A Move You Should Do MONDAY – Sumo Frogger

This week’s move, the sumo frogger, is an excellent way to solve problems in the upper and lower extremity. Here’s how to do it:

Stand with your feet wider than shoulder width apart and toes pointed out 45 degrees
Squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor, keeping the knees in line with the second toes
Bend down and place your hands on the floor in front of you
Then jump your legs forward towards your hands

Why does this matter?

The sumo squat is an excellent way to elongate your adductor muscles. This is especially helpful if when you squat, your knees fall in. As you lower your body weight, you will feel the pulling in your inner thighs and dynamically stretching your adductors in this way will correct your knee position when you squat. If your knees fall in when you squat, you don’t load the biggest muscles of your body, your gluteus maximus, very effectively.

In addition, by placing your hands on the floor and jumping your feet forward, you strengthen the scapular and shoulder stabilizers: the serratus anterior and rotator cuff muscles.

Just doing a few repetitions a day can wake up some key muscles and prepare you for a pain-free day of reaching, lifting and squatting.

So give the sumo frogger a try.

Because nobody has time to be in pain.

Until next time…