Training Habits

The Travel Shakeout: Your Plan to Arrive Loose, Not Stiff

Rhema Adelaja · National Champion & 4x DUX · September 2026 · 6 min read

You sit to get to training, then feel stiff when you arrive. Use this simple, 3-minute pre-training mobility routine to start your warm-up feeling loose, ready, and prepared.

You know the feeling. The car door opens and you swing your legs out. For a second, you feel about 80 years old. Your back is stiff. Your hips feel glued together. You travelled 45 minutes to get to training, and now the first ten minutes of your warm-up will be spent just trying to feel like an athlete again.

I remember this from my own career. Long bus journeys to away games were the worst. We would arrive, pile off the bus, and try to jog. It felt less like a jog and more like a shuffle. We were wasting precious time trying to undo the damage of the journey, instead of preparing our minds and bodies to compete. It was a frustrating, passive way to start a session or a match day.

You cannot control the traffic or the distance to the training ground. But you can control how you arrive. You do not have to accept that stiffness is part of the process. You can take three minutes to reset your body before you even walk into the changing room.

Why Sitting Makes You Stiff

When you sit for a long time, your body adapts to that position. Your hip flexors, the muscles at the front of your hips, become short and tight. Your glutes, the powerful muscles in your backside, effectively switch off. Your hamstrings get tight, and the small stabilising muscles in your back become inactive. This is not a good state to be in when you are about to sprint, jump, or change direction.

This is not just a feeling. It has real, physical consequences. Research shows that prolonged sitting can negatively affect your body. Even for highly trained athletes, long periods of sitting can impair blood-vessel function in your legs. It can also make it harder for your body to recover. One recent study suggested that more time spent sitting could be linked to delayed recovery after intense exercise, meaning you carry more fatigue into your next session.

So when you get out of the car and feel stiff, your body is sending you a clear signal. It is not ready for high-intensity work. If you ignore it and jump straight into a team warm-up, you are not just performing badly. You are increasing your risk of injury. You are asking tight, inactive muscles to perform explosive movements. That is a recipe for a strain or a pull.

Take Back the First Five Minutes

Think about what happens now. You arrive, feel stiff, and join the team for a jog and some dynamic stretches. But you are not really present. You are focused on your tight back or your locked-up hips. You are going through the motions. Your teammates who walked or cycled to the session are already moving freely. They are connecting with their bodies and preparing for the work ahead. You are playing catch-up.

This is a waste of your time and your focus. The warm-up is a vital part of your training programme. It is your chance to prepare your body for the specific demands of the session. It is not meant to be a recovery session from your car journey. By arriving unprepared, you lose this opportunity. You start on the back foot, mentally and physically.

There is a better way. It is a simple pre-training mobility routine I call the Travel Shakeout. It is not your main warm-up. It is a three-minute reset you do by yourself, in the car park or on the side of the pitch, the moment you arrive. It is designed to counteract the specific problems caused by sitting, so you can start your proper warm-up feeling loose and ready to work.

Your 3-Minute Travel Shakeout Routine

Find a bit of flat ground next to your car or by the entrance to the pitch. You do not need any equipment. You just need three minutes. The goal is to move smoothly through these exercises with little to no rest. This will wake up your nervous system, increase your core temperature, and activate the right muscles.

Movement 1: Lying Knee Hugs

Lie on your back. If the ground is wet, you can do this standing, but lying down helps to stabilise your spine. Gently pull one knee towards your chest, holding it for two to three seconds. You should feel a stretch in your glute and lower back. Release and switch to the other leg. Alternate legs for 60 seconds. This movement gently stretches the glutes, hamstrings, and hip flexors that get tight during a drive.

Movement 2: 90/90 Stretch

Stay lying on your back and roll onto one side. Bend your hips and knees to 90 degrees, stacking them on top of each other. Keep your knees together. Extend both arms straight out in front of you, with your palms together. Now, keep your lower body still as you lift your top arm up and over, rotating your upper body until your back is flat on the floor, or as close as you can get. Your head should follow your moving hand. Return to the start and repeat. Do 30 seconds on one side, then 30 seconds on the other. This opens up your thoracic spine, the part of your back that gets rounded and stiff from sitting.

Movement 3: Drop Lunge

Stand up. Take a big step back and across with your right foot, as if you are doing a curtsy. Lower your hips down and towards the floor, keeping your chest up. You should feel a deep stretch on the outside of your left hip. Push back up to the starting position and repeat on the other side. Alternate sides for 60 seconds. This rotational lunge targets the outside of the hips and glutes, waking them up after being inactive in the car. These three movements are all recommended by performance specialists to prepare the body for work.

Make It a Non-Negotiable Habit

This routine is simple. The hard part is making it consistent. The best way to build a new habit is to attach it to an old one. Your existing habit is: get out of the car and grab your training bag. Your new habit is: get out of the car, do the 3-minute Travel Shakeout, then grab your training bag.

Do not overthink it. Do not wait until you feel like it. Just do it. Every single time you travel to train. The first few times might feel a bit strange, doing stretches in a car park. But soon, your body will expect it. You will start to notice the difference. You will walk into the changing room feeling looser, more athletic, and mentally switched on.

This is what separates elite performers from the rest. They take responsibility for their own preparation. They do not leave it to chance. They identify a problem, like travel stiffness, and they find a simple, effective solution. They build professional habits that give them an edge.

Next time you head to training, your task is clear. When you park the car or get off the bus, find a space. Put your phone timer on for three minutes. Work through the shakeout. Then walk into your session, ready to train properly from the very first minute.