6 Stretches You Should Do Everyday To Improve Flexibility And Function

6 of the best stretches you should do everyday for flexibility and function. This daily stretching routine will help improve mobility in your spine, hips, and shoulders and decrease pain in your neck and back. These are my top stretches that I prescribe in my physical therapy clinic - perform them everyday to improve range of motion, mobility, and function!
Mobility is one of the critical components to our overall wellness. In order to maintain normal, pain-free function and movement, we have to be mindful of our flexibility and mobility - especially in our spines (collectively the most mobile part of our body).

Our muscles and joints undergo what we call “adaptive shortening” and “adaptive lengthening” based on the stresses (or lack thereof) placed upon an area.

Basically - our bodies and joints operate under a “use it or lose it” principle. If we don’t take our joints into their end ranges of available motion and if we stay fixed in one posture for an extended period of time, we start to lose our range of motion. This can result in feelings of tightness, stiffness, and even pain.

The best way to combat these effects is by regularly taking your joints into ranges that they should go into and that they’re capable of going into, but don’t get there regularly.

That’s where these exercises come in. This is a collection of the best exercises to stretch key muscles and joints into their end ranges of motion to increase your mobility and promote normal pain-free movement.

Click on the time stamps below to be taken directly to each exercise in the video.

1. CHIN TUCKS (3:38) - My go-to exercise to decrease pain, tension, and even headaches in your cervical spine (neck). This is a must if you spend long periods of time in a “forward head posture” (working at a laptop, looking at a tablet or phone, etc).

2. NECK AND UPPER BACK EXTENSION STRETCHES (4:40) - Think about it - we rarely look up! Our whole lives are in front of us and we spend a lot of time looking straight or down. But our necks and our upper backs are designed to extend - to look up and move backwards. One of the best things you can do for your neck and upper back is to improve extension mobility.