Activation and Mobility Sequence (Beginner)

Quick Description: On your hands and knees. Knees are under your hips and hands are under your shoulders. Extend your spine and look up towards the ceiling, then round your back and tuck your chin towards your chest, tuck your tailbone as well. Then proceed back into the extension, chin up and tailbone up. Breathing throughout. Repeat 10 repetitions. 

Starting Position: Let’s begin this exercise in the quadruped, also known as the table top position or hands and knees position. Come down to the floor and support your weight on your hands, knees, and the tops of your feet. The hands are flat on the floor, putting your wrists in an extended position.  Your hands should be directly under your shoulders with your fingers pointed in front of you toward 12 o’clock. Your hands should be just slightly wider than your ribs, and should be in line with your chest, not up by your upper shoulders or neck.  Your elbows are fully extended, or straight and your scapula, or shoulder blades, are slightly retracted, or pulled back, creating a flat surface for your upper back.  In other words, you’re not allowing your back to round up toward the ceiling too much, but staying very neutral.  Your nose is pointed toward the floor, because this is in alignment with your spine which is currently parallel with the floor.  Retract your head back, or in this case, up, to maintain that good alignment.  Another way to say it, keep your nose pointed toward the floor, but lift your head as high as you can, like your trying to touch the ceiling with the back of your head.  Your belly should be squeezed in tight with your lumbar with your lower spine, curved anteriorly, in this case toward the floor, very slightly.  For your spine, from the top of your head to the top of your buttocks, we are aiming for neutrality, an elongated spine with shallow curves. Your knees are directly under your hips, and your knees and feet are the same width as your hips, approximately six inches of space. Finally, the tops of your feet are resting on the floor with your toes pointed behind you toward 6 o’clock. 

To Perform the Exercise: Slowly alternate between full flexion and full extension of your spine. For the first position, put your spine into full extension by simultaneously raising your head and looking up as high as you can, and pushing your chest and belly toward the floor as far as you can. Keep your elbows straight and don’t move your hands, knees, or feet. Then move into the second position, which is full flexion of the spine, by dropping your chin down toward the floor and then toward your chest, and simultaneously pushing your shoulders and back up toward the ceiling as high as you can. Again, keep the rest of your body in the exact same position. When raising your spine up, try to pull your belly button into your spine for the full contraction. Repeat for 10 repetitions. 

Muscles Targeted: This will lengthen and stretch the core abdominal muscles, as well as the spinal muscles such as the erector spinae (the large muscles on either side of your spine), and the small muscles that run between your vertebrae. 

Common Mistakes: One common mistake is sitting back on your heels when performing this movement. Stay up in your table top position with your hips over your knees. 

Another common mistake is not rolling the hips when arching the spine. As your spine drops down, think about trying to push your tail bone and the back of your head closer together, and when your spine raises up, thing about pushing your chin and your groin closer together, rolling and turning the hips with each movement. 

Quick Description: Starting on your hands and knees again in the table-top position. Extend your left leg out behind you as you extend your right arm straight out ahead of you. Keep the back of the neck long as if looking straight down towards the floor. Reach out in opposite directions and balance and hold this position for about 10 secs as you breathe. Return to the start position and repeat on the other side, extending the opposite arm and leg, keeping the spine quite still.

Starting Position: Let’s begin this exercise in the quadruped, also known as the table top position or hands and knees position. Come down to the floor and support your weight on your hands, knees, and the top of your feet. The hands are flat on the floor, putting your wrists in an extended position. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders with your fingers pointed in front of you toward 12 o’clock. Your hands should be just slightly wider than your ribs, and should be in line with your chest, not up by your upper shoulders or neck. Your elbows are fully extended, or straight and your scapula, or shoulder blades, are slightly retracted, or pulled back, creating a flat surface for your upper back. In other words, you’re not allowing your back to round up toward the ceiling too much, but staying very neutral. Your nose is pointed toward the floor, because this is in alignment with your spine which is currently parallel with the floor. Retract your head back, or in this case, up, to maintain that good alignment. Another way to say it, keep your nose pointed toward the floor, but lift your head as high as you can, like you’re trying to touch the ceiling with the back of your head. Your belly should be squeezed in tight with your lumbar with your lower spine, curved anteriorly, in this case toward the floor, very slightly. For your spine from the top of your head to the top of your buttocks, we are aiming for neutrality, an elongated spine with shallow curves. Your knees are directly under your hips, and your knees and feet are the same width as your hips, approximately six inches of space. Finally, the tops of your feet are resting on the floor with your toes pointed behind you toward 6 o’clock.

To perform the exercise: raise one arm and the opposite leg off the floor and extend them out so that your raised arm and leg are straight and level with your hips and shoulders. Your raised arm should be pointed ahead of you toward 12 o’clock, and the opposite leg and foot, the one you have raised and straightened, should be pointed back toward 6 o’clock. Return back to your starting position by lowering your arm and leg back down, bending the knee again, and returning back to your quadruped position. Hold each of these positions for about 10 seconds per side, focusing on raising the leg and arm up as much as you can without over arching your lower back.

Muscles Targeted: Your traps, posterior deltoids, or rhomboids (your upper back), your glute complex (your buttocks), and your hamstrings (the back of your thigh).

Ways to Increase Intensity: You can make this exercise more challenging by adding wrist and ankle weights to the movement, or by beginning in a push-up plank position instead of the quadruped position, which would challenge your core much more through increased rotational and sagittal tension.

Ways to Decrease Intensity: keeping a slight bend in the knee and elbow will decrease the demand on those muscle groups. Fight for full extension, or straightening of those joints as you improve and become stronger.

Some common mistakes with this exercise: First, moving the spine out of it’s neutral position. The spine should remain neutral and steady throughout the whole movement, not over arching or rounding. Imagine that there is a glass of water on your back as you do this exercise, in order to not spill the water, you have to remain very steady in your torso and hips as you move your arm and opposite leg.

Next, not fully extending the leg and arm: When raising up, be sure to fully lock the elbow and knee of the extremities you are lifting for the full effect. Your arm and leg should raise to the same height as your hips and shoulders, creating a straight line from the finger tips of your raised arm, to the toes of your raised leg.

Another common mistake is allowing your head to drop down so keep your neutral alignment by pointing your nose toward the floor and pushing the back of your head toward the ceiling.

Quick Description: From table-top position, take a slightly wider stance with your knees and sit your hips back towards your heels. Walk hands forward slightly and let the chest fall towards the floor. Focus on breathing into the rib cage, inhale to expand the ribs and exhale. Hold for 3-4 breaths. Walk hands towards the right and hold and breathe. Then walk the hands to the left and hold and breathe.

Starting Position: Let’s begin this exercise in the quadruped, also known as the table top position or hands and knees position. Come down to the floor and support your weight on your hands, knees, and the tops of your feet. The hands are flat on the floor, putting your wrists in an extended position.  Your hands should be as wide as your shoulders just on the outside of your ribs, with your fingers pointed in front of you toward 12 o’clock. Your hands should be up slightly from your body, in line with your face, and not by your chest as we normally would have them.  Your elbows are fully extended, or straight and  your scapula, or shoulder blades, are slightly retracted, or pulled back, creating a flat surface for your upper back.  In other words, you’re not allowing your back to round up toward the ceiling too much, but staying very neutral.  Your nose is pointed toward the floor, because this is in alignment with your spine which is currently parallel with the floor.  Retract your head back, or in this case, up, to maintain that good alignment.  Another way to say it, keep your nose pointed toward the floor, but lift your head as high as you can, like you’re trying to touch the ceiling with the back of your head.  Your belly should be squeezed in tight with your lumbar, your lower spine, curved anteriorly, in this case toward the floor, very slightly.  For your spine, from the top of your head to the top of your buttocks, we are aiming for neutrality, an elongated spine with shallow curves. Your knees are in a stance slightly wider than your hips instead of directly under your hips like we would normally do, and your knees and feet are the same width, approximately 10-12 inches between your knees and the same between your feet. Finally, the tops of your feet are resting on the floor with your toes pointed behind you toward 6 o’clock.

To Perform the Exercise: Slowly sit your hips back toward your heels and lower your chest toward the floor at the same time. As your chest comes down, you can walk your hands out further away from you until your face and chest are just a few inches from the ground and your arms are fully extended out over your head. You can increase or decrease the tension as needed by sliding your hands further forward away from you or back towards you. Take one hand, and place it on top of the other, stretching that arm and shoulder across the mid line of your body. Repeat on the other side and be sure to take slow deep breaths as you feel the muscles and joints in your back, shoulders, and chest stretch open. You can hold each position for 3-5 seconds, and repeat as needed.

Muscles Targeted: Primarily the Latissimus Dorsi (the large muscles of your back on the side of your body), but it also stretches open the muscles of your chest, shoulders, and belly, as well as potentially your hips and buttocks.

Common Mistakes: Keeping the knees too close together. You don’t need to open your knees so much that you feel the stretch in the groin, but you want to get a slightly wider base than normal to allow your hips to sit back further and get a better stretch in the torso.

Quick Description: From the table-top, all fours position. Open the knees as wide as still feels comfortable. Then rock your hips back towards your heels, trying to keep the tailbone up and NOT tucking under. Rock forward again over your hands and repeat the hips back towards the heels. 8-10 reps.

Starting Position: Let’s begin this exercise in the quadruped, also known as the table top position or hands and knees position. Come down to the floor and support your weight on your hands, knees, and the tops of your feet. The hands are flat on the floor, putting your wrists in an extended position.  Your hands should be directly under your shoulders with your fingers pointed in front of you toward 12 o’clock. Your hands should be just slightly wider than your ribs, and should be in line with your chest, not up by your upper shoulders or neck.  Your elbows are fully extended, or straight with your scapula, or shoulder blades, slightly retracted, or pulled back, creating a flat surface for your upper back.  In other words, you’re not allowing your back to round up toward the ceiling too much, but staying very neutral.  Your nose is pointed toward the floor, because this is in alignment with your spine which is currently parallel with the floor.  Retract your head back, or in this case, up, to maintain that good alignment.  Another way to say it, keep your nose pointed toward the floor, but lift your head as high as you can, like you’re trying to touch the ceiling with the back of your head.  Your belly should be squeezed in tight with your lumbar and your lower spine, curved anteriorly, in this case toward the floor, very slightly.  For your spine, from the top of your head to the top of your buttocks, we are aiming for neutrality, an elongated spine with shallow curves. In the normal table top position, your knees would be  directly under your hips, but for this exercise, open your knees wide to the point just short of the furthest you can stretch. Finally, your feet should be externally rotated so that the inside arches of your feet are on the floor and your toes are pointed to the side.

To Perform the Exercise: Simply sit your hips back toward your heels until you feel a good stretch in your groin, focusing on keeping a neutral alignment in the spine, not allowing your lower back to round up toward the ceiling, but maintaining the slight forward arch toward the floor. If it is more comfortable, you can also come down to the floor on your forearms instead of being up on your hands. Rock back for a few seconds, then move forward again taking tension off the muscles. Repeat this movement 8-10 times.

Muscles Targeted: The hip adductors

Ways to Increase Intensity: As with any stretch, increasing your range of motion will increase intensity, such as widening your knees in your starting stance and sitting back further toward your heels. Be cautious not to over stretch, as this can have the opposite effect of improving flexibility. Your stretch should be slightly uncomfortable, not painful.

Ways to Decrease Intensity: To reduce tension, do not rock back so far toward your heels and bring your knees closer together in your starting stance, shortening the distance between your knees.

Common Mistakes: One common mistake is allowing your lower back to round up toward the ceiling. Do the movement correctly by keeping a neutral arch in the lower spine, which  will help make sure that this stretch focuses on the hip adductors.

Another common mistake is not having enough padding on the floor. Make sure that the surface you are working on is well padded so that your joints are protected, especially under your knees and ankles as these will commonly be sensitive points of contact with the floor.

Quick Description: Laying on your back, knees bent and feet are flat on the floor and about hip width apart. Push into the floor with both feet as you lift your hips and butt up towards the ceiling. Release back down to the floor and repeat 10-15 times. 

Starting Position: Let’s start supine, or face up, on the floor, on a firm but padded surface such as a carpet or hard flooring with a yoga mat.  Flex, or bend, the knees, pointing your knees toward the ceiling and place your feet flat on the floor about 6 inches from your buttocks, maintaining about 6 inches between your feet and knees.  The position of your arms and hands is preferential, you can leave them at your side palms up, or turn your palms down, or you can fold your arms across your chest.   

To perform the exercise: keep your feet flat and your shoulders and head in contact with the floor, and lift your hips up off the ground toward the ceiling as high as you can, squeezing your glutes (buttocks) at the top.  Then, slowly lower back down to the starting position. Repeat 8- 10 times. 

Muscles Targeted: the hamstrings (or back of your legs), your glutes (or buttocks), and your lumbar Erector Spinae (or lower back).   

Ways to Increase Intensity: If you want a little more of a challenge, you can place your feet on a raised or unstable surface. Some examples are a bottom step, a foam roller, a stool, or small stability ball. 

Ways to Decrease Intensity: If this exercise is challenging, place your arms on the floor at your side with your palms down so that you can press into the floor with your hands and use a small amount of leverage from your arms as you lift your hips. 

Common Mistakes: One common mistake with this movement is not keeping the feet parallel. There should be equal spacing between your toes and heels, approximately 6-8 inches, or as wide as your hips. Don’t allow your toes to turn out or in, as this can place a twist in your knee. 

Another common mistake is not squeezing and activating the glutes at the top of the lift. Be sure to push your hips as high as you can, tightening your buttocks at the top. 

Quick Description: Starting on your left side, stack your shoulders, hips and knees. Bend your left knee to 90 degrees at hip level resting on the floor in front of you and reach behind to grab your right shin/ankle. Bring your right knee or thigh backwards gently as you push your right hip forwards to feel a stretch in your right quad. Keep ahold of your leg as you bring it forward to release the stretch. Repeat 10 times holding the stretch for only 2 secs. Then switch sides.

Starting Position: Let’s start on the floor on a padded surface, lying on your side with your torso (upper body) and your legs straight, your legs stacked one on top of the other, and your top arm resting on your hip. You are welcome to support your head on your bottom arm or on a pillow as needed. Take your bottom leg and bring your knee out in front of you with your knee bent to 90 degrees. For example, if you are lying on your left side, your left leg will be resting on the floor out in front of you with your left knee bent and at hip level, and your right leg still straight and in line with your body.

To Perform the Exercise: Flex (bend) your top leg, bringing your heel back behind you. Grab the ankle of that leg with your top arm and pull your heel closer to your buttocks as you simultaneously push your hips forward. Hold for about 2 seconds, release the tension slightly, and then repeat about 8-10 times.

Muscles Targeted: Quadriceps (thigh) and Psoas (hip flexor)

Common Mistakes: One common mistake with this stretch is over arching your lower back. You will naturally arch slightly more than neutral because you are pulling your hip back into extension, but focus on tightening up your abdominals and pulling your belly button into your spine, which will limit your anterior (forward) hip rotation and push the stretch into your hip and thigh instead of your lower back.

Quick Description: Laying on your left side, your right knee is bent at 90 degrees at hip level on the floor in front of you, left leg straight on the floor. Let your head rest on your left arm. Reach your right arm forward slightly and then with your exhale, raise the arm up and over and behind you as you twist your upper body towards the right as far as you can towards the floor. Return to the starting position and repeat about 10 times per side. 

Starting Position: Let’s start on the floor on a padded surface, lying on your side with your torso (upper body) and your legs straight, your legs stacked one on top of the other, and your top arm resting on your hip.  You are welcome to support your head on your bottom arm or on a pillow as needed. Take your top leg and bring your knee out in front of you with your knee bent to 90 degrees. For example, if you are lying on your left side, your right leg will be resting on the floor out in front of you with your right knee bent and at hip level, and your left leg still straight and in line with your body. Now, take your top arm and place it on the floor out in front of you perpendicular to your upper body. 

To Perform the Exercise: Take your top arm which is forward from your body, and then with a big  exhale, raise the arm up and over and behind you as you twist your upper body, trying to push your scapula (shoulder blades ) towards the floor as far as you can. Your top leg that is bent and on the floor in front of you should not move at all, and as you twist and push your shoulder blades back, you are trying to point your chest toward the ceiling without moving your hips or legs. Return to the starting position and repeat about 10 times per side. 

Muscles Targeted: Most of the major muscles in the chest, shoulders, and core. 

Ways to Increase Intensity: If you want to increase the intensity of the stretch, you can straighten your top leg out perpendicular to your body instead of having a bent knee. This will extend the stretch further into the hips and hamstrings as well as the thoracic spine. 

Ways to Decrease Intensity: If you want to decrease the intensity of the stretch, you can decrease the level to which you raise your top leg out in front of you. For example, bending your knee slightly and keeping your feet a bit closer together will allow your hips to roll just a bit more as you twist the shoulders, and in turn this will decrease the tension in the muscles you are stretching. 

Common Mistakes: One common mistake with this and other stretches is holding your breath during the movement. Taking in deep breaths and releasing them slowly while trying to relax will improve the effectiveness of the stretch. 

Quick Description: Standing with feet just outside of hip width apart. Sit back first with the hips and let the knees bend. As you lower down into the squat let the hips and knees open slightly. As you return to standing be sure to push into the floor with the feet. After 5 reps, stay at the bottom of the squat and raise one arm up towards the ceiling, bring it back down, raise the other arm, and then back down. Come up from your squat. Repeat one more time.

Starting Position: Let’s start standing fully erect with your feet hip width or just slightly wider, and your toes pointed directly forward toward 12 o’clock, or just slightly more open.

To Perform the Exercise: Understand that the squat is one of the most powerful, most often used, and most often improperly performed, exercises out there. Follow all of these guidelines, and listen to your body, as small variations may be appropriate for your build or athleticism. First, engaging the right muscle groups is essential, in this case, the hips and buttocks are the primary movers, along with the hamstrings (back of the thigh) and quadriceps (thigh). Start the movement by pushing your hips back toward the wall behind you a few inches, causing you to flex at the hips and put your weight back on your heels. Be sure to not lose neutrality in your spine, your lower back should still have a shallow forward curve, just as if you were standing up. Now, keeping your weight in your heels, sit your hips back and down, like you are sitting in a very little chair that is way back behind you. Note, if you want to make sure your getting this right, you can get a literal chair or stool and perform a squat standing several inches away from it, sitting down, touching the chair very lightly, and then standing back up. As you lower into your squat, your knees should stay open as wide as your feet, and your chest and back should be upright and as tall as you can make them. When you have dropped as low as you can, drive your heels into the ground, squeeze your buttocks and your core, press your knees out, and push your head toward the ceiling as you drive back up to the starting position, finishing with your hips driving forward again and squeezing at the top. Your arm position through this exercise can vary. Keeping your arms out in front of you can help counterbalance the backward movement of your hips, just be sure to still keep your chest and head up as high as you can, your not trying to reach toward the front of the room, just hold your arms out for balance. You can also bend your elbows and keep your arms at your side, or even raise them over head for an added challenge. . You can perform many variations and manipulations on this primary movement, including sitting at the bottom of your squat, raising one arm, then lowering it and raising the other, then standing back up. Perform 6-10 reps with control and focus on good posture and stability.

Muscles Targeted: Glute Complex (buttocks), Hamstrings (back of the thigh), Quadriceps (thigh), and many accessory muscles including core muscles, postural muscles, and muscles in the lower legs and feet.

Ways to Increase Intensity: This primary exercise has dozens and dozens of variations to make it more challenging. One simple technique is to slow down your movements, especially on the way down (eccentric). Perform a slow count of 3 or 4 on the way down, and a count of 1 or 2 on the way up for a simple but effective way of turning up the intensity.

Ways to Decrease Intensity: If squats are challenging for you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. A super simple way of taking some pressure off your legs, knees, hips, or back, is to hold onto a stable object while sitting back into your squat. Examples may include the edge of a counter, the back of a couch, a banister railing, a suspended rope, a low pull-up bar, a strong door knob, etc. Holding this object will allow you to sit back a little more and share some of the stress with your upper body, allowing you the right tension to strengthen your legs and work toward doing unassisted body weight squats. The best objects are easily gripped and stable at about upper belly or chest level.

Common Mistakes: There are many mistakes that can be made with this exercise, I will list the most frequent ones, and note that these mistakes are not always on or off, black or white. Often There are subtle and small variations. You don’t have to be bent over double for it to be wrong. Even a small misalignment in your lower back can cause big problems over time, so always be on the look out for these, even if you are experienced with exercise.

First common mistake is rounding your back and dropping your chest. Though the squat is a full body exercise, engaging many muscles in the upper body in an accessory manner, it is primarily for the legs and buttocks, so we want the upper body to be as neutral and stationary as possible. Your upper body should stay as erect as possible through the entire movement, your core tight, your back neutral and strong. Imagine looking at a person in front of you while you are squatting, whether at the top or bottom, you want to point your face, chest, and belly toward them the entire time.

Another common mistake is not sitting back into the squat. If you miss the first step of pushing your hips back and subsequently not sitting in that imaginary chair way back behind you, you will have a tendency to push your knees forward and your weight into your toes. This puts a lot of pressure in your knees and long term is not biomechanically sound. Your knees can and will move forward slightly, but your weight should remain in your heels, and your knees should not pass your toes.

Another common mistake is allowing your knees to collapse together, whether on the way down (eccentric) or on the way up (concentric). If your knees collapse together, you are getting a better push, but the tension is no longer in your leg muscles, but is being shifted into the ligaments of your knee. Press your knees open as you sit and stand, keeping them to the same width as your hips and feet. If you struggle with this, you can prime those muscles by performing squats with a short elastic band around your knees. The band will try to pull your knees inward, and as you fight to keep the band stretched open, you will strengthen the muscles that externally rotate and abduct your legs.

Quick Description: Stand on one foot and find balance. Then use the other free leg to reach forward, to the side and towards the back to challenge your balance. Repeat 5-6 times. Keep balancing throughout and then switch legs.

Starting Position: Let’s start this exercise standing up straight next to a stable object you can hold on to for balance if needed. Center  your weight over your grounded foot by moving  your hips laterally, shifting to the side of that leg slightly, effectively putting your grounded foot right in the middle of your body alignment. Another way of saying it, you’re not tipping to the side, your head and shoulders should stay right over your hips, but your whole vertical torso should be shifted just a little to the side so that your bottom foot is right in the middle of your body. Now raise your other foot off the floor just an inch or two, and keep it hovering there. Your arms should be bent to 90 degrees and at your side with your palms facing each other out in front of you, just like when running. The exception is if you are having balancing issues, you can place your hand or hands on whatever stable object you are using for balance.

To Perform the Exercise: Move the foot that you have elevated, forward to a comfortable but challenging distance. Return to the starting position, and then lift it to the side to a comfortable but challenging distance. Return to the starting position, and then lift it back behind you to a comfortable but challenging distance, then return to the starting position one more time, still hovering over the ground. This would be considered one cycle, repeat 5-6 times and then switch legs.

Muscles Targeted: This exercise will challenge most of the muscles in the core, along with the major muscles of the hips and buttocks.

Ways to Increase Intensity: If you’re looking for more of a challenge, you can stand on an instable surface such as a soft mat or balance disc. This will cause you to have more instability and a greater need for muscle activation.

Ways to Decrease Intensity: To make this exercise a bit easier, you can hold onto a stable surface for support. Challenge yourself to only hold on when absolutely needed and work toward balancing without assistance.

Common Mistakes: One common mistake with this exercise is swaying and leaning with the upper body. Think of your upper body being as still as a statue, shifting just slightly to counter balance the movement of your leg. The idea of this exercise is balance and stability, so keep yourself strong and stable through each movement.

Quick Description: In a standing position. Feel the ground with your whole foot and toes. Lift just the big toes off the ground, leaving the other toes on the ground. Repeat 10 times. Then, raise all the toes off the ground, leaving the big toes down. Repeat 10 times. Practice spreading all five toes out, creating space between all toes, and release. Repeat 5-10 times.

Starting Position: Standing up tall with your feet hip width and your toes pointed forward.

To Perform the Exercise: Good strength and flexibility in our feet is key to longevity and performance. Connect with the movements of your feet by first grounding them into the floor at all corners, noting that your arches (the inner side of your mid foot) should be lifted up off the floor. Spread your toes out and dig them into the ground, and lift your big toes only, holding for 2-3 seconds. Repeat about 10 times. Then, spread your toes again, now grounding your big toes into the floor and lifting the rest for a 2-3 second hold. Repeat that movement about 10 times as well.

Muscles Targeted: All of the small muscles that flex and move the feet.

Ways to Increase Intensity: Performing this exercise with longer holds will help challenge the coordination of the muscles more intensely.

Ways to Decrease Intensity: You can perform this series of movements in a sitting position for a bit more ease.

Common Mistakes: One common mistake is trying to perform this exercise while wearing socks and/or shoes. Not that practicing this movement while standing in line at the store or while sitting at your desk is a waste of time, this is still good for you, but when specifically training your feet, remove all the supports and barriers and allow your feet to move freely.