25 Min Mobility Workout for Hips & Ankles by Julia Reppel is a wonderful mobility workout that (IMHO) hits your hips deeper than your ankles, but it does a good job with both. I am still feeling this in my hips. I did do one of Julia’s more relaxing mobility workouts after this one and that one had some hip mobility moves in it, too, but my hips were already feeling more open and worked after this one. So I attribute it mostly to this workout.
The exercises are done for 45 seconds with a 12 second transition between moves. During the transition Julia previews the next move. There is a timer in the lower left hand corner of the screen counting down your 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. Julia shows easier alternatives for some of the exercises.
25 Min Mobility Workout for Hips & Ankles is 25:16 minutes. Equipment: fitness mat.
Movement Prep:
- Supine leg circles (lay on back with upper body propped on elbows, pull one knee into chest and open it out to side, drawling a circle with the knee)
- Repeat #1 on other leg
- Alt quad stretch (start sitting on mat with hands on mat behind you, one foot is close to glutes and the other is extended out further, lift hips and shift lower body forward so knee of foot closer to glutes lowers toward mat, stretching your quads, alternate sides)
- Half kneeling ankle flexion > knee drop (kneel on one knee with glutes resting on heel, other leg is bent with foot on mat, shift weight/knee forward over ankle of foot on mat, return to start and push knee open to side)
- Repeat #4 on other leg
20 second rest
Primary Circuit:
- Supine 90-90 switch > hip extension (lay on back with knees bent and feet on mat close to glutes, lift hips/glutes into bridge, lower glutes back to mat then drop bent knees to one side, repeat bridge and drop knees to other side)
- Bridge > alt reach (lift hips into bridge and keep them raised, reach one arm overhead and to opposite side, reaching for floor, alternate arms/sides when reaching while keeping hips raised entire time)
- 90-90 transitions (sit on mat with both knees bent at 90 degrees, both knees facing to one side with legs on mat, hinge torso forward over front leg, swap leg positions and repeat)
- Repeat #7-9
20 second rest
Secondary Circuit:
- Hip CARS (lay on side with both arms extended straight in front of you on mat, bend top knee and draw large circles with bent leg)
- Repeat #11 on other leg
- 90-90 switch + ER > IR (repeat #9 but while in 90-90 position lift back knee then lift back foot, then swap legs and repeat)
- Repeat #12-14
20 second break
Tertiary Circuit:
- Squat > knee drop (stand with legs wide and toes turned out, lower into a deep squat, shift weight/knee to one side raising heel off mat, repeat on other leg then raise out of squat)
- Wide stance Good Morning > sumo squat (stand with legs wide and hands behind head, hinge forward at waist into a Good Morning, raise back to standing and lower into a deep squat)
- Staggered stance good morning > squat (stand with legs in split stance, back foot in kickstand, hands behind head, hinge forward into Good Morning, raise back to standing then lower into a single leg squat, swap leg positions and repeat on other leg)
- Repeat #17-19
20 second rest
Cool Down:
- Prone quad stretch (lay on stomach, bend knees and hold tops of feet with hands, pulling heels into glutes and pushing hips into mat)
- Single leg happy baby (swap legs after 20 seconds)
- Plow exploration (lay on back on mat, lift legs and hips, pushing feet past head, while in plow pose shift legs and hips around, straightening and bending legs)
For more info on Julia Reppel and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
