DAY22 #OER BASE | 30 Min. Mobility Workout – Lower Body Edition, Follow Along

OER stands for Own Every Rep and Julia Reppel‘s OER challenge contains 31 workouts. I did this mobility workout in combination with Julia’s 25 Min Upper Body Mobility workout to work, mobilize and stretch my entire body. They work very well together. Between the two I got an excellent and thorough total body mobility workout as well as total body stretch. Though 30 Min. Mobility Workout – Lower Body Edition is lower body focused, you get some upper body work, too. This routine was not as feel good as the upper body routine. She builds it the same way. You begin with a movement prep/warm up, move into the meat of the mobility work then end with some wonderful, feel good stretches. But the actual mobility work also contains some bodyweight strength work for your legs. And the finisher! OMG! You are holding a deep, wide yogi squat for THREE MINUTES. Or, at least Julia is. I had to come out of mine into wide leg forward fold multiple times. She gives you the alternative to use heel wedges for that move and I did for the first minute but then just did the last 2 minutes with my feet on the floor. I did not see any benefit to the wedges, for me at least. And like most of her workouts I’ve done so far, she gives alternative versions of the exercises. However, in this workout most of the alternatives were a more advanced version (not all though). When I used the advanced version, I did it the second time the exercise was done.

The mobility exercises are done interval style: 40-50 seconds of work followed by a 12 second transition. During the transition Julia previews the next exercise. For some of the exercises another variation is displayed in a video in the upper left hand corner of the screen. A timer in the lower left hand corner of the screen counts down the intervals and transitions. There is a progress bar in the upper right hand corner of the screen counting down the workout time as a percentage.

30 Min. Mobility Workout – Lower Body Edition is 30:27 minutes. Equipment: fitness mat. Optional: heel wedges.

1. Forearm stretch (on hands and knees with one palm on mat with fingers pointing toward knee and other hand, the back of the hand is on mat with fingers pointed toward opposite hand, continue swapping hand positions)
2. Down dog knee circles (start in down dog, keeping knees close together, circle knees down to one side almost tapping knees to mat the circle them up the other side back to down dog, alternate directions)
3. Down dog chest circles (in down dog draw half circles side to side with chest)
4. Side-to-sides (stand on mat and rock side to side from inner to outer edges of feet)
5. Ankle CARs (sit on mat, raise one leg and hold knee, circle ankle drawing big circles with toe)
6. Repeat #5 on other foot
7. Alternating T spine & hip opener (in double kneeling on mat with glutes resting on heels, reach one hand to mat behind feet and lift hips, arching spine and swinging other arm over to side, lower glutes back to heels and repeat on other side)
8. Wide stance good mornings (stand with legs wide and hands on hips, hinge forward at waist keeping legs straight and spine straight/flat then raise back to start)
9. Half lunge T-spine extension > flexion (kneel on one leg with other leg open to side and foot on floor, extend both arms in front of you with hands clasped and round spine, unclasp hands and pull elbows behind body arching spine, you will also be shifting into the leg that is open to the side then back to start)
10. Repeat #7 & 8
11. Repeat #9 with leg position swapped
12. Knee over toe split squat (stand in split stance with hands behind head, legs are close enough together so that when you lower into lunge front knee goes over toes, back knee taps mat briefly before rising back to split stance)
13. Half kneeling cossack rocks (kneel on one knee with other leg extended out to side, place palms on mat in front of you, shift glutes back toward heel)
14. Single leg glute bridge hold (lay on back, one knee is bent with foot on mat close to glutes, other leg is extended straight with knees level, raise hips/glutes and hold isometrically entire interval)
15. Repeat #12-14 on other side of body
16. Horse stance squat (plie squats–stand with legs wide and toes turned out, slowly lower into squat then raise back to standing)
17. Horse stance squat > external rotation (lower into horse stance squat and hold, push knees out open wider then bring them back to start)
18. Ankle squat march (lower into partial squat, alternate raising heels)
19. Repeat #16-18
20. Squat hold for 3 minutes (lower into deep wide leg yogi squat and hold; after about one minute, lower one shoulder toward mat while extending other arm to ceiling, alternate sides–do this for another minute then return to holding squat; shift around while in squat the last minute)
21. Lying 90-90 switch (lay on back on mat, knees are bent with feet on mat, arms are extended to sides on mat in a T, shift knees side to side, dropping them to mat while keeping shoulders/arms on mat)
22. Lying glute stretch (figure 4 stretch; change legs halfway through interval)
23. Pigeon pose
24. Repeat #23 on other leg
25. Happy baby

For more info on Julia Reppel and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.