Find a column or a doorway that allows you to lie on your back and have one foot resting on the column. Place a folded blanket under the back of your head to relax your neck and shoulders.
Find the right distance from the wall. Look for a feeling of stretch, but not pain, in the hamstring of the lifted leg.
Then check that your pelvis rests evenly on the floor. If it's lifting, you need to move further away from the wall.
First settle the leg that's on the floor. Roll your upper inner thigh gently toward the floor.
Press out through the ball of your big toe. Lengthen through your inner ankle.
Pull your front thigh muscle toward your hip crease, and press the thighbone down to the floor.
Now repeat those actions on the lifted leg: roll the upper inner thigh in, extend through the big toe mound and the inner heel. Pull the front thigh muscles toward your hip crease and press your thighbone toward the wall.
The more you contract your front thigh muscles, the more your hamstring will stretch.
When the feeling of stretch diminishes, move your buttocks closer to the wall.
Benefits: Tight hamstrings can make the difference between feeling yoga poses as pain and feeling them as pleasure.
The beauty of this preparation is that you can stretch your hamstrings without creating problems for your back. Besides, you get to lie down.
Sequence: Hamstrings mock those who stretch once a week in class. Try this stretch every day, for two minutes a side, and twice a day if you can. Don't give up.
If you’re a beginner, do this as your daily practice. In a longer practice, it will help you centre and give your hamstrings some length if you do it at the beginning. Place it at the end of practice, and you may notice that your warmed-up muscles are more ready to stretch.
Ouch: Resist the temptation to push through pain. If your hamstrings are very tight, your buttocks could easily be two feet from the wall before your pelvis rests evenly on the floor.
Check for tension in your eyes, throat and forehead, and when you feel it, make a conscious effort to relax. If that doesn’t work, move farther from the wall.
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Yoga on 7th is owned by Mary Balomenos and Eve Johnson. Practice tips ©2008 Eve Johnson. The information in Practice Tip of the Week is of a general nature and is not to be taken as medical or other health advice. Permission to re-publish an individual issue is given, once the following conditions are met: Yoga on 7th is given proper recognition as author of the piece; a link to Yoga on 7th's website is published; the piece is not modified in any way; subscription details for Practice Tip of the Week are provided; Yoga on 7th is informed of the re-publication.
