- Hey dancers.
Welcome back to Flexibility Friday.
Today, I have three lovely stretches for you
to improve that hamstring flexibility and mobility.
This month, we're gonna be stretching from home.
I know a lot of you follow along from your bedroom
or living room or wherever you are.
So I'm gonna make sure
that the stretches can be done from home anytime, anywhere.
Lets do it.
(bright upbeat music)
Stretch number one is a wide-legged hamstring fold-over.
So you wanna make sure that your toes are parallel.
You're facing squared off forward.
What you're gonna do is hinge from the hips.
So if I were to show you from the side
it would be a flat back.
You want to make sure
you're not rounding your spine over, okay?
So we're gonna hinge from the hips.
We're gonna take our hands to the floor.
If you're not here quite yet that's okay
bring the hands up to the shin or above the knee.
And if you need to take a bend in the knee
that's also completely fine.
We're gonna hold it here for 10 seconds.
10, nine, eight,
keep everything long.
Six, five, four,
three, two, one.
From here you're gonna bend the knee.
Two, three, four, stretch it up.
Six, seven, again, down one.
Two, three, four stretch it up.
Six, seven, and hold.
You can either continue with that
or take a twist with the arm.
This is an optional twist.
One arm is higher looking towards that arm.
You're keeping your back long,
and we'll switch over to the other side
with up, up, up with the hands.
Again, add a bend on your knee
this is too intense and stretch
and then bring it down and hold.
Okay, moving onto number two.
We're gonna do kind of a parallel fold-over.
I call this a triangle,
but it's called different things
in different types of practices.
So make sure that your hips are square,
your feet are stacked in front of each other,
and then they're in parallel, okay?
Oftentimes people will turn their back foot out.
I want you to bring both toes
or both sets of toes forward, okay?
Now, same thing here my loves,
you're going hinge over that leg.
If do you need to bend a knee,
bend the back knee.
And if you're able to bring your hands down to the floor.
In fact, everybody can try
to put the bend to back knee first
and then straighten up nice and tall.
Same thing bend
and stretch.
Bend and stretch.
Let's hold it, 10, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
Beautiful.
Gently bend your knees come up.
Let's swap to the other side.
(soft bright music)
It's kind of nice stretching at home.
I'm lucky to have an office space
that I kind of have made into a dance studio.
(chuckles) Classic.
Alright, so your toes are parallel.
We're standing up nice and tall
we're gonna hinge forward from the hip into a flat back
and reached down.
The reason I have you hinge forward,
go ahead and bend the back knee if you need to,
is because it lengthens the stretch out.
Straighten up and bend.
If you were to come down of rounded back,
the stretch gets shortened and kind of cut off.
So it's nice to have a long spine lumber time.
Bend and straight let's hold it.
10, nine, eight,
seven, six, five, four,
three, two, and one.
Bend those knees and come up nice and tall.
(soft bright music)
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Alright, dancers, we have made it to the floor.
So, I realize I keep saying dancers,
but that's because of course
this is primarily a dance channel.
But these stretches are fabulous for anyone.
Yogis, Pilates fanatics, runners,
anyone who plays any sports
or really just anybody who wants to kinda just stretch
and move their body.
So, if you're not a dancer, that's okay
you're still welcome here
and we're so happy to have you.
What I want you to do is glue your feet together
and then go ahead and separate them about one foot apart.
You're going to reach the arms up high to the sky
and you guessed it flat back is going to hinge forward.
You're not going to kind of dump into the stretch.
You go from a lengthen to lift
all the way forward and hold.
If you want an extra challenge,
flex the toes, straighten the spine,
and slightly hinge forward from the hips.
You can keep the toes pointed or neutral,
and reach over.
Keep the back straight holding here at ten,
nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one.
And add a challenge here is to lengthen one arm back
and lean a little forward.
Good and switch.
Lengthen one arm back,
two pulses forward, forward.
Gorgeous try that a couple of times
move through a flex,
hinge from the hips, by the way this is called your pike.
It's your pike stretch.
And you release.
Great job movers.
I love, love, love, stretching with you.
Whether you're warming up
for a class or a run or a group workout session
or you're just someone
who kind of wants to get out of your mind
into your body and lengthen out those muscles, wake them up,
stretching is so fabulous.
So, thank you so much for joining me
and I will see you next week.
(bright upbeat music)