A gentle, seated lower-body stretch routine for your hips, legs, and ankles — guided range-of-motion and flexibility moves to ease tension and improve mobility.

Hi. Today we'll be doing a lower body stretch routine to help relieve muscle tension and improve flexibility in your hips, legs, and ankles. Please do not stretch if you have any lower body injuries such as a sprain or tear. Make sure to ease in and out of stretches slowly, and do not push the stretch. You may feel a little bit of tension, but it should not be painful. Today's routine will be seated, so all you'll need is a chair. A resistance band or towel is optional if you want to use it for assistance. Go ahead and start a stretch or yoga session on your watch if you have that available, and let's get moving.

First, we're going to warm up our bodies with some range-of-motion exercises to improve mobility in the joints. Let's start with our feet, sitting up nice and tall. Straighten your legs out in front of you. Flex your toes up towards the ceiling and hold for a moment, then point your toes down towards the floor. Repeat the flex and point 10 times, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Keep flexing and pointing your toes. Notice how your ankles feel. Great job.

Next, we'll do ankle rolls. Draw a circle with your feet going inwards — point your toes all the way out to the sides, to the ceiling, to the floor — and repeat 10 times total. A couple more, and once more. Now let's draw a circle with your feet going the other way, outwards, 10 times. Notice how your ankles and lower legs feel. Remember to keep breathing and keep warming up those muscles.

Moving on, let's warm up our hips. Sit up nice and tall and relax your feet on the floor. Bend one knee up towards your chest and pull the knee in with your hands for support. Hold this position for a moment and then relax. Switching to the other side, let's repeat this 10 times total. Great job. Keep breathing through this exercise. Don't worry about how high your leg gets — just focus on how your hips feel. A couple more times. Stretch it up as much as you can, then relax. And last one. Awesome job.

Let's do one more range-of-motion exercise before we move on to stretches for flexibility. Sitting on the edge of your seat, relax both feet on the floor. We're going to kick one leg off the ground, extending the knee and straightening the leg. Keep the foot flexed and point those toes up towards the ceiling, then return the leg to the starting position. Let's switch to the other leg. Kick the foot off the floor, straighten your leg all the way, hold for a moment at the top, and then relax. Let's do this 10 times total. You're doing great. Breathe in through your nose as you relax the foot down, and breathe out as you lift your foot off the floor. Squeeze those thigh muscles to support your knee. Looking good — keep breathing.

Now we're going to do a couple of stretches to improve your flexibility. Our first stretch is the hamstring stretch, which targets the back of the upper leg. Sitting on the edge of your chair, straighten one leg in front of you and rest your foot on the floor. With a flat back, lean forward and hold the stretch for 15 seconds, breathing deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth. If you want to make the stretch harder, you can use a resistance band — hold onto one end in each hand and wrap the loop around your foot, holding the band tight. Notice where you feel the stretch in your leg. Breathe through the tension. A couple more seconds. Let's slowly sit back up and move on to the other leg. Straighten your leg out in front of you, toes pointing up towards the ceiling, and lean forward. See if you can lean in a bit deeper as your muscles lengthen. You have the option to use the band for a harder stretch. Hold for 15 seconds. Try not to move around or ease in and out of the stretch too much. Slowly lean back up and ease out of the stretch, and relax. Excellent job.

Our next stretch is a hip and groin stretch, which targets the inner sides of your hips. Sitting up tall, step your feet out to the side a bit wider, with a flat back and your hands on your knees for support. Lean forward and hold for 15 seconds, breathing deeply. Notice where you feel the stretch. Try to keep your back straight and see if you can lean in a bit deeper as your muscles start to lengthen. Let's slowly lean into the right side a little bit more and hold for a moment. Then lean to the left and stay here for a moment. Okay, great job. Let's slowly sit back up.

Make sure you're feeling okay before we continue — if you're feeling lightheaded or unwell, take a break. Next, we'll do a quadricep stretch, which targets the front of the upper leg. Sit on one side of the chair with one leg hanging off to the side. Hold onto the chair and let your knee drop towards the ground. Hold this position for 15 seconds. Let your knee point downwards towards the floor and keep breathing deeply. Moving onto the other side, sit on the other side of the chair and let one leg hang off. Grabbing onto the chair for support, drop your knee towards the floor and hold for 15 seconds. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Feel the tension releasing in your upper leg. A couple more seconds.

Alright, let's slowly sit back up on the chair. And lastly, we're going to do a lunge to stretch your hips. Turn to the side in your chair, let one leg hang off the chair, and hold onto the back of the chair for support. We're going to straighten our leg behind us. If you can't straighten it all the way, that's okay — just feel the stretch in your hips. Make sure you hold onto the chair for balance. Great job. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. A couple more seconds. Slowly bend your leg back and sit up on the chair. Let's turn to the other side now, letting one leg hang off the chair and holding onto the back of the chair for support. Straighten your leg back behind you with your toes resting on the floor. Breathe in deeply and hold this position for 15 seconds. Notice where you feel the stretch and rest here for a moment. A couple more seconds. Slowly ease out of the position and sit back up on the chair. Great job.

And that is the end of our lower body stretch routine. If you are recording this session on a watch, please remember to stop your watch. And if you have any questions, please chat with your care manager in the Movn app. You can find more exercise videos in the resource section of the app. You've got this — let's get moving.

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