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Hi everyone! This is week two of our hamstring stretching series. We're going to be doing
four. Last week, last week we did "don't shorten your hamstrings", so standing up more, keep
your legs straight when you sit, um, sit on the floor with your legs straight, sit on
your chair with your legs straight. So you don't shorten your hamstrings in the first
place.
Today we're going to start lengthening them with a forward bend. Um, let't do it!
For this forward bend, which you might have seen on my blog a million times, and I'm sure
I've done videos about it before, you're going to stand with your legs really straight, no
bending of the knees, nice straight legs (Myriam says "I have straight legs") make sure your
feet are lined up, so don't have one foot slightly in front of the other (Good job,
Mimi) and pelvis width apart, always, and maintain a neutral lumbar curve for this one.
You're just gonna bend forward until you can't anymore, I'm about right here (Mimi says "I'm
doing it too") Good job, that's impressive. It doesn't look like this, or bending the
top of the back, your spine doesn't move with this forward bend, and your legs don't bend.
They stay nice and straight.
You can use a stool and a block, or a chair to help support yourself when you're doing
this stretch, because you're going to want to hold it for a while, at least a minute.
I like to hold it for longer than that sometimes.
And the key to really getting this stretch to work is to do it really gently. So that
you just start to feel a stretch. It doesn't, it doesn't, For stretching it doesn't work
that the harder you stretch the longer your muscles get. It's actually the opposite. The
more gently you stretch, when you go just to your limit, just to when you start to feel
a stretch, and you hang out there for a longer amount of time, for a couple of minutes, that's
where you're really going to start seeing some length in the muscle. If you do this
several times a day, just hang out, always maintain your lumbar curve and nice straight
legs.
This really applies for any stretch that you do, not just hamstrings. You always want to
stay just where you're starting to feel a stretch.
Another trick I like to do with a forward bend is to actually use a wall as a tool.
You put your butt against a wall (can you guys still see me? Mimi I'm going to move
you over here, ok, and you can do your forward bend right there, that's perfect.) You can
put your butt against a wall for the forward bend and keep your feet further away, and
from here you can feel whether or not you've got equal pressure on both sides of your butt
so you know that as you're bending you're not bending further on one side, or have a
twist in your pelvis as you bend.
That's it. Forward bend, do it a couple of times a day, nice and gentle, straight legs,
maintain your lumbar curve.
(Mimi says "let's both have a talk!") Ok. We have to both have a talk. So, thanks. See
you next week!