we are focusing on and keep the rest of your body still. You’ve got this!

Flow: July 8

Welcome back! “Degrees of Freedom” is a term that is used to describe the amount to which a joint can move. The more controllable degrees of freedom you have, the better. Essentially, when you have tight joints, your degrees of freedom is decreased. When this happens, compensations in other joints take place that leads to wear and tear and eventually pain and injury. Our goal is to restore and improve the degrees of freedom that you have. We are going to do just that in today’s routine. Have fun!

Equipment needed: 1. Padded mat. Today is a flow day!

Ankles & Hips: July 7

It’s funny seeing you here. What’s a _______ like you, doing in a place like this. Oh, I know, you are one of these people that takes care of themselves, knows the benefits of proactive healthcare, and loves to perform at their highest level. You are in the best place possible! Wednesday Movement Vault starts in 3, 2, 1……Let’s go!

Equipment Needed: 1) Padded Mat. We are working on the flexibility, mobility, and stability of your ankles and hips. We are starting off with a muscle/facia release for your calf muscles, specifically your soleus and gatrocnemius. You don’t need any tools for this technique as you will be using your own hands. Yes you do have the power to release your own muscles, with your thumbs and the proper guidance. Next, we are working on an active end-range stretch for the back of your ankle. The key with this movement is to first make sure that you stretch out the back of your ankle as much as possible, and then contract your muscles while they are being stretched out. Next we have a full range of motion activation movement for your ankles. Focus on moving your ankle in the biggest circle as possible. Try to use every little millimeter of range of motion that you have. You really need to put in the effort on these. We are finishing up with a muscle activation technique for your hips. Try to bring your leg as far out to the side as possible while keeping your low back flat. Focus on only moving your hips.

Full Body: July 6

Pro Tip of the day: Being able to turn off muscles is just as important as turning them on. If your muscles are always on aka contracted, you will not be able to move that joint as well. If you have a muscle that is fully contracted you will simply not be able to move that joint. This isn’t usually the case, but does happen in extreme neurological conditions. What does usually happen is a very low level constant contraction in a muscle, which causes that muscle and joint to be tight. This is usually caused by your body trying to protect itself due to a previous injury, or because it doesn’t feel safe in a certain position. Take tight hamstrings for instance. This is usually due to your body wanting to protect your low back. It does this by trying to stop you from bending over. This is achieved by “creating” tight hamstrings. I could go on for pages on this topic, but I will stop here. Have fun today!

Equipment needed: 1. Padded Mat (optional). We’ve got a jam packed, shorter routine for you today! We are working on the flexibility, mobility, and stability of the entire body.

We are starting off with 90/90 transitions. The key with these is to use as much support as you need. This could mean 2 hands or 1 hand down behind you for support. Focus on driving your knees apart while you transition. We are then working on a movement that works on hip and spine mobility, as well as core stability. Remember to push your hips back and to the side when lowering. Finally, we are working on a shoulder and core activation movement. Try to lift the front of your chest as high off of the ground as possible as you reach.

Wrists & Shoulders: July 5

Welcome back! Today’s theme is: Every joint matters! With all of the computer work, phone work, and small tedious tasks that most of us perform on a daily basis, wrist mobility is also very important. The amount of weak wrists that I have seen and continue to see is astronomical, especially the muscles on the back of your wrist, your wrist extensors. Today’s routine is all about the wrists, with a little bit of shoulders sprinkled in. Have fun!

Equipment needed: 1. Padded Mat. Every joint is important, including your wrists! Today we are working on the flexibility, mobility, and stability of your wrists and shoulders.

We are starting off with an wrist stretch and activation movement. The key with this one is to slowly lower the back of your hands down to the mat. You are activating your wrist muscles, while you stretch them out. Next we are working on one of our favorite shoulder and scapula/shoulder blade range of motion and activation movements. Focus on keeping your hands high and moving as far in to each range of motion as possible. Finally we are working on two different wrist end-range stretch isometric techniques. Focus on stretching your wrists out and then activating your muscles. If you have any pain, don’t stretch out your wrist quite as much. Find a pain-free range of motion.

Flow: July 4

Does it pay to dedicate a little bit of time to your joint health? Absolutely! Spending time now, significantly lessens the chance you will have joint issues later in life. As Movement Vault grows, one of my goals is to significantly decrease the amount of joint replacements every year. This is a lofty goal, but every person that we can help, will be one less person on the potential joint replacement list. If you have great joint mobility and joint health, is there still a chance you could have joint issues down the line, yes, due to severe car accidents, and other uncommon reasons. But this is a very small percentage of people, with the majority of joint replacements being preventable. It time to get into some proactive joint maintenance!

Equipment needed: 1. Padded mat. Today is a flow day!

Shoulders & Upper Back: July 3

We’ve got a very effective upper body focused routine for you today! One of our areas of focus are the tricep muscles, which are located on the back of your upper arm. Most people don’t think of tight triceps as contributing to tight shoulders, but they do. Your tricep muscle does indeed cross your shoulder joint. Sometimes this can be the missing link to improving your shoulder overhead flexion aka having good mobility when lifting your arm overhead. Have fun today!

Equipment needed: 1. Mobility ball, Kettlebell or, Foam Roller (3 options for the muscle/fascia release). 2. Padded Mat (optional). Today we are working on the flexibility, mobility, and stability of your shoulders and t-spine aka your upper back.

We are starting off with a muscle/fascia release for your triceps. Your triceps are located in the back of your upper arm. We are using either a kettlebell handle or mobility ball, but you can sub out a foam roller if you would like. We are then moving on to an end-range stretch isometric technique to stretch out your lats, rotator cuff, and the front of your shoulders. The key is to stretch out your shoulders first and then contract your shoulders. We are then moving on to a upper back activation movement. Focus on activating your upper back muscles as your peel one millimeter of your chest off of the ground. We are finishing up with a shoulder activation movement. Fight to keep your arms and hands as high as possible in each position.

Full Body (60 min): July 2

Summer is in full swing, it’s Saturday and so that means one thing, it’s time for a longer Movement Vault routine. This routine hits just about everything. The best part is, if you don’t have time for the full routine, you can always perform a little bit now and a little bit later. The first part of the routine is muscle/fascia release work, followed by a plethora of different active stretches and muscle activation techniques, followed by a short flow. Happy Saturday!

Equipment needed: 1. Mobility ball or lacrosse ball. 2. Padded Mat. Today we are working on the flexibility, mobility, and stability of almost every area of your body.

We are starting off with three different muscles/fascia releases for your hips and shoulders. The muscle releases are targeting your gluts, rhomboids, and pecs. We are then moving on to 90/90 end-range stretch isometrics to improve your hip internal and external rotation. Next we are working on 90/90 transitions. We then have segmented cat camels to activate your entire back. We are following this with y’s, t’s and i holds super-setted with an upper back aka t-spine stretch and activation movement. Finally we are finishing up with a flow that is focused on your lower body.

Flow: July 1

When it’s Thursday, it only means one thing, it’s time to get your Movement Vault flow on! I am going to keep it short today, so that you have all the time to dedicate to your body and joints. Have fun!

Equipment needed: 1. Padded mat. Today is a flow day!

Hips & Shoulders: June 30

Welcome back! It’s time to fire those glutes today aka get your butt moving in another gear. The glutes can get a bad wrap from time to time for “not activating.” There is some truth to this, but not entirely true. I could give a two hour lecture just on this topic, but I won’t bore you. Instead let’s jump right into it. Let’s go!

Equipment needed: 1. Padded Mat (optional). Today we are working on the flexibility, mobility, and stability of the hips, shoulders, and ankles. Today’s routine is all about activation at your end-ranges of motion aka while being stretched out. We are starting off with a hip abductor and adductor stretch/ activation. Your abductors are the muscles on the outside of your hip such as your gluteus maximus and medius. You adductor are the muscles on the inside of your hip. We are then moving on to a core, shoulder, and back rotational activation movement. Really focus on lifting your chest and shoulder as high as possible. Finally we are finishing up with an ankle end-range stretch isometric technique. This one is all about activating all of the muscles on the front of your ankle.

Shoulders & Hips: June 29

You are building the castle and repairing it! I talked to someone last week that contacted me because they unfortunately have low back. I have unfortunately heard this same story thousands of times. When I was talking with him he just wanted to see so that I can fix him, and he wasn’t interested in why this injury occurred, what contributed to it, and how he could prevent it from happening again. Oh, I forgot to mention his back has been a problem for 8 years and “flares” up 3-4 times every year. He has been to other clinicians in the past that would do some hands on techniques to him and after a number of weeks, he would be back to normal. And then he would re-injure himself…and the cycle continues. Yet the people he saw didn’t discussed the “why” and “how” to prevent this from what he said. Most pain and injury is avoidable. And on top of everything he said, he wasn’t even interested in the how or why, or even preventing it, he just wanted to be “fixed.” I gave him some tough love and said if you have the right guidance you should be able to fix yourself in most cases and more so most likely won’t be in his situation if he is doing the correct proactive “stuff” aka what we do in Movement Vault. That was a long rant, with the moral of the story, you can fix yourself with the right guidance AND you will most likely not even need to be “fixed” with the right proactive guidance. Have fun!

Equipment needed: 1. Lacrosse or mobility Ball. If you don’t have a lacrosse ball, you can substitute a foam roller. 2. Padded Mat (optional). Today we are focusing in on giving your lats and shoulders exactly what they need.

Today we are working on the flexibility, mobility, and stability of your shoulders and hips. We are starting off with a muscle/fascia release for your lats. These are the big muscles on the side and back of your upper back. Next we are working on an active stretch technique called end-range isometrics for your lats, posterior rotator cuff muscles, and all of the muscles on the side of your upper body. Try to get as deep into the stretch as possible before starting the active contraction portion of the stretch. We are finishing up with 90/90 transitions. Focus on driving your knees away form each other as you transition from one position to the next. Use your hands for support if it is difficult to go no-hands. Get it guys!