Transcription:

Our props today are a furniture slider, but anything shiny that you can put your knee on, to slide the kneel on the ground will do the same job. We've used, for example, paper folders. Plastic paper folders work perfectly well. I've got a yoga block here. I don't need it, but I'll show you how you might want to use it later on. If you don't have a yoga block, just a rolled up towel will do a perfect job. Something to slide on and something to press on. We'll come to that in a moment.

Now, the first exercise we're going to do relies on using our own body's weight to help extend the spine and lift the chest. But, put your hand on your own chest now, just to feel this and try; ask yourself, "How do I do this movement?" I'm lifting the sternum, technically speaking, and watch what that does to the shape of my upper back. When I lift the sternum, my upper back straightens. We want to use that movement, the lifting movement in this exercise to improve the final position.

So, that's one self-cue. The second self-cue, is we'll be leaning arms against the wall. But, just watch this. Watch my shoulders. We want to be pressing the shoulders away from us as far as possible. So, it's an active pushing the wall away kind of movement. You may need to try a few different positions up and down the wall to find the one that works for you. But, this is about right for me.

Now, just watch, we're going to do a couple of things all at the same time. Bend the knees, let the whole body relax. Then, press the wall away from you as much as you can. Take a breath in, and then as you breathe out, keep pressing the wall away from you, lean down, just to start the process. Then, lift the chest in this position. You'll feel as soon as you're trying to lift your chest, you might feel your abdominal muscles. You might feel the muscles under your arms here, which are the actual muscles we're stretching in this position.

So, press the wall away from you. Lift the chest strongly, take a breath in, and... oh, it feels very good today. So, in this position, following me, press the wall away from you and feel where that stretch is. For most people, it'll be under the arms. If the shoulders are experiencing too much compression, press the wall away from you even harder and just don't lean in as hard. Lift the chest, breathe into where you feel the stretch. You can see that each time my breath out or each time I breathe out, I should say!, I go a little closer to the wall. Ah, that's an excellent stretch.

This next stretch is called "The Three Amigos", and I'm sure the reason for that name will become obvious. So, wiggle the body around so that everything is relaxed and soft. Bend the knees. Put your hands here and here. Follow along with me, and with the knees bent, tuck the tail as much as you can. So, in this position here, for this exercise, the shape of the body below the waist stays the same the whole time. In other words, you're constantly tucking the tail and you should feel these muscles activate.

Next, and I'm not going to put my chin on my chest until I actually do the exercise. It'll make the sound go all funny. Next, I'm going to join my hands together like this, and watch, push the arms down the body while tucking my tail. And then, when I turn away from me, you'll see what stretched. Try it. Turn, turn, ah. Re-tuck the tail little bit further, turn.

If you work a lot on the computer, that three amigo stretch will stretch you everywhere up in here, in a way that can't be done in another exercise that I know of. So, we'll go down onto the floor now and stretch these big muscles under the arms here, and they're the muscles, in fact, that we need to loosen over time to do a better job on that exercise, and so, these are complementary to one another.

Kneel on to make sure that you're comfortable kneeling, of course. Or, put something underneath your knees, if you need to. And then, move your hips forward until they're roughly over the knees like this and stretch your arms out like this, just for position. Then, watch this. This hand comes over to here, and this hand moves to where that one was. So, in effect, I'm reaching across the body by that distance. Then, I let this shoulder here, go down to the floor. So, I follow along while I do this. Once the shoulder's down like this, you'll feel the stretch under the arm here. And then, watch, you bring the full stretch on by pushing the body away with this hand.

I'll just do that again. Push the body away. You'll feel a massive stretch underneath the arm. So, wherever you feel that stretch, breathe into that space. Keep pushing with this hand, keep reaching with this hand, and let the muscles under your arms relax. You can rest your head on the arm too, if you want to.

Now, a little contraction here. The hand on the arm that you're stretching, the one whose fingers I'm wiggling now, try to pull that hand along the floor back to you and you'll feel the muscles under your arms tense when you do that. Stop, take a breath in, and watch, push away further. Whoa, that's so strong. You can even think about pressing this hip away from that hand in this action like this, that makes it even stronger.

I'm feeling that right down to the hip bone now. Also, when you're playing with this yourself, you can experiment with different arm positions. Each one has a slightly different effect. But, for me here today, that is the position to use. It's a beautiful, beautiful stretch. Breathe and relax, breathe and relax. To come out, use both hands. Once again, reach the arms out in front of you and then change them over, as we did before. Let the shoulder that you're going to stretch dip down to the floor slightly, reposition the pushing hand to wherever you think it needs to be. Lean, some weight on that arm, reach this arm off the body and then press the body to the side.

That's the first action. You can add to that by twisting this hip away from the arm that you're reaching with. So, the action would look push across, twist, reach. Wherever you feel that, and today I'm actually feeling that in the armpit rather than underneath the arm, breathe into that place.

You're actively reaching with this hand, pushing with this hand, and twisting the hip away. To add a contraction to it, if you want one, gently pull this hand's arm towards the body. Three, two, one, stop. Take a breath in. As you breathe out, push the body further to the side and draw the hips back and twist the hips away to get the stretch you need. Once you're in that position, simply breathe and try to let that part of the body go softer and softer. At least three breaths in the final position.

Try breathing in really deeply too; I just tried that then and it enhances it considerably. So, one or two more breaths in and out. To come out, shift your weight in the direction of the path of the least resistance. So, in other words, be nice to yourself, and in my case, adjust my clothing.

Now, we're going to do a kneeling side bend and see if that feels any different for you. I'm on the floor like this. As we mentioned, this floor is fairly soft. If your floor is not soft, put something underneath your knees. Many people's knees don't like the weight of the body on them. I'm going to tuck my tail slightly, lift my chest slightly, and watch my head and neck, bring the head and neck back slightly. The idea is to have the spine as straight as you possibly can.

Now, like the standing version, I'm going to support my body's weight by putting a hand on the hip like this, and watch, make sure you include the neck in this as well. Lean to the side like this and you'll find it's actually easier to keep the relationship between the hips and the shoulders in the kneeling one. Oh, that's very strong today. That might be strong enough for you. If it is, stay in that position and just simply breathe into... Watch my hand.

Every breath you take into the ribs here, makes the stretch stronger. If you want to make the stretch stronger, as before with the standing version, lift the arm above your head like this, or as close to above as you can get it, and reach the arm off the body. Once again, the same muscles we've just been stretching in the wall stretch and the floor stretch, you'll feel that your reaching action will stretch you all the way down here and into the hip if you get it right. Then, roll the top shoulder forward a bit, re-reach, let the head and neck hang. That moves the stretch around. This moves the stretch around a bit further. This moves the stretch, and come out.

Then the other side. Tuck tail, lift chest, head back. Very nice sensation in the body today. As always, if that's a sufficient stretch, stay there. If you want to make it stronger, bring the arm across the body, take a breath in always and on the breath out. Reach that arm as far off the body as you can. See how much further I'm going with each breath? Roll the top shoulder forward slightly, reach again, and you'll feel that moves the stretch.

So, if you find a tight line that needs a bit of extra work, stay in that position and reach more in that position. If not, roll the shoulder a bit more, stretch a bit more, roll, roll until it goes away. And then, just flop around in this position here. Ah, it feels very nice.

Okay, now today's big exercise and this is a big one. We'll need the sliding thing, which in our case is a, I think it's a furniture slider. I'm going to pop my knee on here and we'll have this standing by in case we need it. I'll explain how to use that in a moment. Kneel on whatever you're sliding on, and then move this leg into a lunge position like this, and rest the shoulder and chest on this leg.

Now, this is what this is for. If you can't rest the shoulder and chest on the leg, then simply rest on the yoga block like this. And then, in this position, try to lift this leg off the floor. You'll feel the muscles at the top of the hip contract. And then, secondly, try to press your chest against the leg. Again, that'll contract the abdominal muscles and groin muscles.

I'll show you what that looks like in my case. So, I'm lifting the leg against my shoulder. I'm pressing the shoulder hard against the legs, and stop. Then, use this muscle, and make sure you slide yourself back using this muscle. So, take a breath in, and watch, press this foot away from you. But, because your back leg's knee is on something that slides, pressing this foot away from you, will have this effect instead. Don't go all the way just yet. This is just to feel the stretch.

Now, the adjustments, the corrections are, my back leg's hip I'm twisting to the front, or Olivia's cue, which works extremely well, is to think about pulling this hip back. That's actually strongest for me today for some reason. Brilliant. And then, once we're used to this position, nothing should be too dramatic at this point, we're going to do two contractions. This foot here, I'm going to pull the heel of that foot back to my bottom, as though I was trying to bend the knee. Five, four, three, two, one, stop.

Let everything go soft. Let your tummy go soft. Next, lean weight across to that leg and try to press the heel of that leg directly away from you into the floor. You'll feel a different part of the hamstring muscle contract. Five, four, three, two, one, stop. Relax, breathe in. Let your tummy go soft. Breathe out. Breathe in again, square up slightly. As you breathe out, try sliding yourself a little bit further back.

Now, don't go too crazy here. The stretch comes on suddenly and wherever you get to, support yourself, both on your arms and on the muscle that you're stretching at the back of the front leg. You can probably see everything in my body's going soft now. Try to feel that yourself. Ask yourself, "How can I let my body go soft? I'm completely safe, because I'm supporting myself with my arms. I am experiencing a strong stretch, yes, but I know that there's no danger there." To feel that yourself and ask yourself, "How can you relax a bit more?"

It feels wonderful today. Let's say you've had enough of that, bring your hands in close, like this, lift yourself up. Bring the foot back. Bring the slidey thing back to where it was before. Change its position for the other leg, place the knee right in the center of it. Slide this leg to here. Now, in my position or the position I'm in at the moment, I can rest the shoulder on here. But, let's say you can't. This is where you place the block in position, or your rolled up towel. That's quite comfortable there like that.

And then, I'm going to try to lift this leg off the ground. So, I'm pulling this knee into my chest. Five, four, three, two, one. I'm going to press my chest down on the yoga block. Three, two, one. And then, using quadricep, this muscle on the front of the leg here. Remember, let everything go soft and push yourself backwards... Now, I'm lifting the front foot off the floor here, because that's more comfortable to my ankle. But, some people like to keep the foot on the floor.

A bit tighter on this side today. I put my hands out to the side to a distance which allows me to support some of my weight on straight arm. That's just easier, and also you can relax much more deeply I find. Then, we'll use a Olivia's cue of pulling the front hip back, bringing the back hip forward. They're two different cues. They achieve the same results, but the muscular action is different. Breathe and relax.

Next, think of this heel here. Pull the heel back to your hips. Five, four... These are big muscles, longer contractions work better here. Three, two, one, stop. Lean weight onto this leg. See how I'm shifting my weight across, and then press this leg into the ground hard. Five, four, three, two, one, stop. Come back to the center position. Let the whole body go soft. Let your tummy go soft on a breath out. That is critical. Take another breath in and very slowly try to go a bit further.

Don't exaggerate this, and notice I'm also making little movements from side to side because that changes the position of the stretch. Now, I'm simply supporting myself while lying on this leg. I'm breathing. I'm trying to let everything go soft. Everything just went a bit softer then. Try to find that sensation in your own body. It doesn't matter what position you're in. You might not be as low as this, you might be lower. The key thing is simply to get into the position that gives you the stretch in the muscles that you want, and then learn to relax in that position. That is key.

If you've had enough, bring the hands back, like so, and lift yourself up. Now, compared to some of the other hamstring stretches we've done, the virtue of this one is that because of the position you're in, you can stay in it for minutes at a time. When I was learning to loosen my hamstring, I used to spend roughly five minutes on each side in the final position.

In the beginning, I don't recommend you do that, but certainly a minute or so will help. It's absolutely critical while you're in that stretch position, to have the tummy as soft as you possibly can. So, you just draw your awareness down to here and you'll literally let it go soft. Let your shoulders relax. Apart from the work that your arms are doing, try to let the body stay as soft as possible. It'll give you phenomenal results if you can do that.

Also too, because we stretched these very large muscles and we did that for quite a while, you may find the next day or two or even three days, you can really feel a sensation in the hamstring muscles. That's completely to be expected and it will go away in time. So, wait until those muscles are completely recovered before stretching them again. For most people, we recommend a frequency on a big exercise like this of about once a week. So, anyway, try it. I'm sure you'll like it. I'm sure at the very least you'll have a strong sensation in the position and we'll see you next time. Thank you.

Program 20: Thoracic extension and flexion, lats, side bend, and lunge hamstring

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