Let's come into our advanced standing hamstring stretch. You're going to use a chair for your props on this one.
Standing firmly on your left leg, make sure your hips are balanced and you're not poring your weight to one side or the other.
We'll raise our right foot up onto the base of the chair. We're going to flex our toes and keep our leg engaged to protect our knee. Inhale to lengthen your spine, and as you exhale fold forward over your right leg. If you need a little added balance, you can place your hand on the back of your chair or keep them at your hips, but try and avoid pressing into your knee to cause injury.
We'll inhale to gently come out of this and switch our legs out here.
So we'll stand firmly on our right foot, raise your left leg up onto the seat. Inhale to lengthen your spine, and as you exhale draw your torso towards your toes. You'll definitely feel this through the back of your hamstring, and you may even feel a little bit of a stretch through your calf. If you feel any pain or discomfort, come out of this right away and contact a physician before attempting this again.
Let's come back to standing.
If you'd like to take this stretch just a little bit deeper, you can use the back of your chair instead of the seat.
So we're going to come into this one more time on each side, and you can follow along using whichever modification feels best for you. So we'll come into this one more time using our left leg as our standing leg first, and we'll raise our right leg up, either onto the back of your chair or onto the seat. Always inhale first to lengthen your spine, and we'll exhale to fold forward, with our chests going towards our toes. Keep your shoulders away from your ears and your spine long.
On our next inhale we'll come out of this and switch our legs out carefully.
Planting your right foot with your toes pointing forward and picking up your left leg onto the seat or the back of your chair, inhale to lengthen your spine and draw your shoulders away from your ears, and we'll exhale to fold forward with our torso crossing over. Let's inhale to come out of this, gently set that left leg down. Great job!
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