We often hear about the core. The first thing that most people think of when it comes to the core are six-packs or abdominal exercises. For others they are often told to "brace" their core during exercises such as the squat or deadlift. Little do most people including the majority of PT's know that
Monday, 27 March 2023
Wednesday, 7 October 2020
Low Back and Hamstrings Flexibility by Yoga With Adriene
When it comes to yoga, one of the most popular and recommended YouTube channels is that of Yoga With Adriene, who currently has 8.42 million followers on the site. They also have a LOT of videos, so many
Wednesday, 22 April 2020
Leg Flexibility by Kungfu.life
As someone who has always had respect and admiration for Shaolin's and what they are able to do, watching a few random videos I came across an excellent one on YouTube from KungFu.Life for leg flexibility.
It's simple, doesn't take long and all you need is a chair or something similiar. Having performed this nearly everyday for the past week I can definitely feel the leg flexibility getting better in ways I hadn't before.
Thursday, 8 November 2018
Seated Forward Bend stretch
The Seated Forward Bend is a stretch that stretches the posterior chain muscles from head to toe. It is also a yoga pose where it is called paschimottanasana (POS-chee-moh-tan-AHS-anna), meaning "west stretching", where west refers to your back. This is due to your back facing west during morning worship, which is done facing towards the rising sun in the east.
Sunday, 14 October 2018
Kneeling hip-flexor stretch
The kneeling hip-flexor stretch, also known as the kneeling iliopsoas stretch, is quite possibly the most common stretch you will find for the strongest of the hip-flexors, the iliopsoas. This muscle is important for leg flexion at the hip such as when walking, running, and climbing.
As many of us spend quite a lot of time sitting down or over-using these muscles, the illiopsoas become shorter and our gluteals longer, affecting the balance and relationship between them and altering the natural position of the pelvis. A short and tight iliopsoas can also present itself in the form of externally rotated legs and feet. It can cause pain in the lower back, as well as other in regions from the knees to middle back.
Thursday, 4 October 2018
Standing front thigh stretch
The standing front thigh stretch, also known as the standing quadriceps stretch, is one of the most common stretches that you will see all sorts of people doing. It helps keep the muscles at the front of your thigh flexible especially after leg intensive exercises such as squats and running.
Due to modern living and our habit of spending large amounts of time sitting down with feet on the floor or feet tucked up near our butts, most peoples quadriceps are already pretty flexible from all this passive stretching. This is probably for the worse as unless it is counter-balanced it causes an altered relationship with its opposite muscle group, the hamstrings, which end up tighter and shorter as a result.
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Bent knee calf stretch
The bent knee calf stretch, or standing soleus stretch, is a simple variation of the straight leg calf stretch that targets the smaller but equally important soleus muscles that make up the calves along with the larger gastrocnemius.
Maintaining and improving soleus flexibility is vitally important in helping us maintain and improve our posture and movement especially when running and when performing major exercises such as the deadlift or squats, which require full ankle dorsiflexion (shin moves towards foot) to perform correctly.
Straight leg calf stretch
The straight leg calf stretch, or standing calf stretch, is the most common stretch used for maintaining and improving the flexibility of your calf muscles especially the largest one, the gastrocnemius.
To target the smaller calf soleus muscles more perform the bent knee calf stretch variation.