A 5-Minute Mobility Routine You Can Do in Bed To Ensure You Rise and Shine

Research suggests that one of the best ways to make a healthy habit stick is to add it to your morning routine, as a good a.m. ritual can help set you up for success all day long. So instead of hiding under the covers and hitting snooze until your need to pee outweighs your desire to not get out of bed, try working in this quick morning mobility routine that will make rising and shining feel better, both mentally and physically.

Chiropractor and trainer Julia Morgan, DC, recently took to Instagram to share a stretching routine that will help you wake up and get moving, and it only takes five minutes. But that’s not even the best part, because…you can do it in your bed. Yep, the whole routine can be done without having to set foot on the floor.

The morning mobility routine consists of three movements, which Dr. Morgan demos in the video and we break down below.

A 3-move mobility routine to start your morning off on the right side of the bed

1. Take a child’s pose with your arms extended up on a pillow to allow for slightly more extension or your thoracic spine (aka mid back), and then rise up onto your hands and knees, lower your hips toward your bed, arch your back and draw your chest up and forward between your arms. Move back and forth through these two motions for 60 seconds.

2. Next, sit up sideways on your bed with your right hand on your pillow, and knees bent so that both legs form 90-degree angles, right shin parallel to the side of the bed you’re facing, and left shin parallel to the bottom of the bed. Reach left arm overhead as you side bend to the right, allowing right forearm to rest on pillow. Return to start and repeat for 60 seconds, then switch sides.

3. Lie down on your back with your head on your pillow, and place left ankle just above right knee on thigh, making a figure 4 shape with your legs. Stretch arms out to both sides to form a T shape, drop your knee down toward the right side, lowering sole of left foot toward top of bed, and turn your head to gaze in the opposite direction. Hold for 60 seconds, then switch sides.

Got more than five minutes? Try this full-body mobility workout from Nike master trainer Traci Copeland: 

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