Martial Arts Hamstring Stretches

Video Transcript

"So our next set of stretches we're actually getting a lot more into the legs. Jabard is now going to take his feet and he's going to set them slightly wider than shoulder width. He's going to cross his arms and hang down the middle. When he does this his arms and his upper body help to create a little bit more of a pull to stretch his hamstrings. Some people they can't actually straighten their legs when they do this one and that's fine, knees bent slightly if necessary. What your goal is going to be is to try and straighten them as much as possible. Now we're going to start slightly swaying from side to side, never really sitting in one static position that's our goal, always remain slightly in motion. He's going to sway slightly from side to side as long as he feels is necessary. He can does this to really loosen up his back or if he wants to spend a lot of extra time on his hamstrings, that's a good idea. He's not focusing too much on just one, he's not over doing it. We're going to abbreviate this a little bit and he's now going to take his and put them down on the ground, and he's now going to go into a low squatting position. Notice he turns his feet out when he does that, it's not necessary for everybody to do that. Some people find the need to do that to take some pressure off of the knees. Go ahead and straighten your legs out, hands still on the floor and bend them again, this is great for the lower back, feel this a lot on the hamstrings. So he's constantly in motion, never to the point where he's exerting himself too much. He's going to come up one for time and then after this we're going to abbreviate it and he's going to stay down in the low squat. So again never staying still he's going to start to sway, just slightly back and forth. Now remember if you feel any pain, in any of these stretches that you do, either discontinue them right away or come up with variations that helps to take a lot of that pain away. Here we go again, sit there for as long as necessary, if he was a little extra tight in his hips or his ankles, his calves sit here for a little longer. We're going to abbreviate it, put your right foot up on the heel. Now for this stretch, his left foot is flat, it gives him a better stretch in his hip and he's stretching out the hamstring with his straight leg. He would not stay static just like the rest of them, he would only hold for a couple of seconds, moving back and forth. If you need to you can actually go on the ball of the back foot too, he's going to go ahead and illustrate that. Notice that back here his foot is on the ball of the foot, switch. After working these for a minute, you would then switch and do both feet flat. When he does this, it's going to work a little more of the groin muscles of the outstretched leg. Going to go flat with both of them, and switching. Notice his hands are not on the ground, he's using his leg strength, but if you need to put your hands on the ground that's fine. Slowly slide your feet together, and come on up."