Every once in a while, you might encounter an exercise you feel your body disagrees with, meaning it’s either too hard or symptoms are triggered.
I’ve put together this resource based on the exercises people reach out to us the most about asking for modification and help. Before you explore the exercise modification content below, my first recommendation to you will always be this:
Try less.
I say this because whenever I’ve given someone an exercise and they come back saying it was painful, triggered symptoms, or wasn’t ‘good’ for them, I always ask this person to show me how they were doing it. Almost always, when the person would show me how they were doing something, they were trying too hard or doing too much. They would bring too much force into a movement or position making the exercise harder than it should have been. They would tense up their entire body, nearly hold their breath, or their breath would become short and shallow.
No wonder why the exercise had a poor outcome.
They were training their nervous system to tense up and fight back.
Remember, especially in the early stages of Phase 1 and Phase 2, we are trying to improve motor control; how the nervous system communicates with the muscular system. Think of every exercise as your nerves “having a simple conversation” with your muscles. If you are bringing a lot of force, cranking on a range of motion, holding your breath, tensing up, and fighting what you feel, motor control most likely won’t change much, and you’ll push your soft tissue past its function point triggered adverse reactions like inflammation, or a flare-up. A lot of these exercises are really about learning how to do them. Not biomechanically or the cues, I mean how to breathe and how much intensity to use, how to meet your body where you’re at, and how to engage with all the sensations you feel.
You might find you need a lot of modifications if you are trying to use force and intensity or showing up trying to power or wince your way through each movement.
Now we’ve gotten that out of the way, if you feel like you are being gentle, calm, and doing the exercises with less force and intensity, AND you still need modifications, check out your options below. , check out the list below of common exercises people need modifications for and what the alternative is.
Let’s first start off with the main exercises people need the most help with:
Hip Twist Over Stretch
Mid-back Spine Opener
L Position on Back
Wall Sit
Wall Clock
If there’s an exercise you need a modification with outside of this list, scroll down to the bottom to learn simple ways to replace that exercise with something more beneficial.
The Hip Twist Over Stretch:
Though this exercise is simple, if the hip has a minimal ability to rotate, this exercise can be very difficult if not straight-up painful. So we are going to regress this a few ways.
The first regression is simplifying the exercise so just the hip rotates:
Once the above exercise feels comfortable and functional, you can take it up a notch by getting the hips and pelvis to start rotating together:
As the two exercises above feel more comfortable, available, and functional, you should be able to start adding The Hip Twist over exercise back into your routine. If your knee can’t reach the ground, as shown in the Hip Twist Over video, you can always prop a yoga block or object underneath your knee to offer more support.
Mid-back Spine Opener:
This exercise is one of the main exercises that I see people needing modifications for two main reasons:
They are overdoing this exercise. Instead of breathing and meeting your body where it’s at, people will crank, twist, and torque their upper body to rotate much more than it can actually handle. Instead of being gentle with rotation and a function your body might not be used to or capable of yet, this cranking tends to cause more irritation, which offsets the benefit.
Spine rotation is one of the most severe dysfunctions I see people have because how often do you rotate your spine daily? Chances are not much, so when it comes time to rotate the spine with this exercise, all sorts of discomfort, compensation, and problems appear. In reality, this exercise might be the first time that day or in a while that you’ve asked your spine to rotate, so show yourself grace if it’s really challenging.
That all being said, let’s find a few different and more accessible ways to explore spine movement together…
Modification for Mid-back Spine Opener:
The simplest modification for regressing this exercise is to take my advice above in the intro and apply it here - try less. Try half of the range of motion you think you should be doing and see if you can meet your body more of where it’s at. IF reducing intensity with this exercise does not help improve your experience or outcomes and you need other ways to bring the motion to your midback, try any of the exercises below.
Maybe just asking your spine to rotate by itself in the Mid-back Spine Opener puts too much demand on your spine muscles. Try this standing version of rotation that also has your hips/pelvis rotating with your spine making rotation more of a full-body exercise:
If the Standing Wall Twist didn’t help make spine rotation more accessible, then let’s regress this even further and take rotation out altogether for now until function and movement return to your spine. The Cat-Cow exercise can help bring basic movement into the midback without cranking or rotating. Every time you flex and extend your spine, you are tapping back into the ability for your spine to move.
Foot Function or Hip twist over If spine rotation is inaccessible due to degenerative conditions, herniations, etc., then the modifications are going to target how other joints rotate.
Like replacing a spine rotation exercise with a foot, hip, or pelvis rotation.
Idea here is to not eliminate rotation altogether, because you need to rotate to navigate your environment so we can’t just skip it. If you have a severe rotational dysfunction, then we need to focus on other places within your kinetic chain to restore as much rotational function as possible so when it comes time to rotate, you have more available options to do so.
Prone airplane can be a great substitute because it does help target a rotation function with the shoulders, but it most likely wasn’t recommended to you because if the spine dysfunction is so severe, let’s find a more accessible way to start improving rotation further away where compensation is less likely to occur.
If there’s fear, and uncertainty, you don’t have to power through anything… let’s always find easier, gentler, alternative exercises.
Last on this modification list is another exercise that brings motion to the midback. This exercise, however, focuses on the side-to-side motion of the back while putting the shoulders to work. If you can’t rotate the spine due to limitation, dysfunction, and weakness, this exercise can help you stimulate and place a demand on muscles in the shoulders and mid-back. You might find that as your upper body gets stronger, the Mid-back Spine Opener feels like it’s getting easier and easier because the muscles can work and function when you ask them to.
L Position on Back:
This exercise is a common position that needs modification due to how common hip, pelvis, and spine dysfunction is. If you are needing a modification for this exercise, I have to assume there is minimal ability for your hips to flex with your knee straight, which means, most likely, there’s a lot of work and movement in your pelvis and lower back. If pelvic and spine motion are compromised from this lack of hip function, chances are either you are experiencing pain or significant limitation, or this exercise isn’t possible right now for you…yet.
Try the modifications below to improve your ability to do this exercise:
My first suggestion is to scoot further away from the wall until your pelvis rests on the ground and your lower back relaxes. For some of you, that might be a foot or more away from the wall. IF you’ve already tried that and feel like you need to modify it further, I want you to try the exercise below to try and create more length in the hamstring so that over time, the L Position on Back exercise becomes more accessible, thus more comfortable:
If lengthening your hamstrings is triggering and painful for you right now, and the above exercise modification didn’t help, we will take a different approach. Instead of lengthening the hamstrings, we will strengthen the quads (front thighs.) The stronger your quads, the less your hamstrings will have to work over time. Quad strength can be a great back door to better hamstring flexibility. Try either of the exercises below and see which one is more helpful or beneficial:
If strengthening the quads doesn’t feel like it helps, let’s take an even simpler approach and improve how your hip flexes and/or rotates. Try either of the exercises below and choose which one you feel is more helpful or beneficial:
Neutral Position Wall Sit:
Though this exercise can help stabalize your knee and strengthen your leg muscles, some might find it uncomfortable or painful. Explore the modification suggestions below to find a more appropriate exercise that is more helpful for you:
My first suggestion would be to come up higher in the exercise. If this exercise is painful or uncomfortable, you might be going down too low, putting excessive pressure on your knees without your legs being strong enough to support you at that angle. If you’ve already played with height and are still needing a modification, try the standing Squat, which will help distribute work to more muscle groups reducing the pressure on the knee: Squat
If the Squat exercise above wasn’t helpful, we have to get creative and find a different way to strengthen the front hip and thigh muscles. Try the exercise below as an alternative variation. Notice how we are strengthening the quads still at a 90 degree angle using an isometric hold, we are just doing so in a different position hip position: Kneeling Wall Clock
Maybe the above two exercises aren’t great fits for you either. If that’s the case, I want you to look at the exercises below as alternative ways to improve how the muscles in the hips or legs function until enough function has been regained so the Neutral Position Wall Sit, Squat, or Kneeling Wall Clock becomes more accessible.
Was the exercise you need help with not on this list? Read the section below:
We are working on offering modifications for all exercises. Until we can integrate these changes into the program, if you need modifications or replacements with any other exercise, the following section should help you quickly make changes so you can continue making great progress.
The above modifications for the main five exercises were helpful for you, or maybe you found them to be just as challenging or problematic as the original exercise you needed help with. If none of my suggestions were helpful, you could substitute any problematic exercise in the program with any of the basic exercises below. Explore all of them and choose which exercise you feel is the most helpful/beneficial/valuable to you. Make it easy - don’t overthink it. Choose one that helps you target imbalance, weak, or dysfunctional muscles.
The above exercises are simple universal replacements because improving how your glutes work, how your hips rotate, or how your feet support you are always great substitutions if you come across an exercise that your body disagrees with or would like to modify or alter!