
Exercise & Health Tips
Welcome to our
exercise & health tips!
Here at Back Into Osteopathy, we have provided you stretches, exercises and health tips to keep you motivated and proactive towards your health in between treatments.
Weekly Tips!
- Foam Roll -
Focus on main muscle groups such as your hamstrings, quadriceps, calves as well as along your spine.
See photos attached.
- Glutes -
Glutes are made up for 3 muscles - one is your large glute max that helps drive your hip into extension. Your other two glutes assist in the pelvic stability.
See video below for exercise.
- Neck Stretches -
By keeping one shoulder down, look straight ahead and take your head across to the opposite shoulder. No pulling or forcing, let the wait of gravity stretch your neck and hold for 30 seconds to gain optimal outcomes.
- Heat Pack -
After a long day at work, our muscles can cause us quite a bit of discomfort. Heat can help bring blood flow to the region and help these muscles relax. A heat pack on the muscle until the temperature starts to cool will loosen your muscle fibres to start feeling better soon.
If symptoms persist, see your Osteopath to get their opinion on your issue.

- Grab your water bottle! -
Staying hydrated especially entering warmer climates. Never underestimate the importance of water and consuming water as your main drink throughout the day. By having a water bottle next to your desk, in your bag, in your car, next to your bedside table or wherever is most convenient; increases your chances of consuming a more adequate amount of water throughout the day, maintaining a healthy environment for your cells including kidney function.
- Fruit -
The best snack to always choose! Vitamins and minerals for cell health, glucose to restore carbohydrate stores and keep your brain fresh at work, and h20 because we can never have enough water. Have atleast 1-2 fruits per day as a basic achievement for daily health.
- New Years Resolution -
The start of a new year is a great time for people to make goals for the upcoming year and to make changes to their current work and lifestyle patterns or behaviours.
This new date however is the same as a new day becoming a new date. Why see a new year as a reason to be motivated when you should have constant goals and desires to be your happier and better self each day.
We all have bad days and periods where life changes, but why see a new year as such importance when everyday is just as important as the next.
- Good Morning! -
Wake up sore in the morning?
An easy and simple joint mobility exercise might be all you need to loosen your joints and muscles up before you start your day.
Back or hip discomfort? Knee rocks mobilise your hip, sacroiliac, and spinal joints.
Neck pain or stiffness? Head rotations loosen off the muscles and the associated joints.
Lower limb tightness or pain? Foot points and heel slides can help warm up your knee, ankle and foot.
Watch the videos below.
- Delicious Banana Smoothie Recipe -
For 1 serving:
- 1/2 banana
- 1 scoop chocolate protein
- 2 dates
- 1/2 dozen walnuts
- 1/2 cup almond milk
Perfect for breakfast or an on-the-go snack.
- How do you squat? And should you be squatting? -
The Squat - a very popular lower limb strength exercise that is a common go to by most people wanting to work their legs and glutes as well as by gym personal trainers.
Is this good for you and your body however??
See below a poor squatting technique and improved squatting techniques.
Welcome the
front squat for better weight distribution, which puts less stress through your spine allowing you to stay more verticle. This is a much better option if you are having difficulty achieving good back squat technique or if it is causing discomfort or tightness.
- Hip Mobility Exercises -
Three hip warm up exercises perfect before and after exercise as well as in between lower limb exercises such as lunges and squats.
1. Hip flexor Stretch
2. Deep hip squat
3. Glute stretch
- Ankle Stretching -
This ankle stretch is great for stiff ankles as well as preparation and warm up prior to exercises e.g. squats and lunges.
- Get your Core On -
Here are three exercises to help with your mid-core stability!
- Hydration & Exercise -
Pre-exercise:
Consuming 5-7mL per kilo of body weight up to 4 hours prior to session
During Exercise:
Post Exercise:
Sports Drinks & Juice:
- Calf Raises -
Calf raises are perfect exercises for all individuals that have experienced lower limb injuries or require lower limb strengthening and stability. This includes ankle and knee injuries or hip and knee instability.
Here are some examples of seated, weighted, double leg and single leg.
- Achilles Training -
Here are three exercises to strengthen the achilles tendon as either preventative or management of achilles tendinopathy.
1. Isometric double leg: hold in calf raise for 30-60 sec
2. Isometric single leg: hold in calf raise for 30-60 sec
- Daily Stretch Regime -
• Standing ballistic hamstring stretch - this is a gentle bounce into your hamstring stretch, practicing your HIP HINGE and not trunk flexion to reach your toes. Apologies for my poor example (I have tight hammies 🙈)
• Standing quadriceps stretch - tuck your bottom under to place your spine and pelvis in a neutral position
• Hip flexor stretch - in a lunge position, tuck our bottom under again to posteriorly rotate your pelvis pulling through your iliopsoas muscle
• Seated hamstring stretch - I demonstrated the incorrect movement first seeing my reach forward for my toes to then sit more upright and sticking my bottom out to hinge at my hip lengthening my hamstring = straight back!
• Foam roller shoulder mobility - lying on your foam roller horizontal or verticals, swing and extend your shoulders stretching your chest and mobilizing and your shoulder girdle and thoracic spine.
- Theraband Exercises -
Here are multiple theraband exercises to do as your gym warm up, as your technique practice, or when it's too cold or late to hit the gym.
- Healthy Pancakes -
Serves 2:
2 x bananas smashed
1 x cup oats
2 x eggs
1 x handful blueberries
1 x scoop protein powder
Serve with low fat yoghurt
- Healthy Homemade Granola Recipe -
Ingredients
Dry
- 4 cups oats
- 1 cup raw nuts/seeds
- 1 cup coconut
- 1 tbsp favourite spice e.g. cinnamon, pumpkin spice, cardarmon, cloves
- 1/2 cup chopped dried fruit e.g. raisins, apricots, apple
- 1 pinch salt
Wet
- 1 1/2 tsp flavour e.g. vanilla, almond
- 1/4 cup sweet e.g. maple syrup, agave, honey, brown sugar or any combo
- 1/4 cup fat e.g. melted butter, canola or coconut oil
1. Combine wet and dry
2. Spread on tray
3. Bake 150C until golden (approx 30 min)
- Hamstring Tightness -
- Desk Work Stretches -
Here are two exercises which can be performed whilst at your desk and do not take long. When performed often they can make a huge difference in decreasing upper body tightness and pain in our glutes.
Exercise 1: open chest stretch
- Sit on edge of chair, place hands behind back and sit straight
- Push your chest and chin forward and upward
- Draw your shoulder blades down and towards your hands until you feel a stretch at the front of your chest
- Take a long, slow deep breath in and out and return to starting position
- Repeat 10 times with each time pushing your chest further forward and drawing your shoulder blades further back

Exercise 2: Gluteal stretch
- Sit on edge of chair and cross one leg over the other
- Keeping back straight lean forward and draw bum towards the back of the chair
- Hold for the count of 5 and relax.
- Repeat 10 times and repeat to other leg

- Ankle Stability Exercises -
A very common injury is the “rolled ankle”. When we sprain our ankle, it causes damage to the ligaments which provide support. In addition, it can cause a loss of proprioception at the ankle. Proprioception is awareness of the position of the body in space. When we walk on uneven surfaces it gives us the ability for our muscles to quickly adapt and stay balanced. This is essential for the prevention of injury, especially in our athletes where a quick change of direction or landing on our feet demands a lot of strength and good proprioception at our ankle.
Here is one simple exercise which not only builds proprioception in our ankle but also strengthens the supporting muscles:
- Balance on one leg (with a wall support next to you so you don’t fall)
- When you can balance for 30 seconds without fail add in toe touches (front, back and side to side)
- Once you can balance for 30 seconds with toe touches then balance still with your eyes closed (with wall support so you don’t fall)
- Once you keep reaching 30 seconds balanced without fail follow these progressions:
o Place pillow under foot with eyes open ± toe touches
o Pillow under foot eyes closed ± toe touches
o Bosu ball eyes open ± toe touches
o Hops on one foot
o Side to side jumping and landing on one foot





