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Shadowing practice: 5 Stretches Your Body Needs EVERY Morning

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. What if I told you rather than just jumping out of bed and run into the shower in the morning that if you just stop and did the Five stretches0:00
  2. I'm going to show you here today That you'd feel ten years younger because you will especially if you can string them together Consistently and the good news is these0:06
  3. are dynamic stretches So if you wake up like me and you feel sort of groggy look at the blood flow and the energy going and they're going to address0:14
  4. a Lot of the common orthopedic weak points that a lot of us have and it starts with the first exercise up here And it's called the squat fold so0:20
  5. your feet are going to go close together We're going to walk you through exactly how to do this feet are close together You're going to take your hands and0:28
  6. squat down right out in front of you get as deep as you can drop your butt down and get Your shoulders up that will give you some good spinal0:34
  7. curve and then from here all you're going to do is Shoot the butt up hands down try to touch the ground But most importantly push those knees back right0:41
  8. into a dynamic hamstring stretch and also the low back From here again drop it in again back goes as tall and as straight as you could possibly make it0:51
  9. I don't want to see this right that's not actually engaging and waking up the muscles that have been dormant all night We want those thoracic muscles to become a1:00
  10. little bit more extended So I'm trying to get it tall as I possibly can and again down touch Drive the knees back and what you're doing here is trying1:08
  11. to go through about five or six repetitions You don't have to do a lot of these like I said It's only going to take you five minutes, but the1:16
  12. reward will be very big All right, so from here we move into the next exercise and this time We're going to do is position ourselves into a side bridge.1:23
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  1. So I get down.1:32
  2. I let one hip hit the ground like that I'm going to let that bottom leg go as straight as I can and through the top leg and then bring1:33
  3. this leg up As far as you can where you can still keep the foot flat on the ground Okay So as high as you can bring it in this1:40
  4. direction foot flat on the ground this elbow is Straight and the arm is actually supporting you in this position now this top arm here drive it down into your1:46
  5. side Okay, just to get to the good starting position and then you're going to lift up Into that side bridge and just reach as far as you can this1:55
  6. direction So what's happening here is you're getting a good stretch of all the lats the back of this top side shoulder You're getting activation through the glute on this2:04
  7. side You're getting activation or something called the quadratus lumborum Which is a muscle that actually is responsible for hiking the hip and because we oftentimes don't sit very straight2:14
  8. We sit on one side or the other or one cheek or the other that muscle gets tight and it causes low back pain So we're using this exercise here2:24
  9. to not only strengthen it in this position by driving up But then dropping it and get into this big curve and when you get in this curve here You're2:31
  10. going to feel the stretch all the way down through the lat into the hip and really through that QL That was just talking about which is on the backside.2:39
  11. Okay, so up and over and again five or six reps is all you need here The idea though is becoming Consistent remember this is a daily routine that you2:46
  12. can do of these dynamic stretches And of course this one I would do the other side by simply switching positions like that All right, and then driving up and2:55
  13. doing the same thing The third move here is one that actually focuses on that QL even a little bit more And so what I do is I drop one3:04
  14. leg back and just again land on that opposite hip Okay, so one leg's coming up this leg is going back down If you want to know if you're in3:13
  15. the right position or not you want to have this heel and about mid thigh All right, so if it's bent, it's right about mid thigh That leg is all3:22
  16. the way straight back as you can make it and you're on that knee from here What you do instead of keeping up like we did in the last exercise3:31
  17. you want to flatten yourself out to your forearm From here you take this hand Put the backside of it on the ground and you just slide it through You're3:37
  18. gonna slide as far as you can trying to target this rear delt or this middle delt really down to the floor All right, so see how far down you3:47
  19. can go and you get a really good stretch on that rear delt Right from here you slide it back out and you reach up as far as you can3:56
  20. go trying to get good thoracic rotation So thoracic rotation is the second time I mentioned the thoracic spine is critical Because we lose mobility because of all the time4:05
  21. we spend by leaning forward and you know Hunching forward on our phones at our desks We lose mobility in the thoracic spine because it's really taken up in this4:16
  22. direction We want to not only extend it, but then make sure we maintain the ability to rotate through there.4:27
  23. So again backside up Reach as far as you can go Reach through now if you have a hard time getting low on this It's okay to let that back4:33
  24. hip lift a little bit to get a little bit lower All right, because you're still gonna get a really good stretch in through that Pariformis on this backside.4:42
  25. All right, so if you have to lift a little bit because you're lacking flexibility.4:51
  26. That's totally fine Stretch number four something we call the hip switch lean.4:55
  27. So here you're going to Put one foot over the other right one foot over the other knee like this and then bend that knee Now the action at the5:00
  28. legs is actually quite simple.5:09
  29. It's just gonna be doing this Down and down.5:10
  30. That's it.5:14
  31. That's all the legs are doing is just sort of windshield wipering left and right But you can do a little bit more by letting the upper body Foddle the5:14
  32. legs when it comes down to the ground.5:22
  33. So when this top foot actually comes down to the ground I can drive down with it Just like that and what I do I can really intensify not only5:24
  34. the hip flexion on this side But get that external rotation through that down hip the one that's on the ground here You really start to feel a good stretch5:33
  35. and also in here through the adductors and the growing muscle on the top leg when you come down All right, so it hits everything But I didn't mention this5:40
  36. side this top leg here is actually driving that other leg down into internal rotation So you can see that this foot of this ankle can actually push down on5:49
  37. that leg to get it into internal rotation And that's gonna again stretch out those hip external rotators Right, so it's a great movement It's actually got a lot of5:59
  38. a lot of different benefits to it But your entire lower body and most of all your hips are gonna feel really nice and loose after you're done doing it6:09
  39. Which brings us to our fifth one here.6:15
  40. It's called the London Bridge So we talked about how important the glutes are right and not just to stretch them But to strengthen them because most of us have6:18
  41. some element of glute weakness and it rears its ugly head a lot of different ways But people will do bridges to address that which is great The only problem6:26
  42. is that the regular bridge is gonna focus mostly on the glute max because it's going straight up and down the sagittal plane If you want to get that real6:35
  43. weak muscle the glute medius and you have to get into external rotation of the hip So the best way to do this is to just drop your leg out6:42
  44. to the side and try to flatten it So you point your toes all the way to the side rather than having them straight up and down like this Rotate6:49
  45. the leg so you're on the outside of this leg like that This leg is gonna bend up into a traditional bridge position But when you press up you're gonna6:58
  46. drive up into a bridge Because this hip is externally rotated on this side over here You're getting the glute medius involved and that bridge is gonna feel much weaker7:06
  47. Might even cramp up if you're doing it right and you need the work But you get up as high as you can go and then we don't just stop7:17
  48. there But we allow the other leg to drop down on top so again getting an additional stretch of the rotators on the backside hip So lift up and down7:23
  49. so it's up everything pulls over and it drops down trying to stay as high as you can On this leg with the button the air on that side for7:31
  50. as long as possible drops down as we get to the front lift and Pull the leg across but again leave that right hip up in the air the entire7:40
  51. time to really engage that Glute medius on this side come back rotate and then let everything drop down again All we have to do other side bring that leg7:48
  52. up Rotate this one out until you're on the outside of that leg and that toes pointed straight over You bridge out of there, and then you let this side7:58
  53. drop down I actually feel it's a little bit of a pop my low back a good one when I did that So the point is again, you don't have8:06
  54. to spend a lot of time But you should spend time in that time should take place Every single morning because it's a great opportunity to wake up and make8:14
  55. yourself feel more refreshed more energetic And again doing these dynamic moves is a great way to do that Very effectively in a short period of time before you go8:22
  56. grab that morning coffee I'm saying you can't do that just do this first and do it consistently and it will pay off guys You're looking for complete programs where8:29
  57. we actually build in all of the training that you want to do to build your body and your muscles to Support the new flexibility that you have then you8:36
  58. can find them over at athleanx .com And if you haven't done so guys make sure you click subscribe turn your notifications So you're gonna miss a video when we're8:43
  59. putting out alright guys try them out.8:48
  60. I promise you you'll feel better.8:50
  61. See you soon8:51

American accent training with a fast paced Athlean X stretching lecture

This clip is a coach walking through five morning stretches, explaining form to a camera rather than reading a script. It is a CEFR B1 lecture, clocked at 219 words per minute, faster than 76 percent of the catalogue, so the instructions run one into the next with almost no pause between them. That pace, paired with a plain American accent, makes it solid material for american accent training and for anyone who wants english listening practice at a natural coaching speed instead of a slowed down lesson.

Nothing here is written for learners. He names the squat fold and the side bridge, explains where each stretch works in the body, glutes, hamstring, lats, and mixes that technical vocabulary with ordinary gym direction like get as deep as you can. That combination of plain instruction and a handful of harder words is what makes the clip worth practising speaking on, not only listening to.

Lines worth shadowing for english pronunciation practice

Before you shadow this line, read it once for meaning. Three lines carry most of the interesting rhythm in this opening section.

  • "your feet are going to go close together": nearly even stress across every word, useful for a first pass at matching pace before you try the faster lines.
  • "squat down right out in front of you": eight words with barely a weak syllable between them, good for practising how to pronounce english words back to back without slowing down.
  • "if you wake up like me and you feel sort of groggy": an informal aside, notice how sort of gets swallowed to keep up with the coach's speed.
  • He also says going to ten times through the clip, and most of those collapse toward the fast gonna sound coaches use when they are moving through a demonstration, worth listening for even though the transcript spells it out in full.

How to work through the squat fold and side bridge lines

Work this clip in order, the same order the coach demonstrates the stretches, rather than jumping around.

  • Play lines 1 and 2 once for meaning only. The phrase orthopedic weak points in line 4 is worth understanding before you try to say it.
  • Isolate "your feet are going to go close together" through "squat down right out in front of you" and repeat the pair three or four times slowly before matching the coach's pace.
  • Slow down "waking up the muscles that have been dormant all night" on its own. It is a long phrase built from short, easy words, which is exactly why it rewards english speaking practice at B1 level.
  • Once those hold at full speed, shadow the side bridge instructions that start around line 12 the same way: slow, then matched to pace.
  • Finish by running lines 1 through 15 straight through once, out loud, without stopping to check yourself.
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