Hip and Back Mobility Series (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum 

Stand in a split stance. Your legs don't have to be far apart because you want to have balance. Raise your rear arm up as you drive your hip forward. Engage your glutes and abs and exhale. Drop your arm and inhale as you rock back. Do ten on each side.

If you want something more intense, step into your split stances as you reach up with your rear arm, then twist toward your lead leg. Turn your head and twist with your bottom arm as well. Breathe out with the twist as you engage your abs and glutes. March for ten steps on each side.

You can also do this by kneeling on the ground—one knee down, one knee up. Raise your rear arm as you drive your hip forward, exhaling as you engage your glutes and abs. Inhale as you rock back. Do eight to ten on each side.

If you want a more intense stretch, put both palms on the ground. Then, move your lead foot out to the side, and turn it out. Twist and lift your inside arm into the air, pulling your shoulders apart and making a straight line from your bottom palm to the end of your top hand's fingertips. Drive your hip forward. Exhale as you're twisting. Then place your palm back down and rock back as you stretch your hamstrings. Make sure you're not looking up. Inhale as you're resting here. Then twist again. Do eight to ten on both sides.

As a general athletic rule, don't move faster than you can breathe. That will be your natural pace and how you'll get the most out of your movements. If you want to slow things down, extend your inhales and exhales. Don't just breathe into the tops of your lungs; fill your lungs starting from the bottom just as you would fill a barrel with water. Don't expand up, as that would spill water out of the barrel. Instead, expand down, to the sides, and to the front and back. Breathing is three-dimensional. You, too, are multidimensional. Remember that as you breathe and stretch and live.

– Sam