Beauty

The described set of stretching exercises is a basic course that will allow you to achieve two important goals:

• First, you will feel the «stretch» on yourself.
• secondly, the described exercises will prepare the muscles for more advanced exercises to develop body flexibility

Before stretching, it is important to pre-warm up the muscles. For this, 5-7 minutes is quite enough, during which squat, make a few swings with your hands (along and to the sides of the body) and walk around the room. As soon as you feel that the muscles have warmed up, you can begin to perform stretching exercises.

The complex must be performed strictly in the described sequence. And it starts with:

Ankle stretch

Technique:

1. Stand next to the wall, rest your forearms against it, and lean your forehead against the back of the hands, as shown in the figure. Straighten your right leg completely, and bend your left leg at the knee, move it closer to the wall. It is important that the soles of both feet lie on lines perpendicular to the wall surface. This is the starting position.

2. Without bending your right leg at the knee and keeping your feet on the floor, slowly begin to move your pelvis forward until you feel a slight stretch in your calf. Stop for 10 — 12 seconds in this position, then move your pelvis forward a little more and linger for another 10 — 15 seconds.

3. Swap your legs and do an exercise to stretch your left ankle.

Shaded in the picture are the places where you are most likely to feel a stretch. But don’t be surprised if they don’t exactly match your feelings.

It is important:

Do not lift your feet off the floor and do not turn the soles of your feet to the sides.

All movements should be slow and smooth, for this, rely on your feelings. Any jerking while stretching is fraught with injury.

Seated groin stretch

Technique:

1. Sit on the floor, spread your legs bent at the knees to the sides, put your elbows on the outer part of the shins, and grab the feet joined together with your palms. This is the starting position (See Figure 2).

2. Slowly, starting from the hips, lean forward with the body until you feel a slight stretch in the groin. At this point, stop for 15 — 20 seconds, gradually the tension in the groin should ease.

3. When the tension subsides, bend over a little more to feel the stretch in the groin again and stay in this position for another 15 to 20 seconds, then return to the starting position.

It is important:

To help you balance comfortably in this pose, rest your elbows on the outside of your shins. In addition, by pressing on the shins, you can control the force of stretching.

When leaning forward, be sure to exhale.

Do not bend at the neck and do not hunch at the shoulders, otherwise you risk overloading the lower back.

It is important that the slope in this exercise starts from the hips, so that the lower back remains straight.

Look not at the floor, but straight ahead, this will reduce the load on the lower back.

All movements should be slow and smooth, for this, rely on your feelings. Any jerking while stretching is fraught with injury.

The basics of stretching. Part 2

The basics of stretching. Part 3

Author: Alexander Kuznetsov based on the book Stretching for Everyone by Bob and Jill Anderson

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