Sebastian Brosche · 10 min · 1,135 words
Previously titled: 10 in 10 Recovery After Rolling Video 5 - Calves & Deep Squat
Hey everyone, welcome back to these active recovery 10 minute videos, perfect after you finish training or if you're just feeling drained and you want something easy to do. Today we're going to work on the calves and a few other areas, so let's get straight into it. So we're going to start off on all fours and then bring the right knee towards your chest and step the right foot between your hands. And then super slow, just bring the right knee over the front of your toes and then back.
And what we're doing here is we're just trying to find a bit of a stretch in the calves without lifting the heels up. So forwards and back a few times where you can feel that in the back of the ankle and the calf slightly. And some people that are really flexible here are going to be going further forwards than others. It's going to completely depend on that, but don't get disheartened because if you're super tight here, you've got nothing but improvements to come.
Good. And now we're going to move the right heel back slightly. So as we move forward to that stretch is going to come on a little bit earlier, but that's what we want here. Just forwards and back a few times.
I'm keeping my hands on the mat, so I'm not driving too much weight into my foot just enough to stop that heel from lifting up so that we can really get that stretch. And then heel back a little bit more and then again forwards and back. And then next time that knee's forwards, we're just going to stop here and just take two or three breaths. Good.
Then ease off, switch sides. So left knee to your chest and kick the left foot through. And then again, just starting off forwards and back. And it's always nice when you switch sides when you've been doing this for a while.
I definitely have tight calves and it's always nice because you kind of realise just after something as simple as that, how much you can actually open your calves out if you work at it. Good. Just bring that left heel back and then forwards and back. Just finding that stretch before your heel lifts up, almost like someone's glued your foot to the mat.
And then back one more time. And then again, forwards and back. And this will definitely look different if you're doing this with someone or trying to compare yourself to what I'm doing. We're all going to look completely different here because we've all got such different proportions and angles.
So don't worry what you look like just as long as you're finding that stretch. Let's pause here. Two more breaths. Good.
Ease off. Then bring the hands down and we're going to go back to plank. Just not for long, but just come back to plank and then drive your heels back so you're nice and heavy and back on the heels so that you're stretching out the calves from here. And then come forwards and back.
And forwards just two more times. Forwards and back. Just in a plank. And you'll feel that opening the calves out.
Good. Drop your knees and just take a breath. Then we'll come into down dog. So when we come into down dog, I want you to keep your knees slightly bent and lifting your hips up towards the ceiling and imagine a nice and straight back here in this position.
Okay. I'm not straightening my legs yet. We'll work on that in a second. Just take a couple of breaths, being nice and comfortable in down dog.
And then super slow, bend the right knee a little bit more and start to drive your left heel down towards the mat. And then very, very slowly switch. So start to bend the left knee and straighten the right leg. So however quickly you think you need to do this, half that and you're nearly at the right speed.
I want this super slow. Just switch in from side to side. And then next time you're over to the left, just take two or three breaths here. Last inhale, last exhale and switch sides.
So drop the right and three breaths. Ease off, bring your knees down and then hands just outside and above your knees. But keep your toes tucked here. And then all we're doing here is I'm keeping my toes tucked.
I'm going to drive back and lift my knees up off the mat and then back down a few times. So you'll feel this in like the bottoms of your feet. If you're tight there as well, cause as you drive back, you're sitting back on your heels. And then as you come forwards, as your toes bend a bit more, you definitely feel it in those feet and just back and forwards a few times.
Each time you do it, you feel yourself potentially get a little bit heavier in the heels and maybe your heels drop down towards the mat a bit more. Always breathe in as we move. Next time we're back, just bring the hands in a bit more and try and set up a little straighter or keep some weight in your hands if that's too much, but just feel that weight in your heels. Just naturally stretching your calves out.
And then hands forwards again, knees down. And then however you're comfortable, just get yourself back into a squat, but with the feet even wider. Okay. So instead of having the feet really close, my feet are a bit wider in a squat this time.
My knees are obviously pointing away from each other. And then I'm going to sit my weight back into my heels, just into a squat for a couple of breaths. Just seeing how that feels, maybe set up a bit more. You feel that even more in your heels.
If you want to bring the insides of your elbows to the insides of your knees here, you can do. Or if you want to bring your feet a little closer, just for that kind of added stretch, you can't always do that. So I'm going to rest my arms on top of my knees and just breathe here. Okay.
Let's just bring our weight over to the side and switch just a few times. Just like we're moving sideways, opening the calves out, nice and heavy heels. And then one more time, sitting back into that squat. Then just sit back across your legs.
And that is it for this one. Thank you very much for watching, guys. I will see you in the next one.
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