Transcription:

In this session, the equipment that you'll need is a chair, a wall, a support. And one of the exercises requires some sliding of the knee that you'll be kneeling on. So just have a bit of a test of whether your fabric will slide on your surface.

Focus of this session is stretching the big muscles in the back of the leg, the hamstrings, and also, the muscles on the inside of the leg, the groin muscles. The first one we do using the chair. I've got the back of the chair braced against the wall. And we'll do one leg at a time.

So take the weight on one foot. Support yourself on the chair, as you lift the other foot up, and place it just comfortably on the seat of the chair, and then bring both hands so you're absolutely stable here.

Notice that my leg is completely bent. So you keep that leg bent, and follow along with me. We start with the leg bent so that we can bend forward and get as much of the body in contact with that thigh as possible.

Breathe and relax there, get used to that position. And then to bring on the stretch in the hamstring at the back of that leg that's up on the chair, slowly, smoothly, start to press your bottom out behind you, without losing the contact of the body and the thigh.

It's pretty unlikely that you'd be able to get the knee completely straight, but that's what we're doing, a knee-straightening action. Breathe and relax. Every time you breathe out, that's when you're moving further into the stretch. And also, rest the body more on the thigh; maintain that contact there.

So let's do a couple of breaths in and out here in our initial stretch position. How does it feel for you? Where do you feel it in that very big muscle?

And now we're going to do a contraction. Put all of your attention into the heel that's resting up on the chair. And for a count of five, try to push the heel straight down into the chair.

Let's do that together now for five, four, three – press the heel into the chair – two, one. Slowly stop contracting, take a deep breath in, and as you breathe out, let the upper body relax on the thigh.

Take another deep breath in, and as you breathe out, making another little effort to try and straighten that knee a little bit more. Breathe and relax there. Let the head hang forward if that allows you to stay even more relaxed. Three more deep breaths in and out here. One more breath.

To come out, take a deep breath in, hold the breath as you bring your body upright. Put the foot down. And we'll try the same thing on the other side.

So stabilize yourself on the chair as you bring the heel up, then both hands on the chair. Have your stretching leg as bent as you need it to be in order to get the body down on top of it. Rest there. Breathe comfortably.

And now, slowly, smoothly, you're doing a knee-straightening effort. Think about leading with your buttocks, particularly on the side of the leg that you're stretching. Really stick that buttock up behind you.

Breathe, and every time you breathe out, relax the torso more onto that thigh. A couple of deep breaths in and out in this initial stretch position. How does it feel compared to the first side?

Okay, now for the contraction. Put all of your attention into the heel on the chair there. And for the count of five, we press the heel straight down into the chair.

Let's start that now, for five, four, three, two, one. Slowly stop contracting, take a deep breath in. First out breath, relax everything. Another full deep breath in and out, and as you breathe out, see if you can straighten that knee just a little bit more.

Focus on your breathing. Can you breathe comfortably and feel yourself relax a little bit more with each outbreath? Two more breaths. One more breath.

Take a breath in and hold it as you bring yourself upright, so you don't feel lightheaded, and step the foot down.

Okay. Next, a stretch for the inside leg muscles. This is where we need the wall. So bring yourself over here, sitting down. Make sure your bottom is backed right in against the wall. That keeps us upright from the base of the spine.

Use your hands, excuse me, to pull your heels as close in as you comfortably can. And then, how far apart do the knees go today? How close do they get towards the floor? What does it feel like? Where is the stretch focused for you today?

Now, bring the knees up a fraction, slacken the stretch, put the hands on the underside, and then work out how you can activate muscles in the back of the hips here, to press the knees down into your hands.

Once you've got the feeling, take away that tactile cue, and continue to use the muscles at the back of the hip joints to pull the knees as far open as you can. Breathe and relax. Good.

Contraction we'll do here today is the feet, try to press them together, literally like you're pressing the hands together, but it's the feet. So have a go at that. We'll do it for five. Off you go.

Five, four, three – keep going, they're resisting each other perfectly – two, two, two, keep going, one. Stop, take a deep breath in, and as you breathe out, firstly, relax. Another full breath in.

As you breathe out, using the muscles at the back of the hip, can you pull the knees a bit wider? Keep using the muscles at the back of the hips. And as well, you can use a little bit of pressing down through the arms.

Big deep breaths in and out. Let's do three full deep breaths here, trying to relax all the inside leg muscles, trying to relax your belly. Two more breaths. One more breath.

And then, it feels nice to help the knees up, till the stretch goes away to the point that you can just stretch the legs to the front, and roll them in and out a few times.

Okay, back to the hamstrings. This one will be done in a lunge position, and you'll need your support.

One foot steps forward. Knees, I've got sufficient padding here on this bit of carpet. I'm going to start with this leg as bent as I need it to be so that I can get my body down on top of that thigh, just like you did in the chair hamstring a moment ago.

And then I'm going to hook the same arm to hold my body in contact with that thigh. And my other hand is on the support. You might find hand on floor is better for you. Have a play with that.

Get used to this position, feel the contact of the body and the thigh. And now here is the key cue for this exercise. You're trying to use these big thigh muscles to do a knee straightening action, the effect being that that back knee slides back.

I'm not pressing back with the front foot or the hand on the support. I'm using the thigh muscle here to slowly, slowly straighten this knee, maintaining the contact of my body and that thigh.

Breathe and relax. By all means let the head hang completely forward. I'm going to make a little adjustment with my support, and come onto an elbow. My front foot is flat on the floor. You might find it more comfortable for your ankle and foot to come up onto the heel. Play with that.

Okay, the contraction we're going to do here is, put all of your attention into that front heel, and you're going to attempt to do a hooking action, as though you wanted to hook the heel through the floor and back towards the buttock.

So it's a knee bending action that you're attempting, but you can't bend it because you're holding yourself still. So let's do that for a count of five, four – you're trying to hook the heel through the floor towards the buttock – three, two, one, slowly stop contracting, take a deep breath in.

First out breath, relax. Body takes a lot of effort to do the contraction. Take another deep breath in, and as you breathe out, use the thigh muscles on the front leg; can you slide back just a bit more?

And then, let everything go limp. Three deep breaths in and out here. That's one, two more breaths. Big breath, let the body relax. Let the belly relax on the outbreaths.

Okay, to come out of position, put the hands on the floor. Lift yourself up until you feel the stretch come away, to the point that you can just pull yourself out of it. Okay?

Let's try the same thing on the other side. Did you feel your temperature go up? This is a big stretch for a big muscle group.

Okay. Step the other foot forward. Block is there if you need it. And we start with the front knee bent so that we can get all of the body down in contact with it. And we do this arm position to hold yourself in contact.

Breathe and relax. And then here we go taking yourself into the stretch, using the thigh muscle of the front leg to start to straighten that knee. And the effect will be that the back knee on the floor will slide back.

As soon as you feel the stretch come on somewhere through the back of this forward leg, you pause there, breathe comfortably, and make sure you're relaxing, not holding yourself up away from the stretch. Do whatever you need with your supports to feel comfortable.

A couple of breaths in and out here. One more breath. And then I'm going to come up onto the heel. I find if I'm on the heel a little bit more it makes this contraction more effective. So the contraction is you're attempting to hook the front heel through the floor, back towards the buttock.

Let's do that together for a count of five, four – brace yourself so nothing else moves; you're just trying to do the hooking action – for three, two, one.

Slowly stop contracting. Take a deep breath in, and as you breathe out, relax all of the effort you just had for the contraction.

Take another deep breath in, and as you breathe out, use the thigh muscle on the front leg to try and slide a little bit further. Three more deep breaths in and out here. Breathe and relax. Let the body be supported by the front leg. One more deep breath in and out.

To come out, take a breath in and hold it, so you don't feel lightheaded when you come up. Get the hands underneath you so you can lift away enough that you can pull yourself out.

Excellent, big hamstring stretch that one; super effective. Now you get to lie down. I'm just going to move the chair out of the way, because I need a little bit more wall space.

This one's a lying exercise. Now, ideally, you'd want your buttock all the way in against the wall. But if you go all the way in, and you can't get the knees straight, then have the bum out a little bit. This is a straight kneed exercise.

You're just going to lie on your back. I'm going to creep my bottom in a little bit further. What you do with your feet, whether they're pointed or pulled back, that's completely up to you, whatever's comfortable.

But what you do want to do is contract these muscles here to hold the knees straight, so they're very strong, and then slide the legs apart, to whatever is a stretch for your inside leg muscles.

Keep some tension in these thigh muscles. That will make the inside of the knees feel very secure and strong. Breathe and relax.

Ideally, you want to keep the lower back on the floor, but if it lifts up a little bit, that's okay. And because you're lying, you should be able to relax nicely. There's no real effort, apart from the work being done by these thigh muscles to hold the knees straight.

If that's tricky for you, you could put your hands just above the knees and press into them a little bit. That can help.

Let's just do three more breaths in and out here. One more breath. And to come out of the position, it can help to use the arms to start to bring the legs together. Bend them when you comfortably can, and roll off to the side. Lift yourself up with your arms.

To finish this session we're going to do a chair hip stretch. Sometimes, when people do any kind of legs apart they get a little bit of residual tension at the back here, so we'll ease it out.

Sitting comfortably on your chair, one foot flat on the floor, that'll be your stabilizing leg. Lift the foot up. It's just the outside of the foot crossed above the knee there. Opposite arm comes through and hooks around.

You've had to slump to get into that initial position. So the key aspect of this exercise is the action of taking the chest along the thigh, until you feel the stretch in the outer part of this hip.

Wriggle around a bit, make sure you got weight on both buttocks. That's my favorite word, buttocks. And breathe and relax. So we're using this as a recovery movement after the one we just did against the wall. It doesn't need to be a big stretch.

A couple more breaths in and out. One more breath. And to come out, slump away. Lower the leg down if you feel you need that support. And same thing on the other side. So bring the leg up, with just the outside of the foot resting there.

Opposite arm comes through, hooks around, had to slump to get to this first position. Key cue here, move the chest along the thigh, until that produces the stretch in this hip.

Breathe. You can use this hooked arm to pull the thigh into the body a bit more if that helps for you. Wriggle, make sure you got weight on both buttocks. A couple more breaths in and out. And come away, slump back, lower the leg down.

So that's it for this session, big hamstring stretch and some inner leg muscle stretches. You may well feel some soreness there in the next few days. I'll see you next time.

Program 10: Chair hamstring, tailor pose, lunge hamstring, wall legs apart, chair piriformis

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