The best stretches to avoid injuries and warm up your body before heading out the door!

Top of the morning!

You’re out of bed, the coffee is brewing, and your shoes are staring you down…urging you to get outside! You wipe away the sleepy dust and off you go on your morning “slog” AKA slow jog.

Oftentimes, our bodies feel stiff and sore when we wake up, yet, we overcome these aches when we ambitiously engage in physical activity to get our days started. One of the best ways to avoid feeling sluggish and fatigued on your morning endeavors is to warm up your body with dynamic movements. Stretching in a dynamic way ultimately ends up benefiting the body more than a standard, static stretch prior to a workout. Although touching our toes seems to do the trick, static stretching before a run/walk will actually leave you tighter than you were prior to starting. Loosening up the body tissues can also prevent injury and damage.

National champion triathlete and Stretch, Strength, and Roll instructor, Louie Cayedito, is breaking down the 6 best dynamic stretches to start your day and get you ready to move!

Leg Swings

• Stretches Hip Flexors and warms up the posterior chain muscles (low back, gluteals, hamstrings and calf muscles)
• 10 swings on each leg – repeat

Standing Knee Hugs

• Stretches glute/hip flexors and activates calf muscles
• 10 times on each leg – hold for 2 seconds

Quad Pulls

• Stretches quad/hip flexors and activates glutes
• 10 times on each leg – hold for 2 seconds

Monster Walks

• Activates gluteus medius
• Walk 10 side-steps each direction, bringing the legs together each rep

Arabesques

• Activates glute + Stretches hamstring
• 10 reps on each leg

Reverse Lunge

• Activate quad / glutes + stretches hip flexors
• 10 lunges on each side – alternating legs each rep

This 6-step dynamic warm-up should take 5-10 mins. If it’s very early morning and you have just stumbled out of bed, spend an additional couple additional minutes foam rolling and moving around. Louie is also a big advocate of jumping, skipping and jump roping before his morning workouts!