A solid warmup is easily the most critical part of your workout as an athlete. One of my favorite ways to mobilize the lower back and hamstrings is with the rollover reach dynamic stretch. I love how this drill gets you moving, activates the core, and opens up the posterior chain… here’s how to program the rollover reach into your next warmup:
WHY DO THE ROLLOVER REACH?
The rollover reach is a dynamic stretch that has you move between plow pose and a wide leg forward fold. This movement is one of my favorites to open up the posterior chain. Fluidly moving between the two stretches you mobilize the hamstrings, low back, hips, shoulders and even activate the core through spinal flexion.
An active movement like the rollover reach is also really awesome for athletes to start moving and build heat in the body to prepare you for your workout. This is a great one to follow up a full athletic warm-up.
How to do the rollover reach?
Begin the rollover reach lying down with your arms long on the floor next to you. Using the lower core, bend the knees slightly and lift the feet off the ground. Give yourself a bit of momentum as you next reach you feet all the way overhead, trying to get your toes as close to the floor as possible. Coming back down from this position, you should end seated bringing the feet and legs into a wide leg forward fold.
For your next rep, bring the legs together trying to gain a bit of momentum and move smoothly through each repetition.
How to program the rollover reach:
Use the rollover reach before any of your lower body strength, sprint, or vertical jump workouts. You can also use this drill towards the end of your workout to cool down and continue using the core. Small additional movements like these tend to make the biggest difference for my athletes looking to increase their mobility and see that translate over to sport.
Aim for about 3 rounds of 10 repetitions.
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