Karl from Vitruvian Health shows us four movements to help nurses and midwives with stiffness and sleep.

The Core 4 works mainly with the majority of the upper body, creates length and opens up the entire body by engaging every part. Starting from the hips, then to the thoracic spine into the back and glutes, and finishing with the shoulder. With this complex you can open the body and alleviate stiffness from a big day or from maybe not so great sleep.

Here are the movements to the Core 4.

Hip switch

• Start with the feet parallel with the hips, knees bend up
• Engage your forearms, biceps and shoulders as your arms are pressing to the floor at the back
• Open up the chest
• Move your knees from one side to another to stretch out the hips and open the whole body up

Side to side rotations

• Sit with one leg crossed in front and the other one crossed at the back
• Rotate your upper body from side to side
• If you start feeling stiff at any point, pause and take a deep breath to the chest, ribs and back and feel it opening up
• Feel the hips, mid section, upper body and neck engaged as this exercise corporates the whole body
• Repeat the rotation 4 times on each side

Forward fold

• Sit with one leg crossed in front and the other one crossed at the back
• Front foot should be in dorsiflexion
• Curl down over your leg letting your head fall forward and then slowly roll up
• To modify, lengthen up the back leg to get more out of this exercise

Arm circles

• Sit with one leg crossed in front, push your knee down, the other leg crossed at the back
• Place your forearm as far behind you as you can without back pain
• With the other hand make a big circle all the way round; by pressing to the elbow you create the length in the body;
• Repeat 4 times on each side

Check out the following video for guidance on the Core 4 Complex. It should result in a more open body and a great sleep if you use this at night time.

This post was provided by Vitruvian Health.