Top 5 Lower Body Mobility Exercises

Today we’re going to talk about some recovery tips, but more specifically how to recover faster and stay loose when it comes to high frequency squatting! As you all know I’ve been training with my FULL BODY program for a few months now and between squatting three days a week and spending the majority of each day sitting at a desk editing and answering emails and comments, my hips have started to REALLY bother me, ESPECIALLY during my warm-up sets for squats.

Now, if you have notifications turned on for my YouTube channel, you most likely saw my community post where I asked if you wanted to see more videos on flexibility, mobility, stretching and trigger point release and the engagement was through the roof! Seems like I am not the only one feeling a bit tight lately!

And in that post I linked to a complete FOAM ROLLER tutorial to show you how to loosen up various parts of your body, not just your legs. So if you missed it, I will link to that video HERE. To be honest that video was my go-to for a while now. I would foam roll my IT bands, glutes, quads inner thighs and hamstrings before squatting and in-between the first few sets until the pain was gone, or at least bearable.

So if you have hip pain when squatting all you have to do is 1 – 2 sets of 15 – 20 seconds of these 5 exercises and then repeat the same warm-ups between your sets as well. In fact, if more of you took advantage of rolling between SETS, I bet you would find that your squat strength will increase much faster for the very reason that it’s a lot easier to get deeper into a warm muscle than a cold one to help it loosen up.

Exercise 1: Glutes

Sit on the roller and move your entire body up and down until the roller reaches your lower back at the top and your hamstring at the bottom.

Exercise 2: Hamstrings

Once done with the glutes, begin to roll from the bottom of your glutes to basically under your knee cap and repeat this motion slowly going back and forth for 15 – 20 seconds.

Exercise 3: Quads

For this you’re going to basically do the same range you did for hamstrings, except now you’re moving from your knee cap to the top of your hip and then repeating again in a slow and controlled manner.

Exercise 4: Inner Thighs

This can be a bit more tricky than the others. You have to lay almost across the roller so you can get deep in your inner thigh.  But once in place you’re going to move up and down the entire inner thigh in a slow and controlled.

Exercise 5: Hips

This is the most important and usually the most painful exercise for me. But what you’re going to do is roll from basically your waist to your knee all while staying vertical on the roller. Now, it might take some time to learn how to balance properly here, but basically if you’re doing it and doing it right, it should hurt.

And of course, remember to do BOTH SIDES of every muscle EVEN if the other side doesn’t hurt or doesn’t feel tight. Also, you may not have to repeat all 5 warm-ups between all your squat sets, but definitely do the one or two that’re going to be the most beneficial for you. In my case, I am hitting both sides of my hips and my glutes between every set of squats, or at least until I don’t feel any more pain.

But to be completely honest, my main intention with my community post was to see if you would be interested in learning about a new therapy ball I’ve been using for the past month called the FLUX – Vibration Therapy Ball. Now I’m just going to just come right out and tell you that YES, this company did reach out to me to test their product. It was right around the time my hip pain was becoming a daily nuisance from all the volume of squatting 3 days a week and I thought it was perfect timing.  

What’s The Difference Between This Ball & Foam Rolling That Makes It Better?

Well, when it comes to MOBILITY – The FLUX ball does have the therapeutic nature of a standard lacrosse ball, but the main difference is it has a vibrational component that takes it to a whole new level. Yes, you CAN get pretty deep with a standard massage ball or a foam roller, but the FLUX ball incorporates constant vibrations that add to the experience and allows you to truly get in there and reach those deep muscle knots and built up scar tissue. But the biggest difference for me is when you find a trigger point, which is basically a patch of muscle that feels particularly tight, you can stay on it for 20 – 30 seconds until you slowly feel the knot softening and the muscle lengthening. This is because the vibration is doing that and if you just lay on top of a foam roller or a standard massage ball, nothing is really happening, all you can really do is move back and forward. What I also like is that the ball has 3 vibration settings so once you find that trigger point, you can stay on top of it and then push the button to increase the amount of vibration to try and loosen things up a bit more.

As for RECOVERY, my workouts are usually hardcore which means my recovery takes at least 2 – 3 days, especially when it comes to lower body due to all the squatting. But with the FLUX ball I can cut the recovery time in half. Yes, DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is part of the recovery process, but most people are fooled into believing that ALL the soreness they feel is muscle soreness. The truth is that DOMS is the soreness of the connective tissue that surrounds your muscle and it is usually a sign of not training frequently enough. However, with the FLUX I can increase the blood flow to areas of my body that feel sore which leads to more oxygen and nutrients going into the muscles which can lead to a faster recovery.  

To get a bit more specific, think about the body in “layers”. It goes skin, fat, connective tissue, muscle and then bone. But getting past the fat and the fascia and right into the muscle cannot always be achieved with standard massage balls or foam rollers, which is why the vibration therapy of the FLUX allows for deeper penetration and targeted muscle release.

Conclusion

So if you’re training hard and foam rolling isn’t really doing its job any more, why don’t you check out the FLUX! I will post a link to the FLUX HERE and I even have a code for 15% off – SCOTTHERMAN15. Even if you don’t need one, it’s the perfect gift for somebody who is into fitness and trains really hard. They will certainly benefit from having it!