Spinal Rotational Mobility

Rotational exercises for mobilizing the spine, mainly targeting the lumbar region of the spine. Important for athletic performance, health and fitness!

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otational strength is mainly created with your obliques, abs and hips, and it's the key to athletic performance.

Whether it's movement, sports or martial arts, your trunk is generating lots of force behind the sport-specific movements like striking, hitting or moving in general.

If you play sports or do Movement 20XX, your core could already be nicely developed but it's still beneficial to make sure you have the most strength and mobility in the rotation. 

Everyone wants to move better and hit harder right?

Working on your rotation is especially important if you are a gym-goer or do just calisthenics. When was the last time you did rotational drills? A great portion of people have BARELY done any.

Lack of strength in the rotation can also be the cause of many hip problems or lower back problems people may experience. ​

The rotational drills of the video will effectively stretch and mobilize the spine so your body can rotate better.

You can do the drills to warm-up, as a workout finisher or as a workout on their own. It's good to mix different drills together (or do them all) because the emphasis of those drills can be very different.

For example, you want to do rotational drills where your upper body is only moving and drills where the lower body is only moving (i.e. scorpion drill). 

Prone scorpion twist is a very effective stretch for the lumbar region. 

Another thing to take into account is to emphasize different parts of the rotation: are you rotating with your upper body (thoracic), core (lumbar) or hips (legs and lumbar spine). 

It's sometimes better to focus on moving only your core, because your hips can overpower the movement and do all of the real work of the rotation. It's common to see people who have tons of strength in their hips, but not much of strength in their obliques (rotation of the core).

Regardless of your goals and aspirations, these rotational mobility exercises will help you become a stronger and a healthier version of yourself.