From time to time I have had issues with various parts of my body, and I’ve been sent to see physical therapists (PT) for back, pelvis, knee, and shoulder issues over the years. I only recently learned from a PT I was seeing that if you stretch a muscle that is weak, it will just get tight again from the stress of overuse — so if you have a muscle that is chronically tight, you need to strengthen it as well as stretch it in order to have the lasting effect of avoiding the pain and other issues that brought you to PT in the first place (doh! maybe this should have been obvious from the beginning?).

Anyway, after an intense period of doing your PT exercises every day, hopefully you get to a point where the muscles in question have been strengthened, and in order to avoid needing to go back to PT for the same issue, you probably want to enter into “maintenance mode”. My latest PT recommended that to maintain my body in decent working order, I do my PT stretches every day (or at least most days), and PT strengthening exercises twice a week; I also aim to get some sort of aerobic exercise at least four times a week (which also helps to keep my muscles strong). Friends often ask me to show them my stretches and exercises, so I’ve made this page listing them (last updated August 2025)… but only the daily stretches (you should probably be talking to your own PT to figure out which muscles you need to strengthen).

Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional of any sort, so don’t take this as a recommendation. If you choose to try anything on this page without a recommendation from your own PT or doctor, I strongly recommend that you start out carefully, listening to your body. I’ve included links to web pages and videos that show more or less what I am personally doing, along with more information on what they are for and how to modify them if needed.

Daily Stretches and Exercises

When I’m at home, I do a set of stretches and exercises every morning (although sometimes it doesn’t happen until the afternoon), and a different set just before going to bed. In the list below, I’ve put them in the order I usually do them (more or less), and indicated which stretches and exercises I do in the morning (M), evening (E), or both (B). (When I’m traveling, I just try to do most of these at some point in the day, rather than trying to adhere to my home morning/evening schedule.) Here’s my list (see notes and disclaimer above):

1. (M) Rolling feet on a hard rubber spike ball — see Howard County Foot & Ankle instructions for rolling feet . I use the Rubz massage ball.
2. (M) Sitting on squishy ball for pelvic release — see Choice Health Center’s instructions for pelvic release (something like #2 on that page, but with a squishy ball and in the center)
3. (M) Foam roller wall slide forward — see HealthCentral’s page of shoulder exercises for osteoarthritis (slide 4 on that page, but I do it one arm at a time in a doorway, so that my body can go forward of my arm; I also do it both with the palms pointing inwards as in that slide and also palms forward). I use a section of a pool noodle to roll on — you can buy one at a dollar store and cut it with ordinary scissors.
4. (M) Foam roller wall slide to the side — like the previous stretch, but out to the side, both with palms facing forward and palms facing sideways.
5. (M) Doorway pectoral stretch — see Saint Luke’s Doorway Pectoral Stretch
6. (B) Posture reset — stand with one hand on belly and one hand behind back, feet hip width apart. Lift the head straight up to lengthen the spine, and feel the multifidus muscles engaging. Take a few slow breaths.
7. (B) Shoulder roll in backwards direction
8. (B) Scapular retraction — see Garage Gym Reviews Scapular Retraction
9. (B) Standing ITB stretch — see Verywell Fit IT Band Stretches (#3 on that page)
10. (M) Wrist stretches — see WebMD page about carpal tunnel stretches (prayer and wrist extensor stretches on that page)
11. (B) SI joint release — this is something my latest PT taught me — hard to describe and I haven’t found a page or video for it.
12. (E) Achilles/calf stretch — see Kaiser Permanente Achilles Exercises (“Calf stretch”, but I also do it with the back knee bent)
13. (B) Seated figure four stretch — see WikiHow Seated Figure Four
14. (E) Neck isometric exercises — see Mobile Physical Therapy Isometric Neck Exercises (I do them seated)
15. (B) Hamstring Stretch — see Mobile Physical Therapy Hamstring Stretch (I do “Standing Hamstring Stretch (One Leg at a Time)” in the morning and “The Towel Hamstring Stretch” in the evening)
16. (M) Standing quad stretch — see More Life Health Senior-Friendly Quadriceps Stretches
17. (M) Kegel exercises — see WikiHow Kegel Exercises
18. (B) Figure 4 trunk rotation — see East Meets West Figure 4 Trunk Rotation on YouTube
19. (M) Happy Baby pose — see Body by Yoga Happy Baby Pose
20. (E) Supine butterfly stretch — see doyou Reclined Bound Angle Pose
21. (E) Cat and cow pose — see PopSugar Cat and Cow (I do this with one knee up a few inches on a yoga block, and then the other knee)
22. (B) Child’s Pose — see Gym Geek Child’s Pose
23. (M) Sphinx Pose — see Verywell Fit heart opening poses (#3 on that page)
24. (E) Seated spinal twist — see Yoga Rove spinal twists (seated twist, but I do it sitting on my knees instead of with crossed legs)
25. (B) Kneeling lunge — see Laird Chiropractic Kneeling Lunge
26. (E) Muscle rolling – upper and lower legs with stick roller or small massage roller tool; also rolling back against wall on firm medium-sized foam ball. Tools: TriggerPoint 5 inch massage ball, a Yansyi stick roller, and a small BioSwiss 5-head hand-held massage roller.

Twice Weekly Strengthening Exercises

I haven’t included my list of twice-weekly maintenance strengthening exercises here — you should probably work with your own doctor or PT to figure out what muscles you need to strengthen.

But I will mention that besides my personalized PT exercises, I also do some mindful movement (Tai Chi, Qigong, or yoga) several times a week, and this is also good for maintaining strength. I maintain a list of resources for mindfulness, including mindful movement, near the bottom of my page on Healing and Personal Growth Resources (in the section about the Palouse Mindfulness MBSR course).