Relaxing Full Body Stretch: All Levels

1. Intro Stretch: Hi, I'm Kate, and welcome to this stretch and strengthen course. This program is designed for all levels and can be done remotely. All you'll need is a match to protect your spine when we're lying on the floor. So I'm comfortable clothes and a nice clear space. We're going to begin with a warm up to get our body ready. Then we'll finish off with some stretches, again focusing on the whole body. And these can be modified depending on your flexibility and your experience level. I hope you enjoy the course. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Please do remember to leave a review as it really does help. If you'd like to check out any of my other videos, go to www.myvaletcoach.com. 2. Warm Up: Before we begin our warm up, Let's check our alignments to be lifted at the front rib cage directly over the hips, shoulders, nice and broad. Abs engaged, relaxed. Starting off with eight shoulder rolls. Off, we go. Next. We have eight forwards curves. Bending the knees, bring the back of the hands towards each other. Squeezing the abs and dropping the chin or figure. Moving onto a forwards curve with the arms circling around up. Next we have a side and front curve. Bending the knees with the arms and forth, crossed the side, then forwards and straighten up. Repeats on the other side. We're going to do eight of these. Off, we go. Moving on. We're going to do some twists to wake up the lower back, the legs, the parts and these bands swing the arms from side-to-side and a twisting motion against the eight of these. Then open the legs a little further apart. We're going to do some lunge twist. Bring the opposite fingers down to your foot while bending the knee. This is going to stretch the hamstrings. Eight twist and no, ate lunch twists. So now that we've warmed up the back, we're going to focus on the legs and glutes. Squatting with a flat back, reach your arms out in front of you, and then circle them as you straighten up. We're going to do eight of these squats. Figure waking up the neck and the chin from side to side and up and down. Warming up the legs, we're going to do some leg lift and some kickback. Starting off with eight leg lifts, the front. And then eight kickbacks. If you want a more cardio focused option, you can do these with a jump. So eight leg lifts, eight kickback, repeated four times. 3. Full Body Stretch : Started with this feel good, stretch. Sitting on the floor with your hands on your knees. We're going to circle the upper body fluids and bending to the side, to the back and to the side. Just waking up the spine. We're going to repeat this again and a third time. And repeats in the other direction. We're now going to cut forwards and backwards. So dropping in the chin, holding onto your knees, stretch back and then sitting forward, lifting the chin up to the sky, arching the back. You can connect this with the breath. So as you can back quiz, you're going to breathe out. Breathe in as you sit back up. And then breathe out as eating the chin to the sky. Let's repeat this again. Sitting back up and breathing out, lifting the chest, the sky. We're now going to move on to the arm. So bringing one arm across the body, you're going to pull and ten the head in the opposite direction. Then again on the other arm. You should feel a gentle stretch, taking the head and pulling it very gently to the side for gentle neck stretch. I'm recursing on the other side. Are going to lie down on the floor. Bring your knees and pull them into your chest. Dropping one leg down to the floor, pulling one knee into the chest, and then dropping that knee down to the floor as you twist in the opposite direction. This is for a gentle spine twist. Switching over legs and repeating everything on the other side. Lifting up both legs again, crossing one leg on top. If you have the right leg on top, you're going to draw both knees down to the left and vice versa. If you have the left leg twisting in the opposite direction than holding, lifting the knees back up, switching legs, and dropping down to the floor. Now, just pulling one knee into your chest. We're going to do half of a happy baby so you can either hold onto your heel, hold onto your cough, or even hold on to your thigh. And we're just going to open the leg out to the side, pushing the knee down to the floor. This is a great hip opener. You can place your other hand on your hip to check that your hips are nice and still. Now extending the leg up to the sky and gently pulling the leg towards you, keeping your knees stretched. You can hold below the knee or above the knee. But make sure you're never holding right behind the knee. Keep breathing normally. And now switching over to the other leg. We're now going to do a pancake stretch. Lifting your hips up off the floor. You can hold them with your hands. Keeping your knees bent. If you're new to this, you can extend one leg and then alternate extending the other. We've done a pancake stretch before. Or you're more comfortable with this stretch. You can lift your hips up higher, dropped both feet behind your head and push back. Then alternating legs, you can drop one knee down to the floor and stretch back out. This is to ease your way into the back stretch. You shouldn't feel any strain on the neck. So if this is the case, drop the hips down and go for a lighter stretch. Now holding onto your hips and rolling back down through the spine. Good job. Sitting back up. We're now going to do a cat, cow stretch on your hands and knees, tucking the chin into your chest and curving the spine, and then dropping the hips down and lifting the chin up to the sky. It's important that your hands are directly below your shoulders in this position, that your neck is not holding any tension. You can combine this stretch with the breath. We're now going to do a figure of eight. So bringing your right shoulder to your right hip, curving the spine up, bringing your left shoulder to your left hip, and then dropping the hips back down. So doing a nice coat, the body going clockwise fast. Once more. Now curving anticlockwise. Again, this is a great stretch to wake up. The spine. Croc has come to say hi, he obviously had, they were doing a cat stretch. We're now going to move onto an upper back stretch. So threading your arm underneath, letting the shoulder drop down to the floor. We're just going to stay here. Well, croc plays with my toes. Now switching sides, threading the other arm down underneath, letting the shoulder drop to the floor and relax. Now stretching out into child's pose. So sitting on your heels and reaching your hands forward, stretching your forehead dropped down to the floor. For an added side stretch, we're going to bring the arms across on a diagonal and hold here. And now I'll take them across to the other side. Leaving announce your front, where games do a back stretch. Starting with your hands in line with your waist, keeping a nice long neck, and your feet can either be together if you want a challenge or slightly open. If you want to go easier. You're going to pull up through the spine and lengthening through the top of the head, lift the chin and lift the chest off the floor. On an out-breath you're going to push up, breathe in, and then breathe out as you lower back down. Then moving your hands closer to your shoulder. We're going to go for a deeper stretch, pushing all the way up and breathing out, lower back down. Again, time pushing up on your exhale. Lower back down. Now, taking holds if you're using your supposing hand to push up, we're going to go for a deeper stretch with the leg and lower back down, switching over and taking the other foods. If you can't reach your foot, you can just repeat our first stretch. Pushing all the way up with both hands on the floor. We're now going to stretch out the quads by holding onto the foot, pressing the heel into your glutes. If you want to deepen, stretch, you can lift the knee off. And now repeats on the other side. We're now going to work on hip mobility with a frog stretch, or a frog stretch involves opening the knees out to the side, bring the feet together, and then keeping my hips pressing guns the floor. You're going to push the heels down to the ground. This is an active stretch. You're going to hold for 10 s. And then release and relax the position. Now opening up the lower legs are going to push back onto your arms. And we're going to do this hip opener. This is a great stretch if you're working on your middle split. So holding yourself up, letting the knees slide out to the side and then relaxing and bringing the legs back together. Now in your hands and knees with the toes tucked underneath it, we're going to push up into downwards dog stretch, driving those heels down into the floor and keeping the neck long. Bend the knees and relax, come off the hands and push up again a second time. Now moving on to a calf stretch, you're going to alternate each leg as you press the heel down to the floor whilst lifting up the other hand. Bringing 1 ft in the middle and now going to extend the leg up to the ceiling into our punchy stretch and bending the knee and opening up the hip for deep hip stretch and switching sides. So starting with our punchy stretch, using your hands to stabilize you, bending the knee and opening up the hip and drop the leg down. We're now going to stretch out the hip flexors. So kneeling backup with one leg in front, stretching out the leg and lunging forward. You can use your hands to stabilize you. One hand either side of your foot. You should feel a stretch along the hip flexors, quad stretch. We're going to pick up the foot. Or if you want, you can also hold onto the foot for a deeper stretch. Lowering the leg back down, opening up the same arm as your front leg. Reaching up to the sky. Bringing both hands in the middle and opening the knee out to the side for another hip opener. You really want to relax into this stretch. Kneeling backup, tucking the pelvis and pushing forward just slightly. For a deeper hip flexor stretch, you shouldn't go all the way forward for this one because if you've tuck the pelvis correctly, you shouldn't be able to go as far. Now for our hamstring stretch, extending the leg, flexing the foot. I'm bringing the fingers down to the floor. Relax the head and neck. Pushing up into parallel for drop the head down and breathe normally. Now, moving around to parallel second, holding onto your elbows and you're just going to hang here. Bend the knees and stretch and repeats a female. You can swing the upper body gently as well. They should feel quite nice and open up about swiveling round two parallel force on the other side. We're going to repeat all of our lunge stretches on the other leg. So starting with our hip flexor stretch, pushing all the way forward. Hands either on your knee or either side of your front foot. Taking up your back foot, stretch now. And extending the same arm as your front leg up to the sky. Turns in the middle, opening up the knee, pushing forward, tucking the pelvis, and driving the hips forward. For our deep hip hop. Stretch, extend the front leg, flex the foot, and lower the fingers down to the floor for our hamstring stretch. Try to keep the spine nice and long in this stretch with the head, relax. I'm pushing up in swab parallel for possession. Swiveling round two are parallel. Second, opening up the knees. And using your hands, press the knees back to open up the hips. You can rock gently from side to side as well. Sitting back down on the mat, we're going to do our butterfly stretch feet together, holding onto your ankles or your feet, lengthening through the spine, breathing in and breathing out as you lower the forehead down. Stay here, relaxants the stretch and breathe normally. Crossing your right leg over the top. If you can't get the foot to go behind the knee is not a problem at all. You can place it near the shin bone and hold onto your leg. Bringing your left arm up and over behind your knee, and then twisting the body round in the opposite direction for a gentle spine twist. Now placing the top leg on top of your bottom leg for a sandwich stretch. If this is too difficult, you can do a gentle sandwich stretch just by crossing the ankle. You shouldn't feel this in your knees. So if there's any tension at all, open up the position. Once you're comfortable for you, then extend the hands forward and breathe out, lowering the body all the way down if you can. Again, you want to relax into this stretch. So soon as you feel resistance, hold the position. Coming back up gently and repeating everything on the other leg. Training the afternoon and lengthening through the spine. Try to keep your sit bones down on the floor. Now moving on to our sandwich strategy, grazing in and reaching the hands forward, bending in one leg and extending the we're going to reach the opposite of the sky and then reach forward on a diagonal towards that extended leg. For an extra challenge, you can flex the foot. This is a great side stretch. The hamstring stretch. Sitting back up gently. And we're now going to do a side stretch. So with your shoulders facing front and your arm coming up and over the head in fifth position. Now sloping legs and repeating everything on the other side. So bringing up the opposite arm, reaching forwards and relaxing the head and neck. Sitting up gently, bringing same opening a bit to the side. It's time to have a look at our boxplots now, start opening out the legs into a V-shape, sitting tall on the sit bones and bringing the body forwards. So trying to get the palms down on the floor. But if you're quite mobile and lower the elbows down and then eventually the whole body. Don't let your ankle bones dropped down to the floor. Keep your legs turned out. Relax into the stretch. Don't worry if you're not all the way down. Like I said, if you'd just your fingertips are touching, That's absolutely fine. Now sitting up, seeing if you can inch forward just a bit more. We're going to repeat the stretch, keeping those ankle bones off the floor. Backup. And we're going to do another side stretch in middle splits. Now reaching up and over with the other arm. Swing the legs rounds. I'm we're going to do a hamstring stretch. So reaching up to the sky, breathing out as you reach forwards towards the feet, keeping the spine long and dropping your head down, rolling up through the spine. And let's repeat this stretch with flexed feet. Rolling up again. We're now going to turn up the legs. So that turned out I'm flexed and a first position. You can either hold onto the feet, but if you're not quite there, you can hold onto the line. Now, kneeling with your toes tucks underneath. We're going to do our demi point stretch with a combined arms stretch. So bringing one arm over the top, the other arm underneath you're going to try and touch your fingers while stretching out the toes and switch arms. Coming off the toes, pushing back onto your heels, tucking in the chin, going to roll up gently through that spine, nice and slowly. Finishing off with one more stretch this time with the PQ cross. This is a great stretch if he spent a lot of time during the day sitting down and switching over to the other leg in front, reaching your fingers down to the floor, rolling back up and stretch.