You also need to work on mobility or moving around to the best of your ability. Everyone needs to work on mobility.
Most people never even think about working on this aspect of fitness and that's a huge mistake. Mobility exercises keep you mobile and prevent injuries so you have to find a way to add these exercises to your workout plans.
The best way to fit this type of exercise in is during your pre weight lifting warm ups. Mobility exercises are perfect for warming up.
Before every weight lifting workout, you need to spend a little time performing mobility exercises. If you need to spend extra time on mobility, you can even do them after your weight lifting workouts.
For example, someone with knee problems will want to do mobility exercises before and after each weight lifting workout. This will help with knee problems and get the knees warmed up and ready for the workout.
Another example might be someone with past shoulder issues. Spend some extra time warming up your shoulders. This time will be well spent in producing healthy shoulders.
If you don't have great flexibility in your ankles or hips when doing squats, work on mobility exercises that will increase your flexibility in these areas. You need to customize the mobility exercises to fit your needs. And you can and will as you learn more about mobility exercises.
Here is a list of mobility exercises you can use before and even after a weight lifting workout:
• Front to Back Leg Swings
• Side to Side Leg Swings
• Cradle Walk
• Pull Back Butt Kick
• Toy Soldiers
• Single Leg Romanian Deadlift
• Side to Side Walk
• High Knee Skips
• Broomstick Dislocations
• Scapula Push Ups
• Hip Corrections
• Windmills
• High Knee Walks
• Mini Band Side Steps
• Deep Wideout Drops
• Squat to Stand
• Running Butt Kicks
Plus, there are many more.
Choose 5 mobility exercises and do 1 set of each for 10 to 15 reps each before your workouts. Repeat those after the workouts if you're trying to increase mobility at a much faster rate.
Remember, these mobility exercises are a must. They are going to help prevent injuries and help you with perfecting your form on the best exercises. They are the perfect warm up for a tough workout.
They don't add much stress at all to your body so it's fine to do them before your workouts as a warm up and again directly after your workout. This will really help improve mobility if you're lacking in that area and need extra work.