Sebastian Brosche · 11 min · 1,375 words
Previously titled: 10 in 10 Recovery After Rolling Video 2 - Hamstrings
Hey everyone and welcome back to the 10 minute video series for recovery after rolling. Today we're going to stretch the hamstrings and the lower back a little bit so if you've got a tight lower back or really tight hamstrings this is going to help you after you've finished training. So to start off with we're going to have our knees nice and bent here, so very bent and I'm just going to lean my ribs down towards the tops of my legs here. All we're going to do is we're going to take a nice grip around the legs and then just drop our heads down, so resting your forehead on the knees.
I'm going to keep my head up just so that I'm not screaming into the microphone and then really, really slowly just start to let the feet slip away. So find that point where you can just start to let the feet slip away until you start to feel a stretch in the lower back. And when you feel that stretch I'm just going to stop here and take three or four really slow and chill breaths. Just breathing through your nose, just feeling that tension and just breathing into it.
So every inhale you can focus on that tension, every exhale just let it go. One more of those slow breaths and then really slowly just let your grip go, relax that grip and seat yourself up. Okay, come to a cross-legged position here now and then hands in front of your knees and I want you to just start just circling round and we'll start with some small circles here and they're going to get bigger and bigger. We're focusing on that lower back today.
So after a few circles we'll change direction, just folding forwards and around and then we can start to exaggerate that a little more, so dip in the head and back around. Give it a change direction one more time and around. Good, now let's think about the opposite shoulder to the opposite knee. So I'm going to start off with my right shoulder and I'm driving that down to my left knee as I turn my chest to the left.
Okay, so turning my chest to the left, trying to touch my right shoulder on my left knee, then I'm folding. Now it's left shoulder to right knee as I open my chest out to the right, come up then over again, so right shoulder, left knee, drop the head, left shoulder, right knee. Good. Just going from side to side.
If you're down here, that's fine too. Just whatever works for you, we're working within our own range of motion. You're not working with mine and I'm not working with yours. And the beauty of this is the more you exaggerate those movements, the better it feels.
Okay, on the way up now, turning, I'm coming up with a proud chest, then I'm going back down, but we're going to change directions. So this time, left shoulder, right knee as I look over, then across, right shoulder, left knee, and then look over, back up with the proud chest. Let's go, couple more of these. They feel really good and again I'm trying to exaggerate that movement and get a little more.
And then back up. Good, let's bring that left foot out in front of us and your right side, you can either have the knee bent here or relaxed, just whatever feels good. Obviously look after your knees here and just see what's comfortable for you here. Okay, now bend that left knee slightly, then I'm just thinking about folding towards my left foot.
And again, I'm going to drop my forehead down and take two breaths here. And just like we did at the start, my left heel is going to start sliding away really slowly until I find we're never getting to like a 10 where I can't even speak or talk about what I'm doing. We're just getting to like a six or seven where we're in a bit of a stretch and we're just breathing here and just feeling that stretch. And as you breathe you might be able to just release some tension and just relax everything down into it.
Okay, let's come up out of that side and then switch sides. Before we even go, we're just going to accept the fact that this side is going to feel different, might be better and it might be worse. Okay, so start off with a bent knee, hinge at the hips, let everything come down. Then super slowly start to let that right heel drag away until you get to again a six or seven, never a 10, just letting that forehead drop down towards the knee and breathing.
Last deep breath. And then we're going to get to all fours now and we'll work on some cat and cows here. But we're really thinking about the hips today. So my shoulders are above my wrists, my hips are above my knees.
Then I'm going to look up and I'm tilting my hips away as I shrug my chest down and drop my belly. Then I'll reverse that so I look towards my hips, tilt my hips towards my forehead, bridge my hips towards my head. Then look up again and back down. As I look down I'm pushing my chest through my back.
Then back up, take an inhale and down, take an exhale. Then we'll start to look up and move forwards. Then as I look down I'm sitting back and you'll feel that stretch change to your lower back. Then look up, let's come forwards, inhale, look down, exhale back.
Let's keep going with that. Then we'll start to stretch. Just making sure you stretch the lower back as you sit back and if you find somewhere that feels really tight on the way you can stop there and take your time. Okay let's come back to all fours now.
Then step the right foot outside the right hand. And now we'll just think if I tilt my hips away and lift my head up like we're doing in the cat cows you should feel more of a hamstring stretch on your right hand side. If I tuck my forehead towards my hips and bridge my hips towards my forehead that's going to stretch my lower back. So now if I move my hips back and bring on a hamstring stretch, tilt in my hips away and my head up is going to bring on that hamstring stretch more or if I have a tight lower back tucking is going to stretch my lower back here more.
Okay so what we're going to do is we're going to move forwards and back a few times just finding where it's tight and working almost like we just were in those cat and cows but moving forwards and back stretching out the hamstrings and the lower back getting some mobility and flexibility work as we move forwards and back here. So this is going to depend on what's tighter and the individual here but I want you to just work with tilting the hips away and tucking them as we move here and see if that makes things open out. So there's two ways to do this, no right or wrong here, it's almost a bit of a freestyle position where we just get a bit of movement. Okay down to all fours, let's go with the left side now and again move back, look down, tilt the hips towards you, look up, tilt the hips away and forwards just playing with these positions and seeing what feels good.
A few times I'm going to move forwards and back, breathe in as we move. Good and then bring yourself down to a seated position and that is it for the hamstrings and lower back of these 10 minute sessions. I hope you enjoyed it, make sure you come back for tomorrow's session, tomorrow we'll go over the shoulders and we'll stretch them out and make sure everything is feeling really good. Thanks guys.
This is the transcript. Become a member to watch the video.
Watch now →