Lower-Body Twist

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This next exercise will help to warm up your abdominal muscles, lower back, and hips. These muscles help stabilize your body throughout all sorts of exercises and activities, and most of us with desk jobs will find these muscles often become tight. Before we use them in running, swimming, or weight-lifting (and they are part of almost every weight-lifting exericse!), it's important to warm them up, and this twisting exercise is a great, safe way to do that.

Starting position image Get ready
To get started, lie down and bend your knees up so that your feet are flat on the floor.
Tilt legs to the floor Tilt to the left

Keeping the angle of your knees as stable as possible, tilt your legs to the left until your knee touches the floor (or as far as is comfortable).

Slowly move them back to the center.

Repat on the opposite side: tilt your legs to the right until your knee touches the floor (or as far as is comfortable), then slowly return to the center.

Hold each stretch for a count of 10. Once you get used to it, you may want to do 5 slow repititions.

Remember, stay slow and keep a comfortable position. Keep the angle of your knees as still as possible. With this exercise, as you get better, you should be able to do some or all of the repititions with your legs straightened, but don't push yourself too get there too fast.