So today I’m talking about mobility. I am no master of it myself, but I can tell you what has helped me a ton! Its not just stretching! I used to walk into the gym every day and sit on a mat and touch my toes and what not. I thought I was super flexible because I could touch my toes! hahaha. It was not until my level 1 certification that I realized how bad my issue was. I had a problem with my knees caving in on my squats. Normally when you squat down your weight should be on your heels and your knees should drive outward. My problem was my knees would drive inside of my ankles and my weight would be on my toes. This was causing a ton of pain in my knees when lifting and running! So, along with some fellow trainers and a Dr. we figured out what my problem really was. see photo:
What we realized when I was trying to tackle this issue is that I had VERY little hip flexibility. I never thought that my knee problem could be derived from my hip….BUT it totally was! My problem, and most people’s problem is their IT band. Now, if you are anything like I was, you probably have never even heard of this tricky ligament. It runs from the hip to the top of the knee.
Because I was not flexible in my hips, my IT band was really tight and causing problems all the way down to my knee. So, here’s what I did. I made sure every day before and after workouts that I rolled it out, either on a foam roller or a lacrosse ball (OUCH).
I did a different stretching regiment that included stretches like these ones…
and I would also drop into a super low squat (think like how a baby squats) and hold it for a few minutes. If you can hold a super low squat, find something sturdy to hold on to while you do it. I focused about 20 minutes a day on my hip flexibility and I can say that now I have absolutely no knee pain! Its amazing! If you’ve got some good tips about knee pain, comment and let us in on it!
buffbetty 
The two yoga postures you included pics of are great for that, and in addition pigeon is great for sciatic pain as it stretches the muscle that runs over the sciatic nerve. Yoga can be incredibly helpful with a lot of issues – oh and you don’t need to go and see the doc and it’s cheap and easy to do at home :)