Body Weight Exercises: Hamstring Stretches

Video Transcript

"Let's go to the hamstring muscle next, the opposing muscle from the quadricep. Let me show you where it is, okay. If I bend over here, this is the hamstring muscle, long one, you hear a lot about it, injuries probably. So, we do want to stretch it. Let me just tell you this. I like to stretch after however, the hard workouts, not before. If you're not warmed up, you really don't want stretching muscles. So I prefer that you stretch after, okay. Just one of my tips and I think it's safer as well. Okay, so how do we stretch the hamstring? You can do a lot of stretches seated on the ground, however today, we're going to do this one standing. And I know this one sounds sort of, maybe a little over the top, but I figure if you're standing, you're burning more calories, you're getting more audio workout. If you don't have a lot of time, you might as well get the most you can out of it. So I like to do as many of the stretches standing as I can. Nothing to take away from the seated stuff. Okay. So if I take my leg up and I simply lower into this. Actually, let me remind you that your knee has to be bent. This position puts pressure on my back. If I bend my knee, I'm simply going to lower into this. Here is an important tip, if you come down and have to round your spine, dangerous, not good. If you're coming down through an arch, not good. You're going to simply keep your back in neutral and come down as far as you can and stop, if you can't go that far, that's okay. The more flexible you are, the further you can go. And simply, taking your leg up higher, if you have something up higher will also work. You could even do a stretch with both legs where you're just holding it here, depending on your flexibility. Don't feel like you have to get far into the flexibility, just enough to feel the muscles start to stretch. Will it hurt? No. Will it be a little bit uncomfortable to do it right? Yes."