Stretches for Hip Flexibility

Stretch for “Belly of the Hamstrings”

“Stretching” listed some possibly useful YouTube videos for stretches for hip flexibility. I have found a couple more by the same creator. Below are my personal notes from the videos for my own reference.

• Frequency — twice a day for making progress, once a week for maintenance.
• [1:45] “Kinetic chain” (see “4 Kinetic Chain Exercises“) — Because of the way muscles are layered, it’s best to stretch in the order of calves, hamstrings, quads, and then hips.
• [4:20] Calf stretch
  • Level 1: two-leg stretch — three different angles of feet, one in which two are parallel, one in which they create a fan-like angle, and one in which they create an upside-down-fan-like angle.
  • Level 2: one-leg stretch —- unstretched leg rests on the leg being stretched.
• [5:31] “Belly of the hamstrings” (in addition to the regular hamstrings stretch) — see the figure above.

Straddle Stretch Level 2: Controlled Movement

• [0:39] Dietary supplements — take magnesium and calcium.
• [1:26] Quads

Straddle Stretch Level 3: Ballistic Movement

• [3:35] Hip functions
  • The butterfly position — slowly bend down and come up, smoothly, not ballistically, repeat 5-7x, and then stay down.
  • [4:47] “The S position” — same upperbody movement as above, in three upper body directions: over the front knee, over the front shin, and in the middle. Kick out the front shin for more intense stretching.
  

  Straddle Stretch Level 4: Wall Assisted

  • [7:19] The gymnastic straddle position
    • [8:05] Level 1: PNF — i) digging the heals into the ground; and ii) digging the heals into the ground and trying to bring the legs forward at the same time.
    • [8:43] Level 2: controlled stretch — see figure.
    • [9:34] Level 3: ballistic stretch — see figure. Throw a cross to touch your foot, so that your torso gets rotated.
    • [10:37] Level 4: wall-assisted ballistic stretch — see figure.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAGKdxVPZEg