--- title: "Mat exercises" description: "Stretches for calves, hamstrings, hip flexors and shoulders, plus spine mobility. Technique on video, and what a mat does not do for you." locale: en url: "https://hi.fitness/exercises/equipment/mat" count: 44 type: equipment code: MAT --- # Mat exercises A mat offers no resistance. It is a surface that lets you lie down, kneel and rest your spine on something soft, so this category collects what you do on the floor: stretching and mobility. Almost everything here is a position you hold for half a minute or so, not a set of reps. Several of these positions do not need a mat at all - you stretch a calf against a wall or off a step, the back hanging from a pull-up bar, and a few variations rest the hips on a stability ball. Treat this set as "work down at floor level", not as a list of gear you have to buy. ## Is a mat even equipment? Not the way a barbell or a resistance band is. A mat loads nothing and makes nothing mechanically easier. It does two things: it cushions your spine, knees and elbows in lying and kneeling positions, and it gives you a stable, non-slip patch where a hand or a foot will not slide. The sit-up description starts with putting a mat under your lower back, and that is the whole of its role. Which is why this category has no progression in the usual sense. There is no smallest plate here, no shorter band, no pin one notch lower. Your range does get better from week to week, but it depends on so many things at once - body temperature, time of day, what you did earlier - that treating it like a number on the bar leads nowhere. The one strength exercise in the set is the sit-up, and even that uses the mat purely as padding under the lower back. ## When does stretching make sense? The catalog answers that itself on the cat stretch: as part of a cool-down, or when you want to take tension out of your back. Most of the descriptions call for holding the position 15 to 30 seconds and repeating it on both sides - that is not a training protocol, it is just how a single position is performed. The choice is simpler than it looks: stretch what is actually bothering you. After a day at a desk that is usually the hip flexors and the front of the shoulders. After running, calves and hamstrings. After heavy squats, quads. This category is split by muscle group, so instead of working through all of it in order, open the one that is talking to you. Comfort is the limit. That line the descriptions keep coming back to, stretching "only as far as is comfortable", is not legal cover - in a position where you are fighting pain the muscle tenses up reflexively and the point of the stretch is gone. ## Common mistakes - **Bouncing in the stretch** - The descriptions in the atlas consistently say to ease into a stretch and avoid sudden movement. Pulsing rhythmically into the end position raises your odds of straining something, not your range. - **A rounded back on the reach** - In a hamstring stretch you reach toward the foot with a flat back. Round the spine and your hand does get further, but the stretch moves off the hamstring and into the lower back. - **Hips off the floor** - Lying face down and pulling a heel toward the glute, it is easy to let the pelvis lift and turn a quad stretch into a low-back arch. Press the hips into the floor and accept the smaller range. ## By equipment - [Quads](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/quads) - 11 exercises - [Lower Back](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/lower-back) - 7 exercises - [Glutes](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/glutes) - 5 exercises - [Core](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/core) - 4 exercises - [Hamstrings](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/hamstrings) - 4 exercises - [Lats](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/lats) - 4 exercises - [Mid chest](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/chest) - 4 exercises - [Calves](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/calves) - 3 exercises - [Forearms](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms) - 1 exercises - [Front delts](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/front-delts) - 1 exercises ## All Mat exercises - [Cat Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/cat-stretch) - Lower Back · Mat - [Child Pose](https://hi.fitness/exercises/child-pose) - Lower Back · Mat - [Lying Crossover Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/lying-crossover-stretch) - Lower Back · Mat - [Kneeling Wrist Flexor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/kneeling-wrist-flexor-stretch) - Forearms · Mat - [Legs Hand Reach Spine Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/legs-hand-reach-spine-stretch) - Lower Back · Mat - [Child Pose Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/child-pose-up) - Lower Back · Mat - [Ceiling Look Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/ceiling-look-stretch) - Lower Back · Mat - [Iron Cross Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/iron-cross-stretch) - Lower Back · Mat - [Seated Single Leg Hamstring Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/seated-single-leg-hamstring-stretch) - Hamstrings · Mat - [Hamstring Lying Straight Leg Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/hamstring-lying-straight-leg-stretch) - Hamstrings · Mat - [Hamstring Lying Curl Up Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/hamstring-lying-curl-up-stretch) - Hamstrings · Mat - [Seated Calf Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/seated-calf-stretch) - Calves · Mat - [Seated Straight Leg Calf Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/seated-straight-leg-calf-stretch) - Calves · Mat - [Calf Stretch with Rope](https://hi.fitness/exercises/calf-stretch-with-rope) - Calves · Other - [Alternating Leg Downward Dog](https://hi.fitness/exercises/alternating-leg-downward-dog) - Hamstrings · Mat - [Lying Glute Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/lying-glute-stretch) - Glutes · Mat - [Seated Cross Leg Glute Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/seated-cross-leg-glute-stretch) - Glutes · Mat - [90 to 90 Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/90-to-90-stretch) - Glutes · Mat - [Bridge Pose Setu Bandhasana](https://hi.fitness/exercises/bridge-pose-setu-bandhasana) - Glutes · Mat - [3 Leg Dog Pose](https://hi.fitness/exercises/3-leg-dog-pose) - Glutes · Mat - [Cobra Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/cobra-push-up) - Mid chest · Mat - [Kneeling Lat Floor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/kneeling-lat-floor-stretch) - Lats · Mat - [Side Lying Floor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/side-lying-floor-stretch) - Lats · Mat - [Pretzel Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/pretzel-stretch) - Lats · Mat - [Extended Side Angle](https://hi.fitness/exercises/extended-side-angle) - Lats · Mat - [Cobra Yoga Pose Hold](https://hi.fitness/exercises/cobra-yoga-pose-hold) - Mid chest · Mat - [Cobra Side Ab Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/cobra-side-ab-stretch) - Mid chest · Mat - [3 Leg Chatarunga Pose](https://hi.fitness/exercises/3-leg-chatarunga-pose) - Mid chest · Mat - [Abdominal Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/abdominal-stretch) - Core · Mat - [Abdominal Stretch ( Version2 )](https://hi.fitness/exercises/abdominal-stretch-version2) - Core · Mat - [Backward Abdominal Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/backward-abdominal-stretch) - Core · Mat - [Lying (Prone) Abdominal Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/lying-prone-abdominal-stretch) - Core · Mat - [Armless Prayer Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/armless-prayer-stretch) - Front delts · Mat - [Lying Quadriceps Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/lying-quadriceps-stretch) - Quads · Mat - [Lying Side Quadriceps Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/lying-side-quadriceps-stretch) - Quads · Mat - [All Fours Quad Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/all-fours-quad-stretch) - Quads · Mat - [Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/kneeling-hip-flexor-stretch) - Quads · Mat - [Crossover Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/crossover-kneeling-hip-flexor-stretch) - Quads · Mat - [Lying Hip Flexor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/lying-hip-flexor-stretch) - Quads · Mat - [Intermediate Hip Flexor and Quad Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/intermediate-hip-flexor-and-quad-stretch) - Quads · Resistance band - [Adductor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/adductor-stretch) - Quads · Mat - [Adductor Dynamic Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/adductor-dynamic-stretch) - Quads · Mat - [Butterfly Yoga Flaps](https://hi.fitness/exercises/butterfly-yoga-flaps) - Quads · Mat - [Butterfly Yoga Pose](https://hi.fitness/exercises/butterfly-yoga-pose) - Quads · Mat