If you grew up in the early 1980's its a near certainty you played a little PacMan.

As it was the best thing we knew of at the time, it didn't matter that the whole game involved crudely moving only in straight lines.

It's nothing like today's gaming world, where you can move every way imaginable. There's a near perfect replication of real life.

Funny how technology has come so far, yet many of us still implement a stretching routine that PacMan would be proud of.

Want to loosen up your hamstring?

Pull your leg straight back, or bend to touch your toes.

How about your shoulders?

Grab onto something and pull straight back.

Ankles? Hips?

Move 'em in straight lines Frogger-style.

Now it is true that some muscles can become more flexible through straight line stretching.

The issue is that your shoulders, hips and ankles do not simply move in straight lines.

They rotate as well, requiring rotational mobility exercises.

These three joints also happen to be the most important ones to have fully mobile, as limitations can wreak havoc on your movement quality.

Repetitive sport movements, or even just our resting posture, creates gradual changes in our joint alignment.

Maybe we run with our toes turned outward, which slowly tightens up the outsides of our ankle joints.

Perhaps we sit with a bit of a slouch, weakening the back of the hip and shoulder joints.

There are endless examples of how our daily movements knock these key joints out of whack.

To restore them you must move them in the same way they move in everyday life.

If you have tightness in your ankles, hips or shoulders, you should strongly consider adding rotational stretches to workout programming.

It won't take up a lot of time. Simply spend 1-2 minutes per day on each restricted area.

At most that's 6-12 minutes if you were tight on both your left and right sides at all three joints.

Skip and area that isn't tight to save time.

Shoulder Rotational Stretch

Hip Rotational Stretch

Ankle Rotational Stretch

Rotational stretches are embedded in yoga and other ancient exercise practices. They are not a new concept by any means.

They are, however, quite undervalued in our current fitness environment.

Give the above stretches a try for at least 2 weeks, and see if it makes a positive difference for you.