Transcription:

Hi, The props you'll need for today's program are two mats or two towels, something that can give you a bit of thickness to work on. And the trusty kitchen chair. Our first exercise looks like this. So follow along with me. I'm stepping back, like so until I feel a little stretch in my calf muscles, but not a big one. And then we're going to practice the pelvic tilting in this position. So just watch my lower back and hips. I'm sticking my bottom out and relaxing it. Pressing the knees gently straight and sticking the bottom out. And sticking the bottom out again and lowering my chest a little, as I do that. And as you do that, you'll feel a massive increase in stretch down the whole back line of your leg. Could be the hamstrings, most likely the calf muscles. And so the actual calf muscle stretched looks like this.

I've worked my heels back far enough, so there's a gentle stretch in my calf muscles. I stick my bottom out like this. I lean forward like this, that strengthens the stretch sensation, hugely. I transfer my weight to my right leg. Now watch what happens in my lower back as I do this. I'll drop my left hip down. That's the hip closest to camera. And then lift the leg up behind me, like this. Now that achieves two effects. One, it's an activation exercise for the glute on this side. And the second effect, the major effect, I think you'll find is a massive increase in the sensation in the calf muscle. So we'll just hold that for a moment or two. And then I'm going to do a tiny contraction. I'll press the ball of my foot, the foot of the stretching leg, into the floor.

I stop and drop the hip down again. The hip that's closest to camera. I take a breath in. And on a breath out, watch, gently lift the leg up behind while trying to keep the hips level. That will increase the sensation in the calf muscle massively. And hold that sensation and that position for a few moments. At least two or three breaths in and out. And that's my third breath. Bring the foot back to the floor and change legs for the other side. So once again, I'm going to drop the hip, this time of the hip of the leg that's furthest away from camera. I'm going to drop my chest down, slightly. Stick the bottom out as much as I can. And then slowly, keeping the right hip dropped down, slowly lift that leg up, like so. That makes it so much stronger.

Breathe and relax. Breathe and relax. Next a tiny contraction. I'm just pressing the ball of my foot, gently into the floor. No effort required here. I stop that. I drop my right hip down a bit further. I take another breath in. And on a breath out, try to lift the leg up behind me more. And that intensifies the stretch hugely for me today. Hold that position for a few breath in and out. One more. A sensational effect down the back of the legs, both legs. That felt really wonderful.

Our next exercise, and this is one of my absolute all time favorites for loosening the hip flexors, is the standing hip flexor stretch. So let me show you. We're going to use the chair here for balance. When we teach this in class, very often we don't use any balance aids, but when you're starting off, it's much better to be concentrating on the stretch sensation than the balancing aspect. So here's what I do. I take a deep step backwards, shuffle this foot around. Then this is the key thing, I'm going to bring this hip as far forward as possible. Let me do that movement again and follow me as I do it. So you twist the hip as far forward as possible. And watch my lower back. You tuck the tail as much as possible. And you'll feel that's a stretch in here before we do anything else.

Take a breath in and holding the hip forward and the tail tucked, sink down. Now you might find that you have to work this foot a bit further forward, or you might need to take this one further back to feel comfortable and stable. Once again, twist this hip forward, tuck the tail, sink down. And now watch, I slowly try to straighten the back leg a bit. And then last thing, I lean back until my shoulders are over my hips. And I again, recheck, hip forward, tail tucked, sink. And stay there for awhile.

Now a contraction can be added to this one too, if you're brave enough. So put your awareness in the front of the leg here. I'm trying to drag that whole leg forward. But of course friction in my body's weight holds it in place. Three, two, one. Before you sink down further, twist the hips more, tuck the tail more. And holding both of those on, sink down. Try to straighten the back leg a bit further and then lean back a bit further. This is very strong. You'll feel this massive stretch through here. A little bit more straightening, a little bit more tail tuck, a little bit more. And then shoulders back, like so. So that's side one.

Side two. Get your legs in position with me. This time, we're going to bring this hip forward. And we tuck the tail on this side and sink down. And once we've sunk down, we get used to that sensation for a moment. Then slowly try to straighten the back leg. Notice that I can't get the back leg completely straight. I'm trying to straighten it. It's the trying that creates that extra force. And then lean back, so the shoulders are over the hips, or if you're very flexible, a bit behind the hips. Resquare, retuck and sink. You can support yourself on this leg too if you want, as I'm doing. That's a strong stretch today.

I'm used to that sensation now, and we apply a small contraction. I'm trying to drag my right foot forward. And I feel all these muscles in here tense immediately. Three, two, one, stop. I resquare, I retuck, I sink. I restraighten the back leg a tiny bit and lean back a bit. Yes, that's definitely a stretch today. And to come out, I'm taking my weight on my hand here. And, fantastic. Now we're going to stretch out those muscles that we just used. That last stretch that we did, the standing hip flexor stretch, is both a massive strengthening exercise, as well as a massive stretch.

Okay. And this is what our mats are for. I should show you the exercise itself, done without the benefit of any props, looks like this. I push the calf muscle out of the way. I lift the knee off the ground like this. And then we bring this knee back to the chest. But for many people, the start position here is very uncomfortable in the ankle. So that's how; t hat's why we have these mats here. This is how we're going to solve the problem.

The first problem, the problem of the instep not being flexible enough to allow you to do the stretch, is solved by hanging your toes off the mat, like this. Can you see this angle here is no longer straight? And then we can do the exercise like this. It's still an instep stretch, but will be nowhere near as excruciating, as doing it without. Also, notice that my hips are not level anymore. That's what the second mat is for. You bring the second mat in here like this, to support this hip. And now if you look across my legs, the hips are completely level. And so we'll run through the exercise itself.

Everyone follow me. I'm holding my knee like this. And I gently lift the knee away from the floor. At the same time, I'm trying to keep all of this as relaxed as possible. If your insteps and or shins are really tight, you can apply a gentle contraction here. I'm going to try and drag the top of my foot through the floor like this. I'll show you what that looks like and follow along on. I'm dragging. Three, two, one, stop. I let everything relax. I take a breath in and on a breath out, just watch. I gently lean back a bit further like this. This is an instep and foot stretch. To turn it into a quadricep stretch, I'll bring this foot up to here like this. That is to help me level my hips. Because I can put a bit of weight on this leg. And as a result, lean in such a way that this hip gets pulled down more towards the floor.

And I then tuck my tail. I'll just show you that tail tuck again. And try it yourself. Just tuck the tail without moving anything else. And you'll find just that simple tail tuck will give you a very strong stretch through the whole of the quad here. And you can also try some of the moving to the side actions, like this. That's feeling very good today. And as always, we try to hold each end position for a minimum of three breaths, three to five breaths or 30 seconds. The exact time is not critical. What is critical is to stay in the position for long enough to feel the muscle that you're stretching, actually go soft. Which mine has already. And then stay in that position for a couple of breaths after that point. Which is about now.

Now to come out of the position, watch. I roll away from your view to un-weight. And then we'll just change everything over. I might just move the mats around so it's a bit easier to see. Let's see. Lean to the side like this and dangle the toes off the mat. Grab your calf muscle and push the calf muscle out of the way. Check the hip level. If the hips are not level, bring this other mat in position, like so. Perfect.

Then lean back. Always being very careful not to let your back hyperextend. So you can either apply a tail tuck or simply half sit up in one sense, that tightens these muscles here. And then when you move your weight across, you will feel it in both both the instep and the quad. And the body's got used to that now. And let's assume that yours has too. Reach down and hold the knee. And slowly lean back, like so. I'm moving this hand around wherever I need to, so that I'm completely balanced and fully in control of the movement. And the final position.

Now I'm going to gently drag the ball of my right foot through the floor. The action is like this. You sort of drag like that, which is what I'm doing now. Three, two, one, stop. Let everything go soft, take a breath in. And as you breathe out, always let your tummy relax completely. Take in another breath and lean back, like so. And you really have to make an effort to let your foot relax. It will not relax by itself voluntarily, for most people. It's real act of will; it's an act of letting go somehow. We'll put this back down on the ground. I'll bring this foot up into position here. And we'll repeat the same instructions as we did for the other leg. In this position here, you're going to try to put weight on the hip of the thigh you're stretching. I'll just repeat that movement to show you the movement. And then tuck the tail strongly. That's the key one here. And then lean back. The tucking the tail does two things. It increases the sensation of the stretch and it stops your back from hyperextending. So it just feels more comfortable. Stay there for awhile.

Wait until that muscle goes soft. Now this is my tighter leg. So, it's taking a little bit longer on this side. There it goes. It's gone soft and you wait for that. And you wait for two or three breaths past that point, letting your tummy relax completely, all the while. You can actually feel the tension leaving your system, if you pay close attention to it. It's a wonderful feeling. And to come out of this position, extend this leg. Bring your hands up like this. Roll away from the stretch. And come out of the position. I'll just get rid of these mats.

And our next exercise, we'll use the chair. This next little movement, deceptively simple looking. But if you get it right, it will stretch every muscle from here down to here. And also it's completely controllable too. You can move the stretch up and down. And I'll try and show you that. It's more of a sensory experience, but I'll do the best I can.

So my hands on my knees like this, I take a breath in. And on a breath out, and just watch this part of my body here. On a breath out, I let my back slump. Now, if I repeat the movement, watch what's happening. The shoulders are actually going straight down as I slump. I'm not slumping back like this. I'm trying to make the movement, only the change of the shape in my back like this. Now for me today, this sensation is very much around the sacrum and very lower part of the back. But now watch what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a breath in and then I'm going to gently place my chin on my chest.

As soon as I placed my chin on my chest, I could feel the stretch go from here, up into here. And so with that experience in the body and the mind, just watch. I'll make a couple of small adjustments and you follow along with me. And see where making these adjustments changes things for you. I'm going to hold just one knee. Chin on my chest. And then I'm going to gently, while slumping, try very, very cautiously to pull my face toward this knee here. And if you watch what's happening in my back here, you'll see that... You can imagine, I'm sure, and you can probably feel it. All muscles here and underneath the shoulder blade are being stretched as well. Then I sit up a bit, move around to this leg. And again, slump and very cautiously draw the shoulders and the head towards this knee.

Come back to the start position. I always have a bit of a wriggle around just to see what the sensations are. And then I'll do it one more time. I'll take a breath in. This time, we're trying to stretch the whole spine. So I'll slump, slump, slump, slump. Chin on chest. And gently pull my face towards my knees like this. I'm going to lift my own head up. Not because I'm not strong enough to lift up my own head. Just, it feels very nice to do that. Okay. Some notes on that one. If you work at the keyboard a lot, this exercise will save you. Along with those exercises we did the other day for the forearms.

And the last exercise today is a simple squat. Now hopefully, if you can't normally squat, the exercises that we have done will help you. And let me show you what it looks like. We have the inside edges of the feet parallel. Or if it feels more comfortable in your hips, you can turn the feet out slightly like this. Give yourself a little bit of space in your trousers. And watch. I'm just using the chair here as a bit of a safety thing. Which I can hold onto and pull on if I want to. But all I've done is I've come down into the squat position like this. I've left my heels on the ground. And if you are really tight in the ankles, of course, you can always put a little something underneath your heels.

Because the key thing about being in this position is letting gravity stretch the quadriceps, let gravity squash the calf muscles out of the way. And also the hips are getting a stretch. And in time you'll be able to squat like this and no one will know that you haven't been doing it all your life. This for me is a truly favorite position. If you look at my lower back, you'll see that it's being gently stretched in this position.

In fact, if I move the chair out of the way. I'll just show you. You can make it a little bit stronger if you need to or would like to, just by letting your head go forward like this. And I've also got my elbows in front of my knees here like this. And I can gently press back as I'm doing now. And that makes the stretching sensation in the pose even more intense. As a general rule, I recommend stretching in this form, I should say, in the full squat, for at least a couple of minutes every day. I lift my head; settle my weight onto my feet; take a breath in. Hold the breath in. And then breathe out, once I'm fully up. Well that's all for today. See you next time.

Program 17: Calves, hip flexors, quads, spinal flexion, squat

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