Below, we’ve laid out three of our favorites that will help you move and feel better than you have in years. While the drills listed below are great for almost all individuals we work with, we highly recommend conducting an assessment with a credible fitness professional, whether in-person or online. Having a program tailored to yourself after thorough screening of your limitations and goals will always trump any program you find online or in a magazine.

With that being said, here are three drills that will help you focus primarily on your hips and spine.

1. Cat Camel

We are huge fans of Cat Camel because you should be able to control spinal movement in all three planes of motion: sagittal (forward/backward), frontal (side-to-side), and transverse (rotational). We’ve come to realize that if you can’t control spinal movement in the sagittal plane by simply flexing and extending the spine, you probably can’t own it when rotating or side bending.

This is why Cat Camel shows up in virtually all of our programming. It’s helped us improve our back health and many others we work with as well. Learn how to move the spine into flexion and extension under control, and good things happen.

2. 90/90 Hip Transfers

Like Cat Camel, almost all of our clients execute 90/90 Hip Transfers on a daily basis. We joke around with Kinstretch practice by using the phrase “Every Damn Day”. However, if you want healthy joints, you really do need to move them throughout their full range of motion every damn day.

We love 90/90 transfers to compliment our daily Controlled Articular Rotation (CARs) routine because when done properly, both the hips and spine have to work hard against gravity. Voluntary muscular contraction in this position makes it challenging to move the hips slowly while maintaining an upright torso.

The goal should be to keep the two knees as far apart as possible throughout the movement. This makes the transfer much more difficult to execute. We highly recommend using hand support if you have never performed 90/90 transfers before.

3. Honest Hip CARs

Honest Hip CARs make it extremely easy to assess whether or not you compensate true hip mobility with movement at other joints. By “gluing” one leg to the rack, you’ll be able to realize how much range of motion you own with the working hip. The feedback makes it easy to ensure that you’re not cheating during your rotations as well.

These are three drills we practice daily and prescribe all the time. If you’re interested in learning more about our Online Coaching Program or our Virtual Kinstretch Membership, check out the links or shoot us an email below.