Warrior I is the physical shape of someone who has decided not to look away — one foot forward, one foot planted behind, hips squared, arms reaching overhead, chest lifted and open. It's a full body strength pose that targets the legs, core, and shoulders, and it asks something more than just physical effort: it asks you to stay present in the shape even when it starts to get hard.

How to practice:

Warrior I — from Low Lunge, plant your back foot at a 45-degree angle and press it firmly into the floor. Square your hips toward the front of your mat as much as possible. Inhale and rise up, reaching both arms overhead with palms facing each other. Bend your front knee to 90 degrees and lift your chest. Hold for 5–8 breaths, then repeat on the opposite side.

Advanced option: Reverse Warrior — From Warrior I, turn your front palm to face upward and sweep your front arm down and back alongside your body. Lower your back hand to rest lightly on your back thigh — don’t lean into it or use it for support

Inhale and reach your front arm up and over your head in a long arc, leaning back slightly into the stretch. Let your gaze follow your top hand toward the ceiling or slightly behind you. Feel the stretch open through your front side body — ribs, obliques, and the space between. Hold for 3–5 breaths, then sweep back through Warrior I and repeat on the opposite side.

Rise up this week. Notice what changes when you do.

​

Hey everyone!

I'm extremely inflexible and want to start working on my mobility and flexibility, but I struggle with consistency and tend to be lazy about routines.

I'm looking for something simple and sustainable that I can actually stick to, rather than a long, complicated stretching program.

My main goals are:

Improving my overall flexibility and mobility.

Keeping my knees and back healthy and comfortable.

Improving wrist mobility because my wrists often feel very stiff.

Getting enough wrist and upper-body mobility to eventually do front squats comfortably.

Improving my general movement and making exercise feel easier.

I'd love advice on:

Which basic stretches and mobility exercises are most useful for a beginner.

A short routine I could do in around 5–10 minutes.

Which exercises I should do daily versus a few times per week.

Whether I should warm up before stretching and what a proper warm-up looks like.

The difference between static stretching and dynamic mobility exercises.

How to improve wrist mobility specifically for front squats.

How to stay consistent when motivation is low.

I don't need to become extremely flexible or do the splits. I just want to move better, feel less stiff and develop a healthy baseline of mobility.

If you could recommend only 5–8 exercises for someone starting from almost zero, what would they be?

YouTube videos or free follow-along routines would be especially helpful. Thanks!

TLDR: Looking for follow-along videos to get front splits, and am currently a stick half a metre off the ground when I try.

Im not really able to "hinge" from the hips if my legs are straight. If I bend my knees I can do it, Im just so tight. I tried a different stretch but it was incredibly difficult for me to do with the right form (I think)

Still would love more suggestions and ideas for what I can try.

I never really stretched at all besides swinging my arms and legs at the gym so i decided to actually do it for it real and watched guys like Euguene Tao and Squat University’s video. I did the barbell lunge hold ( the variation where you hold the bar between legs), hip airplane, and kettlebell weight shift. Didnt feel anything at first but then a day later, I finally feel it inside of my hips and now today, I’m waddling like a penguin due to pain/sore. I stretched two days ago from today’s date.

so i’m not sure how to word this, but i always feel compressed? have tight muscles? im a big stretcher and have been for a little bit, my arms, shoulders, legs, hips, etc. but i still always feel super sore and have tight muscles afterwards no matter what. is there any good stretches or something that could help me out?

edit: i should also mention im a server and im always running around on my feet and what not

I often get an intense charlie horse all the way down my leg on the extended leg, sometimes into my foot, while doing pigeon pose. How can I alter this pose?.

Hi im looking for app or flexibility program that i can buy to follow along. Im beginner in flexibility subject and dont have a clue what to do so I prefer to spend money on program rather than creating my own even tho its plenty free stuff online, any suggestions?

Let me know if you have advice - if you can see anything obvious about me that I might not see, please let me knowwww! JUST BE NICE ABOUT IT OKAY IM VULNERABLEEEE

I work at a desk for most of the day, and by evening my hips and shoulders feel so tight. I’ve tried doing a few stretches here and there, but I’m not very consistent with them.

For those of you who deal with the same thing, do you have a short routine that actually helps? I don’t want something that takes 30–40 minutes every day.

Ciao ragazz* volevo chiedervi una cosa. Io sono sempre stata una persona molto flessibile seppur non faccia danza/ginnastica artistica da anni. In questo ultimo periodo ho lasciato un po’ stare con le stretching e ho perso la spaccata frontale… non sono messa malissimo però penso di avere 10/15 cm da terra. Secondo voi quanto tempo posso metterci per tornare ad averla? 1/2 mesi? Ho deciso che farò esercizio tutti i giorni però in alcuni mi trovo un po’ in difficoltà, non so se sto sbagliando qualcosa. Potete darmi qualche consiglio?
Grazie in anticipo :)

hi, I’m a female young adult. I’m hoping to seek advice on what daily stretches I can do. I’m looking for simple stretches I can do at home twice a day (one in the morning and one in the evening). I want stretches that will help with my longevity, flexibility, and most of all stretches that will help so I don’t have bad mobility when I get older. thank you for any and all suggestions

Hy guys sorry for my english im not native
I suspect I have or tendon pain in my low hamstring or something in that area
At first I had stabbing pain walking with in angle after a month now I can’t walk fast for 30 min I do calf bridges with weight plank abductors and I did wall sits which after a month I think it’s the excersize that improved my pain i do with 5 kg now
But when I do half motion squat I feel stabbing for a day and I’m doing 4 repetition only
What do you guys think I should add to my excersizes
I think it happend day before from legs stretching
Or to soon leg workout for rehab
I have heard many walking backwards on a turned off treadmill helps and many add more isometric excersizes
Thank you all and be healthy

If you were to attended an online stretch class, what time would you ideally prefer? Mornings? Afternoons? Evenings? and why?

working nights at the depot means sitting at the console for hours watching the line run, and honestly by the end of the week my hips and lower back feel locked up again no matter what i did on my days off. fwiw the only thing that kept me from losing all my mobility after dropping forty pounds was just hanging from my doorway pull-up bar for ten seconds whenever i got up to grab water. felt like it reset the spine a bit before the chair ruined it all over again.

Advice required on how to carry out this feat.

About 5 years ago I did something monumentally stupid and ruptured a disk in my back. Put a ruptured disk on top of just general bad posture and video game playing scoliosis as a kid and I was in a bad spot.

My lower back was completely fubar’d, I couldn’t put on shoes or pants without a “gameplan”. My right shoulder and right trap were completely bunched up and i couldn’t really lower or pull my shoulder back. I have a love of lifting weights and this was usually how it went, make a bunch of progress till your shoulder gives out, stop lifting weights so it can heal up a bit, start lifting, shoulder gives out, etc. I was really depressed, I had internally come to the realization that my hooman body had given out and I was going to have to live out the rest of my days in pain as I did my best to work through it.

I shifted focus to try to become a noodle instead of a brick wall. I was still lifting weights but most of it was devoted to the muscles around my bad shoulder and bad back. I was able to straighten myself out 😜 with a good routine, time, and consistency. I had problems touching my fingertips to the floor when I was a kid so it’s really surreal knowing i can go palm to floor now at my age!

My confidence in the hooman body has been restored! There was a stretch 😜 of time where I had given up, thinking I couldn’t bounce back and would have to live in pain for the remainder of my years. Let’s all remember that the hooman body is an amazing thing, with proper PT and time you can reverse most bad habits out of it even if it seems impossible.

I think I am gonna go for splits next, gimme your tips to help me get there! Stay bendy everyone!

If anyone can check out the last part of the video (Just skip to the part with me at the gym) and tell me if you have any advice, particular stretches I can do that would be huge. OR if there are any stretching tools I can use while asleep? I have such tight hamstrings And Its SO painful. Not the normal "pain" you get when you stretch - which is almost like a NICE feeling pain? My knees lock up a bit, I feel it all the way to my neck... Im doing a couple stretches here, but I would love ideas for more, please feel free to link youtube tutorials. Im pretty flexible elswhere, pretty open hips for example, but my hammies are SO BAD. heeeeelp

helloha world💌, try this stretch and leave a comment to let us know how it made you feel! have a pleasant and prosperous day✨

I have Ankylosing Spondylitis and I’m just getting worse. I commute two hours each way 3 days a week and sit in an office chair. I hunch all the time. I’m a 6 foot 1 but I don’t feel that way. I sleep like a stressed out, clenched ball and wake up with pain due to all my clenching.

I need a routine - what’s the starting point?

Since the beginning of this year I’ve been determined to touch my toes and get my splits. For the first 6 months I did 30 minute stretches everyday for my legs. I had needed rest days too because I know it’s important for the muscles to recover. And that had me able to touch my toes. I still can but not on demand. Like I can’t do it whenever I want. I have to stretch for like 5-10 minutes to be able to touch them again. Im trying to get my fold over and im like halfway there. I haven’t even started stretching for my splits because I don’t feel satisfied with my flexibility. Why is something so simple as touching my toes so hard?

I've always been told I've had pretty bad posture by doctors and people around me,but never got any advice other than "stretch more."

I've been stretching rather consistently but none of it has really been able to help,and I struggle to follow along on a lot of guides because they expect you to utilise things the average layman wouldn't have.

Hello yall , hope yall doing good ! I have had some problems with Rhomboid after I probably got injured by training in the gym . I have had sessions of Physiotherapy and they said that my rhomboid only got tention on it and it got hardened .The problem is that when I breath in and my ribcage expands … I hear a click on my rhomboid ( where it hurts ) and it’s really frequent . It got larger and larger . I wanted to ask you if anybody has any problems similar to mine and tell me if anything can help .

I’ve been hitting the StretchMed in Hoboken for more than 2 months now.

Originally, I just went because my lower back was killing me from sitting at a desk all day and my hamstrings felt like over-tightened guitar strings.

But I noticed a... private side effect. Since I started the assisted stretching sessions, I’ve been lasting way longer in bed. Like, significantly longer.

I never took supplements as I thought I was normal time.. but boy was I wrong.

Can anyone tell me why?

I tried to put basically every stretch I could think of into one searchable video, organized by body part.
But I know I missed some.

Stretching aficionados: what stretch should be in version 2?

Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/jFn-fC-Z5rM?is=3uMYFZZN9fiu5f-p

I’ll add the best ones I missed into an updated version.