Doing a Hip Flexor Stretch for Gymnastics

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Mandy Butler on behalf of Expert Village. I'm going to take you through a gymnastics class stretch and warm-up. Now I'm going to stretch my hip flexors. Again, when you're jumping or tumbling you could easily pull any muscle, especially in your legs. So, you really want to stretch them out. Now, what I've done is gotten up on my knees from my other stretches and I've put one leg forward. When I stretch my hip flexor it's extremely important that I keep my knee just over my ankle. If I push too forward and get over my toes I'm putting a lot of undue stress on my knee joints. So, I want to keep my shin nice and straight. I'm going to push forward, ever so slightly, until I feel that stretch right here in this leg and then here in my back leg. I'm going to keep my chest nice and forward because we don't want to hunch over and I'm going to hold that, again, for at least 20 seconds. When I'm done, I'm going to pull this leg back and I'm going to switch and repeat with the other leg. My hands are on my knee to keep my chest up. You can put your hands on your hips, but, I find when a lot of people do that, they hunch forward. So, put your hands on your knee, don't lean forward, and stretch."