Alternative Health Blog

Here’s new warmup to try before your next workout: Perform what might be called  a cradle rock or rolling crunch. You start supine on the floor similar to an abdominal crunch. Then you gently roll or rock along the spine.

The desired outcome is to massage the spine and internal organs. It will feel so good that you likely will make a regular part of your warmup—and maybe even every day. As it turns out, the exercise doubles as a strength builder for the body core of the abs, lower back muscles and hip flexors.

If the rolling crunch sounds a bit like yoga, it makes sense to Tyler Oakley, a personal trainer and owner of Seattle-based Flow Life Fitness. Oakley uses a rolling crunch as his regular warmup and teaches a form of yoga practice to clients.

“The rolling crunch is a staple of what I do to get people started on their workouts,” says Oakley. “It takes a while to develop the proper technique. It is all about the technique.”

And decidedly not about pain, feeling the burn, soreness, stiffness, none of that stuff many of us might associate with workouts. A major indicator of fitness success, said Oakley, is “how well people are moving” both during workouts and in everyday life.

 “I want clients to work the whole body,” says Oakley. “Conventional fitness calls for isolation of muscle groups to work out [typically done with weight lifting and flexibility work]. But that’s a myth. You can’t single out muscles. Yoga and dance movements are a great way to work the whole body.”

 Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.