Do These 3 Stretches Every Morning

hey guys dr. Christy Ennis physical therapist certified strength and conditioning specialist and nutritionist and today I want to go over there re stretches that you should do every morning I put a lot of emphasis on morning right there for ya and these are the only three you really need to start with and why these three let's start there so what happens when we sleep at night is that the spine compresses a lot of times we end up curled into funky positions and right our muscles are not turned on nothing hopefully should be working very much at night time so we want to counteract all that we want to help to lengthen the spine we want to start to engage in some of those core muscles to get us going again and we want to do it safely so a lot of times I'll see people they get out of bed and the very first thing they do is stand up and touch their toes and that's my wrong noise for you right there not a great idea because your spine was doing this now we're flexing it so all you're doing is putting a ton of force to the spine so we want to make sure that we stretch these areas out safely you can do these in bed without even getting out of bed if you need to if you have a really soft bed you can certainly do them on the floor but this first one I just call my good morning stretch because it feels so darn good so lying legs flat out arms are gonna come overhead you can clasp those hands to start and then you're reaching those arms and those legs away and kind of a little variation that I like to add on this is unclasp and then you're reaching one arm and then kind of reach that other arm so now we're getting up into more of the the mid-back and the upper back and neck – so we're a long gating everything now that we were smooshed at night okay number two to work on again loosening up here but also starting to engage here we're gonna go into a little bridge so you want to think gentle belly button pull in tighten those buns lift that butt up and then arms are coming over head try not to arch or lift that ribcage up but this is a repetition here so we're going to do several wraps versus holding this okay so blood flow going getting things loosened getting things activate it number three you're gonna get onto that hands and knees onto that onto into the hands and knees position you guys have probably seen me do this one but we're gonna add a little bit to it so that cat-cow so taking a breath in squeezing those shoulder blades together lifting that head and then exhale round so we're getting those ABS to actually start engaging a little bit here loosening up the spine and then we're gonna add in a little bird dog so opposite arm opposite leg so now we're asking those back muscles gently to start moving so one arm one leg switch and then come back into that little cat and cow so spine loosening and adding that bit of stability as well and there you have it shoot for about ten repetitions or so of each of those but even with that little arm reaching one lying on your back and you should feel SuperDuper good to start your day after doing these so thank you so much for tuning in today please also I am up for a cover of Muscle & Fitness Magazine hers I'll link the link in the show notes below and I would love to have your vote thanks guys