Inchworms

Execution

Stand with feet together or slightly apart. Hinge forward and place your hands on the floor in front of your feet (bend your knees slightly if needed to reach the floor). Walk your hands out step by step until you reach a high plank, body aligned from head to heels. Pause in the plank, shoulders over wrists. Then walk your feet toward your hands in small steps, keeping your legs as straight as possible to stretch the hamstrings. Stand back up and chain the next rep. Each hand-to-foot transition must be fluid and controlled.

Breathing

Inhale as you walk your hands forward; exhale as you walk your feet toward your hands. Maintain a calm, regular breathing rhythm — this exercise is not a sprint.

Benefits

• •Warms up your entire body in a single fluid movement: shoulders, core, hamstrings
• •Improves dynamic hamstring and calf flexibility
• •Strengthens shoulders and core in the plank position with each rep
• •Prepares joints and muscles for more intense movements
• •A slow, controlled movement that can serve as active recovery between intense sets

Variants

Our tips

• 1.Keep your legs as straight as possible when walking your feet in — that's where the stretch happens
• 2.Don't rush: the inchworm is a mobility exercise, not a speed drill
• 3.In the plank position, verify your shoulders are directly over your wrists before moving on
• 4.If you can't touch the floor with straight legs, bend your knees slightly — flexibility will come with practice

Common mistakes

• •Rushing through the transitions — each phase (hand walk, plank, foot walk) deserves control
• •Excessively bending the knees when walking feet in — the goal is to feel the hamstring stretch
• •Hips rising or dropping in the plank — maintain head-to-heel alignment as in a static plank
• •Skipping the plank pause — don't just pass through; stabilize for a second in the plank
• •Hands walking too far past the shoulders — in the plank, wrists must be under the shoulders