Tai Chi: Snake Creeps Down

Video Transcript

"In this segment I'm going to teach you a stretch, Snake creeps down stretch to help us develop the flexibility in our hip joints so we can do a movement like Snake creeps down or anything else we need to do that opens our hip joint. So the way we do that is the feet are a little bit wide, shoulder width apart. We take our hands from the inside and grab out ankles and sit down. From this point what we want to do is we want to straighten, using our elbow, push the knee. See, I push the knee back. Same time, I'm taking this elbow, pushing this knee. Now, if you notice my heel is off the ground, it shows I'm not all that flexible. The ideal is that the heel would be on the ground. But if you have a choice between having this leg bent and this heel on the ground, choose this leg straight, leave this heel off the ground, and work your way towards it. So, as you see, I still have work to do. So now we come from this side, I bend this knee, relax it, shift my weight and then straighten this knee. So, this side I'm a little more flexible. I can straighten this leg, keep this heel on the ground. But, again, that's not important. If you have to be high up, it's OKay. The ideal is that we are able to sit down, heel on the ground, leg straight, back straight. So, as I said, as you can see I still have more work to do myself."