If you have tight hamstrings, locked up hips, and
a stiff lower back. If you're looking for a short, but effective, full body flexibility routine,
this video is for you. Hey, my name is Lucas, I'm a yoga teacher, I'm a teacher trainer,
but before yoga I was a stiff office guy and I couldn't touch my toes. I would get
about halfway down, my hamstrings would just scream at me. And I got so frustrated
by the flexibility training that I found, or I should say lack of flexibility training, so
I started talking to dancers, and martial artists, and gymnasts, and some yoga teachers, the ones
who, like me, were stiff as adults and then actually made some changes. And then from there
I dug into the exercise physiology research, and the message I found was very, very consistent.
To actually increase your range of motion it's not that complicated. It's not a big mystery, but
you need to understand what I call the Science of Stretching and then you need to apply it in
a very specific way to certain types of poses. That's what we'll be covering today. We'll
start off with number one. I'll share with you this anatomy and biomechanics of increased range
of motion. I call it the Science of Stretching. Number two, I'll share with you the three practice
principles that you can apply to any pose to help them to actually create more length. And lastly,
I'll share with you a 15-minute full body routine that you can come back to again and again. A quick
disclaimer. This is stretching with a capital S. This type of practice is designed to actually
increase your range of motion. This is not a warm-up, this shouldn't be done before a run, or
before a gym workout. This is something you should do supplemental to whatever else you're doing
and it should be done after, or at the end of your day, with plenty of time for recovery. Let's
jump in and talk about the Science of Stretching. Very often when we think about soft tissues
we think about everything together, muscles, and fascia, and tendons, and ligaments, and
cartilage. But let's separate these into two different buckets. Muscles and fascia, myofascial
units, and then our tendons and ligaments and cartilage. When we think about, for example, the
tendons and ligaments and cartilage of our knees, we don't want to stretch those, we want to leave
those alone. We want them to be elastic and strong and stable. But mostly we want them to be rigid
and stable. With our muscles and the fascia that surrounds them, these are the tissues that we
would like to stretch. Let's think about our hamstrings. I've got a hamstring model here, let's
say we zoom, zoom, zoom in on that muscle belly, the hamstrings on the backs of your legs. Inside
your muscle belly there are these sensory organs called muscle spindles and these spindles
are looking for two things - rate of change, so if I go down really quickly, and also total
length, so if I go too far. If I go too fast or too far those muscle spindles will send a
signal to my spinal cord and my hamstrings will lock up. You can feel that now. If you just try to
bounce really quickly you'll feel your hamstring fighting against you. I mention this because when
most people stretch all they do is fight their own body, they're not actually changing anything,
they're just hitting their own nervous system reflex and they don't get anywhere. This is called
your myotatic reflex, or your stretch reflex. This is where your body attempts to keep you safe by
engaging that very muscle that you're trying to stretch. The next thing you need to understand
about muscles from a scientific perspective is when you zoom, zoom, zoom in on those hamstrings
the smallest contractile unit, they're called sarcomeres. These muscle fibers come together
kind of like alligator jaws and they contract, they contract, they close, they close. The closing
part, the contracting, we usually do pretty well. The relaxation part we usually don't do very well.
Again, imagine the smallest contractile unit, called sarcomeres, contract for muscle
engagement. The relaxation part is the part we need to train initially. What that means
is, right now your potential range of motion is much, much bigger than you realize, that within
the first couple of weeks most people can realize their existing potential. That's phase one of
flexibility training. The next phase is something called sarcomerogenesis. Sarcomereogenesis just
basically means we need more of these alligator jaws in a line so that not only can I reach my
maximum range of motion today but I can increase that potential range over time. We do this by
applying the three principles of practice. Here we go. If you're trying to do deep stretching with
a capital S, the first principle is wet noodle. What this principle says is our muscles and the
fascia that surround them, they will stretch best when fully relaxed. In the same way you need to
contract your bicep to grow your bicep, you need to relax your biceps to lengthen your biceps.
Principle number one, wet noodle. Principle number two, to overcome that myotatic stretch
reflex we need to breathe in a specific way. It's in through our nose, out through our mouth.
I'll show you in just a couple of minutes here. Principle number three is time under passive
tension. We need to spend at least two minutes in a pose or nothing will happen. It's the
same as if you went to the gym and you did just one bicep curl, called it a day. Probably
not going to have much muscle hypertrophy. With flexibility you need to spend at least two minutes
or nothing will happen. Let's jump into our poses, and again just a quick disclaimer here, these
are not warm-ups. They should not be done before a run or a weight-lifting session. I'll walk
you through, step-by-step, each pose as we go. Let's get started with our full body 15-minute
flexibility routine. For this practice you will need a wall or a door, some hard surface to
lean up against. You need a stool, need a block, and then you'll need some kind of cushion as well.
I'm using a timer, but I'll keep track for you. First pose we'll do is called wall doll and I'd
like you to stand one of your feet distance away from the wall. Step your feet about as wide
as your hips, a little bit wider is okay too. Bend your knees as much as you need
to to keep your lower back safe. Fold forward, place a stool in front of you, rest
your forearms on the stool and drop your head. As we move into this practice, let's come back
to our three principles of practice. Principle number one is wet noodle. What that tells us is
that muscles and the fascia that surround them, in this case my hamstrings, they'll stretch best
when fully relaxed. So my job here is to relax my muscles on the backs of my legs as much as
possible. Principle number one, wet noodle. Principle number two is breathe to relax. So while
I'm in all these poses I'll breathe in a very specific way to turn off that myotactic stretch
reflex. I'll breathe in through my nose for four and out through my mouth for eight. Principle number three has to do with
this timer down here. We'll be holding all of our poses for at least two
minutes. Today we'll use two minute holds. Principle number three is called time under
passive tension and this is going to be one of the biggest determining factors in terms of
the actual results you'll make over time. When we apply these three principles to these poses
we'll be working on you can very effectively open up your body over time. In terms of intensity, I'd
like you to work at about a 7 out of 10 intensity, which means you should feel uncomfortable but
you should be able to converse, to talk in a normal voice without strain or without any
kind of interruption in your speaking voice. Good. Bend your knees, let's move the stool out
of the way, I'll reset my timer here. Our next pose is for our shoulders and this is called the
cliffhanger pose. Imagine you're hanging off the edge of a cliff. Take your forearm and put your
knees about one forearm's distance away from the wall. Place your knees wide apart, so they're
as wide as your mat, your big toes touch back behind you. I'll start my timer, place my hands up
the wall, spreading my fingers, and drop my head. Now, if you can have your arms all the way
straight and if it's comfortable relax your head completely, fingers spread, head relaxed, sinking
into your shoulders. This range of motion here is called shoulder flexion, when your arms are above
your head. We do this so rarely that many of us feel really, really locked up, stiff, even
impingement in our shoulder joint. You can throttle the intensity of this pose by relaxing
more into the pose, or potentially by using your legs more to soften the intensity. Same thing as
before, we're looking at a 7 out of 10 intensity. Think about principle one, wet noodle,
relax your shoulders as much as possible. Principle number two is breathe
to relax, inhale for four exhale mouth for eight. And principle number three is time under passive
tension. We're using two minute holds here today and two minutes is kind of the baseline hold
we use in our Science of Stretching approach. If you feel your hands slipping down the
wall, you can walk your fingers back up, spread your fingers, and drop
and relax back into the pose. If you can, straight arms are great.
If your arms need to bend a little bit, that's okay, but do your best to keep your
arms straight, head and neck heavy and relaxed. Good. Slowly make your way up, shake out your
arms, I'll reset my timer. We'll do our next pose which is for our hips. This is a classic
Science of Stretching pose that we call blaster. I'll use my stool and I'll use my pillows here.
My pillow goes underneath my left knee, I'm on my hands and my knees like a child crawling. Step my
right foot outside and in front of my right hand, my back knee is down on the cushion, I'll point my
back toe, start my timer, place my stool in front of me, rest my forearms on top of the stool, and
drop my head. What's happening here in this pose is my front leg, my right leg, is in hip flexion.
My knee coming towards my chest, it's also doing a little bit of lateral rotation. This is helping
to stretch my hamstring and gluteal group on the back side of my front leg, maybe a little bit
into the adductors, my groin muscles on that front leg as well. With my back leg I'm primarily
focused on my hip flexors, muscles like my psoas, my iliacus, and rectus femoris on the tops of your
legs. You might feel it more in the front leg, you might feel it more in the back leg. Wherever
you feel it is totally fine. Drop your head, wet noodle, breathe to relax, and let's hang
here for two minutes. Inhale through your nose, exhale mouth. Remember when we talked about the Science of
Stretching and we talked about those alligator jaws, those sarcomeres? What we're working on
right now is phase one of flexibility training. We're trying to take your existing muscle fibers
and training them to fully express the flexibility potential that they already have. Let's switch
sides here. Release back, switch the cushion, so now the cushion's underneath your right leg. Lunge
your left foot forward outside your left hand, start my timer again, two minutes on the left
side, place my block or my stool in front of me and relax down into the pose. So step number
one is training your existing muscle fibers, those sarcomeres, to fully express. The next
phase sarcomereogenesis, creating new sarcomeres, that takes a little bit more time. And it's
also very helpful if you actually use your new range of motion. What that means is maybe we'll
spend 15 minutes a day stretching, that's what I usually recommend, but you need to incorporate
full range of motion movements into your day. A few minutes ago we were doing cliffhanger at
the wall, full shoulder flexion. You need to incorporate full shoulder flexion into your day.
Take a break from your work, reach your arms above your head, take a break from your work, squat
down fully and pick something up off the floor. If you don't use the range of motion that we're
training here, whether it's hamstrings, hips, shoulders, whatever it is, if you don't use the
range you won't ever create new sarcomeres. And so remember, the first phase will get there,
this is teaching your existing sarcomeres to express themselves. But that second phase,
sarcomereogenesis, that takes active use, active practice, with your new range of motion that
you've gained. Inhale through your nose for four, exhale eight. Good. Release your left leg back, let's get rid
of this stool, we'll get rid of our cushion for just a moment. This next pose we'll do is a
thoracic spine opening. It's a simple-looking pose but it often feels pretty intense. I'll
use a block, I'll use a pillow, I'll position my T-spine, my thoracic spine, right over that
block. I might use a second block. I'll show you, you don't need one, it's optional, but it can be
helpful. I'll lie down on my back and I'll wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, until that block is right
between my scapula, right between my shoulder blades. I'll start my timer. We call this a block
noodle pose. I'll extend my arms above my head, relax my head back, and breathe here. Now for some
of you it might feel better to have something in your hand. You could use a broomstick, a
book, or like me, maybe you use a block. Breathe here and relax. Legs are relaxed, your
heart, your sternum, opening up towards the sky, and your head relaxes back, and breathe. If you
feel any strain in your neck, if it's too much to do this cervical spine extension, you could
potentially put something underneath your head. But if it's comfortable,
this is a great opportunity to take your neck along for the ride
and work on your neck mobility as well. Inhale through your nose for four, exhale eight. Good. Release your block if you're holding
on to one. Slowly roll over to your side, make your way up to a seated position. The last
pose we'll do I call a lightning bolt pose. Here's what you do. Sit on top of your knees and put as
many blocks as you need to, I'm using two blocks, you might use four blocks, you might use a bunch
of pillows, underneath your bum. Sit up tall, place your hands on your knees and relax here. In this pose you might feel a big
stretch in your ankles, this is called plantar flexion of your ankles. If it's too much,
go on a softer surface, like on top of your bed, like on top of a mattress. I'm using two blocks,
you might use more. Use as many as you need to, or you might use less, maybe one block, maybe
you don't need a block at all. With your knees, have them be together-ish. What I mean is
they're sort of moving towards each other, but if they drift apart a little bit don't
worry about it. Much more importantly, let's apply principle number one which is wet
noodle. Relax the tops of your legs as much as possible. We're stretching our quadriceps here.
Probably most importantly of these four quads, we're working on rectus femoris, which is right
here on the top. This is an important hip flexor, it's important for doing all your kind of lunging
poses, your walking and your running posture, and it often gets, along with your other quads,
very, very tight. Second to none here is your plantar flexion. Here your ankles are often very
tight as well, they're coming along for the ride. Allow them to get a nice stretch as
well. Drop your head and we'll breathe. Good. We're at two minutes. Release your legs and
you can punch out the stretch, sometimes there's some tension in your legs. And that's it, we're
done. Hope you found this full body flexibility routine helpful. For a pdf of the poses
we've covered you can find a link down below. If you'd like more science-based yoga videos,
please hit subscribe. I try to answer all my own comments down below, so if you have questions
please post them. And lastly, you can always find my teaching calendar at yogabody.com. Thanks so
much for joining, I'll see you in the next one.
