Yoga Strap Stretches - Upper & Lower Body Stretching

Transcript

hi my name is Natalie Williams I am a certified personal trainer and yoga teacher in this video I'm going to show you how to stretch with a strap this strap has 10 loops in it it's big enough to put most shoe sizes and it's really good for gripping which can assist in deepening the stretch so go ahead and take the stretch strap and you see these little loops you can place your hands in it for a nice grip place it about shoulder width apart maybe a little bit longer than your shoulders on the outside are and you just have a light grip in it you come on up nice and tall you can take a deep inhale and elongate that spine slight bend in the elbows and keep them in front especially if you have any shoulder issues but lift up nice and tall and then gently hinge from your hips over to one side if you want to you can look up towards the sky you can even bend that elbow back a little bit to get a deeper chest stretch or you can bring it in front again remember your shoulders inhale lift up nice and tall and lean over to the other side this is a really good side stretch same thing if you want to look up you can you can bring back that elbow you can bring it in front whatever feels best for you then inhale nice and tall from here bend the elbows a little bit more relaxed the shoulders and if you can try to bring your elbows back just a little bit more for a deeper shoulder stretch then you stay right there I'm gonna turn around but go ahead and straighten the arms just a little bit and what we're gonna do is you're gonna let go of your left hand so you have the strap in your right hand and if you want to you can unleash from the loop because you want more of the strap longer down you can find another grip if you would like just to help keep that resistance there and hold it and then with this left arm you just try to pull down on the strap make sure that your elbow is faced up and that you're not hinging with your neck forward it's nice and aligned ears over shoulders but gently go ahead and pull down and then you can grab a loop if you would like to on your bottom hand if it feels okay but watch out for your shoulders everything is a nice subtle movement then we're just gently going to straighten the right arm and keep the elbow facing down on that left shoulder and you can hold both for thirty seconds and then when you're ready you can wiggle your fingers out of the strap and try to bring them closer together if you can but again watch out for the neck pushing forward and then when you're ready you can go ahead and do the other side so go ahead and take this drop behind you place your right hand with your thumb facing in towards your body and then your left thumb facing out so both thumbs are facing in the same direction you're gonna bend the right elbow the left elbow is just keeping into your body as you pull your left arm and hang on to your right so you're getting a nice shoulder stretch here and then you can repeat to the other side by flipping your grip both thumbs face the other direction and you just gently pull you should feel it in that left shoulder now so go ahead and take the strap and place it behind your back with your thumbs facing outward you can always start in and then with a looseness of the grip it can go out further depending on your flexibility so nice tall spine here your hips and knees and shoulders all the line then the weight shifts in the heels the bottom goes back and you just hinge from your hips and then you can rest your chest if it can get down all the way on your thighs you can but you're just bringing your arms over the direction of your head don't worry about how flexible you are you're just trying to push your arms a little bit in the direction forward then how you get out of this you bring your hands towards your bottom and you round up and just to flip the grip here we're gonna go ahead and switch so now and just place your thumbs facing inward shoulders back weight in the heels and you can come on down nice and slow whatever is comfortable for you and then arms come over in the direction of the head then bring the hands back and you can hold about thirty into sixty Seconds whatever feels best for you and come on up forward leg stretches let's get started with bending the knees so it creates a nice lower curvature in that back keep your chin up so you're not tucking it in so it has that natural neck curvature of the spine squeeze your core bring that right knee into your chest take this last loop and you can place it underneath the foot from here you bend the knee and then you kick straight up as far as it feels comfortable this is a really good hamstring stretch stay here unless if you can bring it in a little bit more further towards your head you want to keep your legs straight with a little bit of a slight bend in your knee so you're not hyper extending that knee joint so you can keep it here then your right hand is going to come up a little bit higher and your left hand is going to come a little bit lower you can find whatever grip is most comfortable for you and we're gonna take the right leg bring it out to the right side you can take this left leg to open it up this just keeps that left hip down and we're just stretching that inner thigh muscles your adductors so you're gonna hold it here for about 30 seconds or so and then whenever you're done with this stretch you squeeze the cord bend your knee a little bit to keep that curvature of the back bring it to the sky again and then you're gonna straighten the bottom left leg if you can take the strap place it over your left hand is on top your right hand is on bottom and we're going to take the right leg across the left side of your body this is really good for your outside leg muscles so from here we're gonna bring the right leg across the left side of the body and if you want an IT stretch you just rotate that right foot down towards the ground as much as you can you'll feel it more on the outside especially if you're tight there then to bring it up you're gonna bend the right leg to keep that curvature in the lower back squeeze in the core then bring it back up to Center and then we're gonna bend the left leg flex this right foot keep a bend in this knee and flex it and if you can you can place it on top or you can just try to pull it in and then you can continue to the other side you come to a nice tall seat your legs are straight with a micro bend in the knee and you have a nice tall spine with a good posture here from here you can grab on to the loops and all you're doing is you're keeping your elbows and shoulders relaxed with your chest straight up you're just hinging from the hips it's a very subtle movement but if you keep your toes towards your nose and you're just hinging forward you'll feel it in the back of your hamstrings if not you can definitely walk your hands a little bit closer to your feet but you want to hinge from the base of your spine and if you have the flexibility then you can come down a little bit further but stop wherever it feels best for you so this is a seated forward fold then we're going to lean back and squeeze your core bring your feet together for a butterfly your straps are around your feet and your knees are out nice tall spine here and then you can hinge from the hips if you can and come down if you feel any lower back pain just stay upright here you can also grip the strip and push down onto your forearms into your inner thighs and then we're going to come on up squeeze your core bring that left foot on the inside of the right thigh right here lift up nice and tall again hinging from the hips first and then you can go down only if you feel comfortable enough and then you can go a little bit further if you wish this is a really good stretch for that lower back and your side all the way through here and still getting the hamstring coming on up now and go ahead and do the left side thank you for watching I hope this strap helps you with your stretches make sure you always consult with your physician to make sure that these are the best movements for you