Prepare For Black Friday With These 5 Moves
Lauren Neal
With Black Friday beckoning, many people have signed
themselves up for a full day of shopping.
Often times this will mean a long day where you’re on your
feet for most of it. Rather than going into this shop fest unprepared, these
moves will help your body get ready for what it has in store.
1. Start With A Dynamic Warm-Up
When warming up, dynamic moves are best, essentially a stretch
with movement. Gone are the days of static stretching cold muscles. While you
don’t have to warm up by necessarily jogging around the parking lot, a march or
little jog on the spot, (maybe even while in line), could work well. From
there, complete a few of the exercises below!
2. Squat Away
Bending down, reaching up, you’ll likely be doing a lot of
it. In order to prepare those legs, try a few squats. Squat by first planting
your feet about hip-width apart. Move backwards through the hips as you sit
back in an imaginary chair. Keep your chest up with your shoulders down and
back. Complete about 30 seconds worth of these bad boys to get blood
circulating.
3. Focus On Your Hip
Flexors
Our hip flexors are often tight due to all the sitting we do
during the day. Strong hip flexors have been proven to enhance performance in
sprints, something you may be doing on Black Friday. To stretch your hip
flexors, kneel on your right knee and bend your left knee, placing it in front
of you. Shift more body weight onto your front leg and you should feel a
stretch on your right side. To intensify the stretch, take the same arm as your
back leg up and over your head. Hold for about 30 seconds and repeat on the
other side. Strengthening your hip flexors along with hamstrings and glutes
also plays a part in everyday mobility; it’s something we’ll be talking about
in weeks to come!
4. Mobilize Your
Shoulders
You’ll likely be doing a lot of reaching up, across, around,
and therefore your shoulders need to be warmed up. Start with shoulder rolls
forward by bringing the shoulder up and around. From there, you can add the
arms and make the movements bigger when you’re ready. After about 20-30 seconds,
switch directions.
5. Core, Core, Core
A strong core has an endless list of benefits for the
body. It will help you move efficiently, turn quickly, stabilize your low back,
improve balance, coordination, and more. A seemingly simple exercise yields
fantastic results! Sit on your sitting bones with your legs bent in front of
you, feet pointing forward. Keep your core engaged by pulling your belly button
to your spine as you roll your shoulders down and back. From there, bring your
upper body back so that it’s at about 45 degrees. Hold here for about 30
seconds and release. To intensify this, you can pick up the legs, or add arms
by bringing them above your head and back down. Complete this move 3 times.
These moves will get you warmed up and may even get you some extra
deals!
