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20 Min Animal Flow Workout | Improve Strength, Flexibility & Mobility
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Jun 7, 2024
**20 Min Animal Flow Workout | Improve Strength, Flexibility & Mobility** Unlock your full potential with this 20-minute Animal Flow workout! Designed to enhance strength, flexibility, and mobility, this routine combines elements from gymnastics, breakdancing, martial arts, and yoga. Get ready to improve your coordination, body control, and overall fitness with ground-based movements inspired by animal locomotion. **Key Components of Animal Flow:** - **Wrist Mobilizations:** Prepare your wrists for weight-bearing movements on the ground. - **Activations:** Engage specific muscle groups to optimize performance. - **Form-Specific Stretches:** Enhance mobility and flexibility with targeted stretches. - **Traveling Forms:** Mimic animal gaits with movements like the traveling beast, ape, and crab. - **Switches and Transitions:** Seamlessly link different positions and forms. - **Flows:** Combine various elements into a continuous, fluid routine. **Benefits of Animal Flow:** - Build full-body strength and mobility without equipment. - Enhance proprioception (body awareness) and mind-muscle connection. - Develop functional movement patterns and body control. - Increase flexibility in the hips, shoulders, and spine. - Enjoy a fun and engaging bodyweight workout. **Sample Exercises:**
View Video Transcript
0:00
I'm a coach Mila and this is your 20 minute releasing Animal Flow workout
0:06
Come join me on a discovery of how your body was born to move
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We are not just going to be animals. I think that's what a lot of people think about animal flow
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This is really about activating and mobilizing using everything in your body, flexibility
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mobility, strength and so much more, even endurance. So this is a great workout for you to do in between your other workouts
0:34
It balances out your body. And there are so much more that I will be doing with you in the future
0:40
So right now come join me on the floor. All right. So what we're going to do is we're going to start with wrist warm-ups because we're going to be on our hands quite a lot
0:49
Clasp your hands together. And I want you to create a figure of eight
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Take your time. I fell in love with this kind of movement when I had actually injured my back quite badly
1:07
And Animal Flow was that savior. And because it works neuromascularly, everything
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And from here, we're going to go into a wrist wave. So as you're doing this, become connected to the way that your body, moves
1:30
So joining your hands together, your skin is going to touch. Let's go the other way
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Just noticing what's happening, what you're feeling inside. All right, from here
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bring your hands together, keep your palms down as you draw the outside
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of your arms to me. And what I'm working looking on is opening up this part of the wrist. So the minute that you take your hands this way
2:02
we're doing a different mobilization, and I really just want to get in here before we start
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Let's go four, three, two, and one. All right. Coming onto all fours, final nice risk mobilizations
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You're going to come in a circular action, keeping your fingers facing forward on the mats
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And this is really personal. I'm not in your body, so I want you to feel what you are needing
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Start to go in a circular action in the other way. I feel a really nice pull in my wrists
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Like, I've definitely become a lot stronger in plank positions doing this kind of work
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or anything that asks me to be on my hands. One more
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the final one you're going to turn your fingertips to face you
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so to face your knees and again we're going to create those circular motions with the body
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try to keep your hands flat on the floor as you move
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and let's go other way so you're just going to learn a few
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fundamentals and then I'm going to put it all together to make it a nice release flow
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Coming back to center, take your hands, go like this for me, and just
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whenever you feel that it's too much, you can always come to this pose
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And when you're ready, come back into your position that we're doing
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All right, so what we're going to do is you're going to bring your knees underneath your belly button
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hands underneath your shoulder blades. We're going to start by doing an anterior and posterior tilt with your pelvis
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just so you can feel where that neutral spine is. It might feel weird because your knees are underneath your belly button
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but trust me, there is a method to this beautiful flow. When you're ready, find your neutral spine, tuck your toes
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press into the earth. And the only reason why your knees lift is because you are pressing so far down into the ground
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I want your knees to be a centimeter off the floor. Hold it here
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All right, we're going to do some drills. You're going to lift your right leg
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Keep the three points on the floor. Press down for five, four, three, two, right leg down
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Left leg lifts, hover, hold. For five, four, three, two, one. Come down
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Take a break. So these are your drills before we start that nice flow
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Come back in. We're going to lift your arm now. Single arms So lift your right arm Lift You can slightly lift your shoulder up to your ear but aim to keep your hips facing down and change other side Lift your left arm up Exhale Keep your knees down Three two Come back to center
5:11
Hover, hold for five, four, three, two, and relax. That is your beast drill
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So what we're going to do now is you're going to learn a beast going into a beast
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loaded beast. So come a little bit further back from your mat. What we're going to do is you're going to come back into your beast
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Take your time. Feel all four points in the floor. Lift your knees, press away from the floor. Flair your knees outwards. From here, you're going to walk your hands forward. And as you're doing this, you're going to lift your shoulders up to your ears. I want you to lengthen your spine. Lift the shoulders, press into the floor. Feel that nice contraction in the upper ab. And what we're going to do from this loaded beast, we're going to go to a beast unload
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which is rocking forward, pressing away from the floor, lifting up through your scapula, engaging your lower core
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lengthening your head, and come back to Loaded Beast. Inhale. Take a break
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So what we're needing in that position of the Loaded Beast is you pressing so much into the floor
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you almost have a dome shape in your abs. All right, so let's go straight back into it
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and I'm going to add on. Lift your knees. Set beast. Loaded beast
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Flare your knees out. Walk your hands forward. Lift your shoulders up to it
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Deep breath in. Unload. Loaded beast. Do that two times
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Unload. Reset to loaded beast. One more time. Load. Reset to load beast
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From here, we're going to lift your tailbone. We're going into a wave unload
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It starts with the tailbone coming up, keeping your shoulders lifted to your ears
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From here, you start from your lower abs, curling through your spine, one vertebra at a time
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And as you come forward, engage your glutes. Cork screw your arms, lift your neck
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hold the tear, press away from the floor and exhale start from the chin
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lift the tailbone, lift your shoulders up to your ears keeping your ears up to your arms
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and return to loaded beast and break okay so that is a wave unloaded
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it is brilliant for any toxins releasing out of your spine I'm just going to show you this. I'm going to talk you through it. When I say corkscrew your arms
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this is what I mean by corkscrew. We want to get maximum rotation. This is where the mobility aspect
8:10
comes in to this kind of movement. So instead of the shoulders being rotated budwards, we're
8:17
going to externally rotate to open up the channels in the body. So as you're coming into the second
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part of your wave unload, you're going to open the shoulder. You're going to open the shoulders
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Shoulders, squeeze the shoulder blades together, press into the ground, lift your neck, and then you start with the head
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That is the only reason why you will then lift up back into the position
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So what we're going to do is we're going to go from set beast to loaded beast to unload
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We're going to do that two times. We're going to do two wave unloads. And then we're going to reset in to Beast Pose and relax
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So watch me here. Come into Set Beast. Loaded Beast
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Take your time. Unload. Return to loaded beast. Unload
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Return to loaded beast. Wave and load. Cork screw your arms
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Lengthen your chest. Return to loaded beast
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One more time. Wave and load. Using the breath Return to loaded beast
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And beast. All right. So my beautiful warriors, what we're going to do
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sometimes this might feel like a lot. But the more we go, the easier this will become in terms of learning this language of movement
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So let's just take it back. From the exit out of a loaded beast, when I say return to beast, so I'm going to show you one way
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We can lift up, walk your feet in, you set your load your beast
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Or this is where it gets fun. If I say slide to beast, watch me here, we're in this position
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You're going to lift your one foot. Let's say right leg slides. You're going to lift your right leg and slide forward
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Now, I'm on a mat, so it's a little bit more tricky. You might want to try this on the floor so that your foot can slide
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What I mean by that is your left foot's going to stay on the floor, your toes
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and you slide your body forward into the beast and reset. All right, so let's do that one more time
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and then I'm going to go into a underswitch, which is something really fun to do
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and I'll end you off with that one. And at any point you can come back to this flow, feel the fundamentals of rippling through your spine, what that feels like
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And remember, please to corkscrew your arms always and activate throughout your entire body
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All right, so set beast. Loaded beast
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And load. Return to load a beast. Unload. Return to load a beast
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Wave and load. Return to loaded beast
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Wave unload. Shoo. Shoo
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Loaded beast. Slide to beast. And resets. All right. So before we do that one more time, I want to show you something
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It's called a crab. You are going to start with your hands at the back
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Turn your palms to face outwards. Fingertips at the back. Keep your legs flat so they are forward, not turned out
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Keep a leg slightly wide. Press into the floor. We're going to be in a double you position
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As you pressing off the floor, that helps you to lift your tailbone
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Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Press into the earth with your legs and your hands
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eyes to the rising sun by lifting them up, hold. And recover
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So that is your crab position. What we're going to do now is your crab drills
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So you have your hands come into crab. Right leg lifts. It hovers like a piece of paper
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Keep all three points on the floor. Eyes to the rising sun. Three, two
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change left leg lift hover hold for five four three two one lift your right arm keep your position
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press into the earth lift your shoulders slightly press into your hand that's on the floor three
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two one and shift left arm press externally rotate the shoulders five four three three two two and place the hand down
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recover. I'm going to add on because we're almost at the end and I just want to add everything together
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So from here, you've got your crab position. You feel this activation. Your eyes are up to the rising sun
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Hold that feeling squeeze the shoulder blades together and come down. So reset into your beast
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What we're going to do is from your beast, I'm going to say left leg under switch. You lift your left foot off the
15:02
floor. You're going to bring the left leg, lift your right arm, slowly move and come into your crab
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Ooh it cake It really really fun So let try this again I going to show you from this angle You come into your beast Left leg lifts You keep it low the leg You lift your right arm Keep everything into the center of your body And your hand and your foot tap the ground at the same time We are only going to do that one way in this session And then when I move with you again we will
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start to increase on this particular flow. So let's try that. Come into Set Beast
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You've finished your wave unloads. Left leg under switch. And recover
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Let's try everything together. I want to run through this two more times
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And then you can practice this on your own in your own time at any point. So let's start in beast
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Set beast. Loaded beast. And load
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Return to loaded beast. Unload. Return to loaded beast. Wave and load
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Remember to ripple through your spine. Cork screw your hands. Externally rotate your shoulders
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Lift your neck. Return to loaded beast. Shoulders up into your ears
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Wave and load. Return to Lola Beast
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Return to Beast or slide to Beast. Left leg under switch. And recover
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One more time just to add something. It's a little bit extra
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What I want you to do is when you do the under switch once your left leg lifts
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So you want to lift your right arm. So it's opposition, which will help you move in to your crab pose
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Okay, let's go straight into it one last time. I'm going to talk you through it
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In Animal Flow, what we want is to marry your mind to muscle link action
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That's what will help you feel so good afterwards. All right, so let's start
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Set beast. Knees underneath your belly button. Loaded beast
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Unload. Return to load a beast. Unload. Return to loaded beast
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Wave and load. Start with your tailbone. lift your shoulders, curl through your spine, one vertebra at a time
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Engage your glutes. Externally, rotate your arms. Return to Loaded Beast
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Wave and Lodge. Return to Loaded
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the beast. Very hard to say that when your head's so high
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Slide to beast. Left leg under switch to crab. And recover
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Take your arms out wide. Lifting your arms. So please remember as you are
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moving at any point where you're wanting to feel your movements more, you can play around by
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rocking forward and backwards to find the center point. Remember the external rotation of the
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shoulder, squeezing the shoulder blades together, eyes to the rising sun in your crab, really
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activating every point into the floor, meaning one, two, three, four points in the floor and recover
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Well done, my champion. That was your 20 minutes releasing animal flow
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I'm your coach, Emila. I cannot wait to develop this language with you more
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And I will see you soon
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