Transcription:

For this session, the equipment that you'll need is a wall to lean on, a chair because we're going to try doing a squat, and make sure your chair is completely stable. You'll also need a pad to kneel down on. This is my regular rolled up mat, it's just not rolled up quite as tight, and you'll need your cushion.

To begin with, we're going to reprise a calf stretch that we've done before. So you can follow along with me. Turn towards your wall, support yourself on your elbows, and take a long step back with one foot so that you're only just managing to get the heel down on the floor. And the other leg is flat on the floor to support you. Look back at the foot that you stepped back with and make sure it's pointing straight to the front, and also make sure that you haven't collapsed the ankle in. When you've done that, if you have done that, you'll feel the weight all on the big toe, so try and cheat a little bit of weight to the little toe side of the foot.

The leg that I've stepped back with, the stretching leg, that one is pressed straight, and to bring on the calf and ankle stretch, you're letting the hips travel down and forward towards the wall. Take as much weight on the arms as you need. You can have some weight on that forward leg if you need to control the amount of stretch. But also recall that you could take this foot away completely if you need a more intense version of the exercise. So breathe and relax. Get used to that initial stretch. Make sure the stretching leg is pressed straight at the knee.

All right, we'll do a contraction. The contraction for any calf stretch is to, without allowing any movement, attempt to push the ball of the foot down through the floor, like you're trying to point the foot through the floor. So let's do that together now. For a count of five, four, you're pressing the ball of the foot into the floor, three, two, one. Slowly stop contracting, take a deep breath in, and as you breathe out let the whole body relax more. Take another full breath in and this time as you breathe out, see if you can move further into the stretch by letting the hips travel down and forward towards the wall. Breathe and relax in that position. Feel where the weight is through the foot. If you are aware that all the weight is on the big toe joint, make a little movement of putting a bit more weight towards the little toe outer edge of that foot.

Excellent. All right, now I'm going to try something else today. Just very, a small amount move your hips back. So you're lessening the stretch just a little bit and then without changing anything else attempt to bend that back knee, and just become aware that that movement is quite restricted. So the first version we did was a straight-kneed calf stretch. And now we're trying to turn it into a bent-kneed one and feel the difference. It's much more of an ankle stretch and you might even feel it right down through the back of the ankle, which is involving your Achilles tendon. So don't worry if you can't get much movement, it's to illustrate that that movement maybe quite restricted in your body. All right, now we'll come out completely, so just press yourself back, and it feels nice to do a couple of circular movements to ease out after a long held stretch. And the calf muscles do respond to long held stretches.

Okay, same sequence on the other side. So lean on the wall. You're taking a long step back, so you're only just managing to get the heel down on the stretching side. Look back and check the alignment of the foot. Is your foot pointing straight forwards? And also where is the weight through the foot? Put a tiny bit more weight towards the little toe outer edge. Starting off with a straight-kneed exercise, so this back leg is pressed straight at the knee, and then bring on the stretch nice and slowly. Control in any way you need to. You're moving the hips down and forward towards the wall. Breathing comfortably, relax the head and neck, couple more breaths in and out in this initial stretch position, just letting the body get used to the sensations. Where do you feel it? It might be that you feel it right behind the back of the knee or right in the top of the calf. That's typically where people feel the straight-kneed version, but where do you feel it?

All right, let's do the contraction on this second side. So that is to try and push the ball of the foot into the floor for the count of five. So let's do that together. Press down through the ball of the foot for five, four, three – try not to let the heel come up – two, one, slowly stop contracting. Take a deep breath in. First breath out, relax. Take another deep breath in, and this breath out see if you can move further into the stretch. Good. Hopefully you got a little bit more movement or at the very least the initial stretch feels more comfortable now, more doable. So let's pause here for two or three more deep breaths in and out. You want the brain to be feeling that new position and can you breathe and relax comfortably in this new position? One more breath. Good. Okay. And then that second little thing we tried, just push the hips back a little bit, lessen the stretch.

And then can you bend that back knee at all? Good. Not forcing anything, just see if there's any movement there. If there's none at all, then you could always push the hips back even more, but it's really just a test of your ankle range of movement. And also, when you start to bend the knee, does the stretch change? For me it definitely pulls it more down towards the back of the ankle. And you might be aware of a little bit of compression sensation at the front of the ankle.

All right. And now we'll just come out completely. Press yourself back. And, some little relieving circular movements. The chair we're going to use to help stabilize us, a balance aid, but also we can use it to walk down and up, so it takes a little bit of the strength component out of the exercise. Ideally, we want to keep the heels flat on the floor, but if you can't that's okay, we'll let the heels come up. In terms of foot position, let's just try it with the feet a little bit wider than hip width apart and angled out very slightly, just for the first go. So let's do it together. Take a breath in and lift the chest, and as you breathe out, walk yourself down the chair and start to move your bottom down towards your heels.

Now, like I said, if you just can't keep the heels down, then by all means lift them up. You get a bit of extra toe stretch by doing it that way. But if you can, keep the heels down. By all means let yourself hang back on the arms a little bit; that's what the chair is for, it's a bit of counterbalance. Wherever you are you might find you need to walk the hands down a little bit more. And just try and hold that for a few breaths in and out.

Breathe into the belly. Let the belly relax. Couple more breaths. It's just a test. Can you squat all the way down using the balance aid? If as I said before, if you really needed to lift the heels up that's okay. All right. Now, how do you propose to get out of this position? If you can, take a breath in, lift the chest, and as you breathe out, press down through the feet and bring yourself up and then keep breathing.Good, so that's a first attempt at a full squat.

Now what we're going to do is reprise an exercise that stretches this big muscle group here on the front of the leg, the quadriceps, and then we're going to put this all together and see if we can sit down on the mat to stretch the ankles and these big thigh muscles. So continue to use the chair as your balance aid. Stand on one foot, and this is the exercise. We've done it before, so you can follow along with me. You'll move the knee to the front so that you can bend down, run the hand along and hold the front of the ankle or the foot, wherever's comfortable, and then bring yourself into this upright position again.

Play with bringing the heel as close into the buttock as you can. How does that feel? You can always lessen that if you need to. Stand up straight, and the key cue for any exercise where we're stretching the thigh muscles is tucking the tail, really important. Lift the chest, pull the heel into the buttock a little bit, and then maintaining your tucked tail, see if you can draw that bent knee back a little bit. Try not to let the knee drift off to the side; that's just a way to avoid part of this muscle group. Are you breathing and relaxing here? All right, let us do a contraction. Holding yourself completely still, and particularly holding on tight to that foot, you're going to make an effort to try and straighten the leg, or you could think of it as trying to push the heel away from the buttock. So let's do that together for a count of five, four – you're trying to straighten the leg – three, two, one, slowly stop contracting.

Take a deep breath in, lift the chest again, re-tuck the tail. Another big breath in and this time as you breathe out, first try and bring the heel in a bit more and then maintaining that tail tuck, try and move the knee back. Breathe and relax. Couple more deep breaths in and out. Imagine length between that kneecap and your abdomen, lengthening through that line of the body. Good. All right. To come out, just let the leg come forward, bring it down, shake it out and we'll do the same thing on the other side.

So stand on the other foot, bring it forward and reach down and grab some part of the foot or the ankle, and then come through to a comfortable, upright position. So first of all we play with how much knee bend we can sustain. So you're bringing the heel into the buttock. How does that feel? Lift the chest, tuck the tail, and then keeping your tail tucked, how far can you take the knee back behind you? Move nice and slowly, particularly in this exercise because if you move quickly, guaranteed you'll let go of your tail tuck. That's what the body wants to do to avoid the quadricep stretch. Breathe and relax. Check that the knee feels comfortable. If it's not, you might need to take the heel a bit more out to the side or a little bit more towards the midline of the body.

How does it feel on this leg compared to that first leg? All right, let's do the contraction on this side. So you have to brace, hold everything still, because remember we don't want to allow any movement as we contract, and you're doing a leg straightening action, or you're thinking about trying to move the heel away from the buttock. So let's do that together for a count of five, four, three, keep contracting, two, one, slowly stop contracting. Take a deep breath in, stand up a bit straighter. As you breathe out, re-tuck the tail. Take another full breath in, and as you breathe out, perhaps you can bring the heel closer to the buttock and move the knee back a little bit further. Three more deep breaths in and out in what's hopefully a new position for you. Two more breaths, one more breath. And then let the knee come forward. Let the leg come down, and shake it up.

Excellent. Okay, let's put this together. Now we're going to do one little toe stretch first. We've done this one before. We'll just do it very briefly. This is the one where you stabilize on one leg, stretch the foot behind you and feel the stretch from the front of the toes, perhaps across the top of the foot and the front of the ankle. Good. You can dip down a little bit if that gives you a stronger stretch. You can come a bit more upright, so it's getting some more weight back through those toes. We can add a contraction here. So imagine you wanted to try and drag the toes forward through the floor. They can't move, because you've got weight down through them. Do that just for three for this contraction. Three, trying to drag the toes, two, one, slowly stop, take a breath and reposition so that you get a bit more of a stretch in the toes. Two more breaths. One more breath.

Excellent, come up. Wriggle those toes around. Give you a different angle on the second side, still stabilizing on the chair. Reach back, check all the toes are tucked under, and dip down a little bit till you feel some stretch in the toes there. Might be mainly in the toes, it might be coming right up through the front of the foot, even potentially across the front of the ankle. So you could go down a little bit further if that works better for your foot. You can come up a little bit more upright, that really loads up the toes quite markedly, and let's do the contraction. So imagining your trying to drag the toes out from underneath you for three, two, one, slowly stop, take a deep breath in. Try to let that foot relax, it has a tendency to tense up, and sink a little bit more. Couple of breaths. Excellent, and noticing any left–right difference between your feet. All right, up you come, wriggle around. Okay, now we're going to go on the floor and put this altogether. You'll need your mat and your cushion handy.

Sit down on your mat, but just notice, have a look to camera, notice that I've let my feet, from the front of the ankle, the whole front of the foot to the toes, is dangling off the mat. This makes it easier to sit in this position if you have tightness through the front of the ankle, front of the foot and the toes. I can sit comfortably on my heels, but many of you, you'll find that's a very strong stretch towards the knee end of the thigh muscles. So let's all, for today, we'll do it with the cushion in here, and that makes it way more comfortable, for both the feet and ankles and my thighs and knees. So just pause there. If you can't even sit this upright, by all means go forward a little bit. Completely scalable, but I'm just going to rest in this upright position to begin with. I'm going to do some little rocking, tiny, tiny movements. How do the feet feel just with adding a little bit of movement? How do the knees and the thighs around the knees feel as you add some little movements?

Okay. Wherever you are, whether you're bent over a little bit or sitting upright, try to tuck the tail a little bit, just a little. And then if you can – if you can't do this, don't worry about it – but if you can, just reach back, fingertips or maybe you can go right back to flat palms, and then emphasize tucking the tail. And you might be surprised to find that just this position is a stretch for the thigh muscles here. Also, the more you go back and the more you tuck the tail, you've got more weight coming down through your feet.

Breathe and relax there. Let's add a contraction here. I'm going to try to press my feet straight down into the floor; that's that knee-straightening action, and that might bring these big thigh muscles into awareness instantly. So do that for five, four, three, two, one. Slowly stop contracting, take a deep breath in, as you breathe out, relax again. Re-tuck the tail, full breath in, and this time as you breathe out, perhaps you can lean back just a little bit further. And we'll hold this final position for three more breaths in and out.

Two more, keeping your tail as tucked as you can. And to come out a little bit of abdominal strength there, curl yourself upright again. Okay, that's the end of today's session. Don't be surprised if you feel a little bit of soreness in the legs and the feet and the ankles, perhaps the calf muscles, over the next few days, and I'll see you next time.

Program 12: Wall calf, squat, quads, toe point, sit on heels

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