1Stand with your feet 4 to 6ft (1.25–1.75m) apart, and slightly turn your toes inward. Engage the arches of your feet, and press into outer edges of feet.
This position stretches your inner thighs, relieves tension in your back, and helps prevent knee injuries. It’s an essential cool-down posture for athletes because it promotes speedy recovery and improves lateral mobility. Wide-legged forward fold is also ideal for any person fighting chronic lower-back pain.
TARGET AREAS
• inner thighs • hamstrings • ankles
BENEFITS
• Prevents soft-tissue injury in thighs and hips • Speeds inner-thigh and hamstring recovery • Strengthens knees • Relieves lower-back tension
1Stand with your feet 4 to 6ft (1.25–1.75m) apart, and slightly turn your toes inward. Engage the arches of your feet, and press into outer edges of feet.
2Engage your quadriceps and squeeze your inner thighs toward each other. Hinge at the hips and pull your chest forward and down, maintaining a flat back. Rest your fingers on the floor below your shoulders.
3Squeeze hip flexors and core toward each other, and fold forward as far as you can while keeping the back flat. Hold the posture, inhaling as you pull your chest forward and lengthen the body, and exhaling as you fold deeper.
YOU SHOULD FEEL
• Stretch in inner thighs, hamstrings, and outer ankles
• Release in back
• Engagement of hip flexors, thighs, and core
YOU SHOULDN’T FEEL
• Significantly rounded back; if so, pull chest forward and don’t fold as deep
• Hips relaxing backward; if so, bring them slightly forward
PRO TIP
Add a chest stretch by interlacing your fingers behind your back and lifting arms away from your back, as in Humble warrior. You could also hold either end of a strap, rather than interlacing your fingers.
NOT THERE YET?
