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Steal this Pilates teacher’s signature four-move warm-up to safely mobilize your spine before exercise
A lot of us spend the majority of our lives in forward flexion.
We’re constantly hunched over our desks, slouching forward while driving or craning to scroll our phone screens.
Our spines are designed to tolerate this one-dimensional workload, but they are also equipped to handle backward extension, lateral flexion and rotation.
If we don’t use our spine to practice all of these movement patterns, it becomes stiff, sore and injury-prone.
Brett Starkowitz, head of education and master trainer at London’s Ten Health & Fitness, knows this only too well after spending years hunched over the bars of his road bike.
Then he discovered Pilates and adopted this four-move warm-up drill that mobilizes the spine in every direction.
And it’s something he recommends everyone folds into their pre-workout routine, too.
“Assuming that you don’t have any massive disc issues, we should all be doing forward flexion, backward extension, lateral flexion and rotation,” he tells Fit&Well.
“We tend to live most of our lives mostly in forward flexion,” he continues. “We very rarely do much back extension; lateral flexion is quite rare; rotation we do very occasionally; and we need to remind our spine that it’s meant to do all these things every single day.”
Starkowitz says that introducing multi-plane movement into your daily routine, when you wake up or before a workout, will “make a big difference” to your overall spine health.
Use this Pilates-inspired warm-up before your next workout
1 Standing roll down
Reps: 5-6
Target: Forward flexion
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Inhale to prepare.
- As you exhale, nod your chin to your chest and begin to slowly roll down through your spine one vertebra at a time.
- Let your arms and head hang at the bottom, bending your knees slightly if necessary.
- Pause briefly, then inhale and slowly roll back up to standing, stacking your spine with control.
2 Glute bridge
Reps: 5-6
Target: Lumbar extension
- Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart.
- Press into your heels and lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees.
- Squeeze your glutes at the top, then lower slowly.
- Follow a tempo of two seconds up, a one-second hold at the top, then two seconds down.
3 Knees-bent windscreen wipers
Reps: 5-6
Target: Thoracic rotation
- Lie on your back with feet flat on the floor, knees bent and arms out to your sides.
- Gently let both knees fall to one side, keeping your shoulders grounded.
- Exhale as your knees fall, then return your knees to the center and repeat on the other side.
- Move slowly and breathe deeply.
- Perform five to six slow side-to-side reps in total, holding for 10 seconds each side.
4 Seated side flexion
Reps: 5-6 each side
Target: Lateral flexion
- Sit cross-legged on the floor or seated on a bench and lift your chest to lengthen your spine.
- Place your left hand on the floor to your side and bring your right hand straight overhead.
- Inhale to expand your ribcage, then as you exhale reach up with your right hand across your body while keeping your spine as long as possible.
- Slowly return to the start and switch sides.
