How To Improve Flexibility

I'm going to show you a simple exercise to improve your flexibility.
We're going to stretch the front of our thigh. The best way to stretch the front of your thigh is to have your knees in front of your hips. You bring your top leg up parallel, keep the same angle as the back of your thigh and your knee, and we take the leg back. You gently press your foot into your hand and your hand into your foot. Think of the knee going in that direction right out of your hip socket. Use your tummy and your pelvic floor to help you lengthen. Make sure the knee doesn't come up, you'll lose a lot of your stretch, that the knee doesn't come down, and you don't force your heel to your bottom. Have a little bit of space in here and push your foot into your hand and your hand into your foot.

Let's stretch the back of the arm, the tricep. As you bring your arm up, make sure that you keep everything else still. You don't lean back. You don't flare your ribs. You simply encourage the arm to go back. You don't need to pull the arm sideways or off to the side. Just simply allow your arm to gently go back and hold. Relax into the position and then you can give it a little more encouragement. Keep your neck relaxed and use your pelvic floor gently.

You can see other flexibility films in our series, "How to increase flexibility" and "How to do Pilates with back pain".
This VideoJug film will show you how to increase your flexibility with Pilates exercises. Just watch this film and try out the simple exercises shown.