Fillers are extra movements in a training program that can be added in between exercises, as active rest. I typically will pick a mobility drill that focuses on an individual’s limitation as a filler exercise, or occasionally some sort of core exercise.
The biggest benefit of “fillers” is that you can continue to hammer out a particular limitation that the individual has and that active rest in between exercises ensures that you don’t waste time standing around during training (*Not that rest is bad! In some phases of training, you may want/need to take full rest periods of nothing to ensure that you are fully recovered prior to the next lift or sprint).
An example of filler exercises for an individual thas has increased hip flexor tone and poor ankle mobility, would be to perform a split squat and then follow it up with psoas active isolated stretching, and wall ankle rocking, before repeating the split squat. It would look like this:
1a) Split Squat
1b) Psoas AIS
I have to admit, I am horrible about doing this stuff in my own training program!
I write it into all of my clients programs, but when it comes to my own, I usually don’t do it. I will often just take normal rest and then repeat the exercise. The unfortunate thing is that when I don’t do it, I notice it! I get beat up much easier in training and my durability is poor. When I am more focused on including my filler exercises, I move much better and I have less aches and pains from hard training. So, I have decided to get serious and add them back into my training program.
Give some “fillers” a try in between your normal exercises and see how they feel to you.