Yoga for the Splits
Print this out and practice these poses everyday to gain flexibility for the splits. Start by holding each pose for 30 seconds on each side. Work your way up to 1-3 minutes as your muscles start to open up. When you’re ready to try the splits use a block or pillow under your front leg for support until you feel ready to go without.
Need more help? Check out my favorite stretching videos.
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Source: fitnessloveaffair
HMH FIT TIP #14
This is a fantastic set of stretches emphasizing DURATION over INTENSITY, a key concept of effective stretching. Just as training the lower body nets full body benefits, keeping a free, unrestricted range of motion in the lower body prevents musculoskeletal restrictions system-wide. Pain and restriction in your legs and hips (hip range of motion is so important!) creates compensatory movement patterns that can negatively impact your spine, neck muscles, breathing patterns, etc. Your lower muscle groups are connected to your upper muscle groups by complex, elegant, symmetrical fascial lines and slings (bands of connective tissues that hold us together). Imagine pulling on the bottom lace of your tied shoe. This may tighten up the bottom of the shoe at first but after walking around, the entire lace system will adjust itself and compensate for the changes at the bottom. That’s right, a sore ankle CAN mean a sore shoulder! As athletes, we may compartmentalize some of our training (though fitness training is evolving towards full body functional training) but understanding and working with our body becomes easier (and more interesting) when we relate to it as the interdependent system of systems that it is. So, even if you’re not a runner, try these stretches, get a massage, get a foam roller, soak in heat, get acupuncture, whatever will help you to keep your hips and legs swinging freely. The rest of the body, their passenger, will reward you for the smoother ride.
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Flexibility 101 and Stretching Exercises - Stretching is the fountain of youth. Make time!
(on Friday because I was working last night)
Let your breath do the work. I tell my clients to partner up with me and use their awareness to ‘work’ on the muscle with me.
The first and basic skill is a diaphragmatic yoga breath. Many of us are unconscious ‘apical’ breathers, filling only the top third of our lungs with air as we move through the day. We can learn to provide more nourishing oxygen and energy to every cell of our body by first pulling the diaphragm down, drawing air into what seems our belly and allowing it to rise outwards. We then top up the breath with the chest muscles in that upper third of our lungs we are used to using. Then we empty out our lungs in reverse. Imagine it like filling and emptying a glass of water. You can lie on your back with your hand on your belly and practice by making your hand rise and fall, saying to yourself “in, out” or “new, old” or whatever is meaningful to you. Using your nose controls the flow and filters the air, but feel free to slowly exhale out of your mouth. Breathe in the new and exhale the old. Let your inhale bring fresh air to your muscle and carry out all tension and holding with the exhale.
I also encourage all of my clients to develop a basic understanding of their anatomy so they can visualize and create a relationship with their muscle. Get a look at where it starts and finishes on your skeleton and what it’s job is. When receiving a massage, stretching, or even just relaxing, hold a cooperative, grateful and nurturing attitude toward your muscle. Tell it that it’s work (contraction) is done and that it is free to return to its original resting length. The breath is the language that our muscles best understand. Use it to be a more conscious operator of your body.
It’s Meet Your Muscle Monday!
Introducing Piriformis! This one starts on the rear surface of the triangular bone at the base of your spine called the sacrum and reaches across your pelvis and attaches to the top of the femur. When it contracts, it makes the leg ‘laterally rotate’ (what you would do to show someone the inside of your leg)
This muscle is important to know because it is a common culprit for pain referring to the buttocks and down the rear thigh from a condition commonly known as ‘Sciatica’. The body’s largest, strongest and longest nerve, the sciatic nerve runs behind the piriformis in 87% of the population (sometimes right through it, sometimes both), providing sensory and motor innervation for the hamstrings, lower leg and the foot. Sciatica is a general term describing several conditions affecting the nerve, but it helps to know that sometimes it’s just a contracted Piriformis pushing on or squeezing the nerve and causing pain that can be relieved through therapy, heat and stretching. This will not only relieve the pain, but make your legs more responsive in both movement and sensation.
A contracted Piriformis is often the result of trigger points (bundles of taut muscle fibers) that commonly occur at the origin beside the sacrum or beside it’s insertion at the top of the femur. These will create a deep ‘butt ache’ at the site of the trigger point and a diffuse deep ache down the back of the thigh to above the knee. One can get trigger point therapy from a massage therapist and/or heat and stretch these trigger points themselves.
To stretch this muscle, try one of the two positions in the above picture. I prefer the ‘leg in front’ version. Some of you may recognize this from yoga, a practice that pays a lot of attention to ‘opening the gate’ of the hips.
Guidelines for stretching:
Duration is more important than intensity. A muscle needs to be coaxed out of it’s contracted position. Going into the stretch too deeply too early will just create a guarding response. Make it a rule to hold each position for a minimum of 90 seconds, breathing deeply and allowing each exhale to take you deeper into the stretch. You may feel the muscle jump or twitch. This is a good sign of the trigger point releasing. Let your body weight deepen the stretch and let your breath do the work.
Once your piriformis has returned to it’s regular length, be mindful of your habitual postures. Sitting cross legged a lot can keep your leg in a ‘laterally rotated’ position and lock the muscle into a contracture. Even your ankles being rotated outwards while sleeping on your back can shorten the muscle. Be aware of your foot position while walking. Toes pointed outwards while using your leg and gluteal muscles will condition them to work in a shortened position. Also, check your foot while driving. Try to keep your toes pointed up rather than out to keep your muscle operating at it’s natural healthy length. For the guys, if you have a thick wallet in your back pocket, sitting on it regularly will tighten this muscle and cause pain as well.
Hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know the “Pesky Piriformis” and creating a greater understanding and awareness of what’s going on inside your body. Next muscle, next Monday!
The benefits of stretching your gluteals are more than just range of motion, but creating and maintaining a free pathway for the major nerves and blood supply to the legs. People often neglect to stretch their glutes, and general lower body, because of the discomfort of their restrictions. Through gentle stretching at the edge of your personal range of motion, breathing deeply, focusing on the duration of the stretch over the intensity of the stretch, you can coax your muscle out of its habitual holding and return it willfully to its original length and state of health. This then creates a better environment for all of the nearby and cooperative systems and structures of the body. Stretching doesn’t need to be painful or aggressive. A passive and cooperative mindset with your body can make stretching a time of the day you look forward to.
This is a great post by the Globe and Mail of this and many more stretches. With the figure four stretch, you can try it with your bent leg on a table, your arms reaching forward. This offers good control over the depth of the stretch. Yoga practitioners open the ‘rear gate’ of the pelvis, practicing this stretch by leaning into the bent leg on the floor in front of them, their other leg stretched behind them. Try it! It sounds hard, but it’s not and it feels great.
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