On #MaintenanceMonday, I try to help you give your bod a little extra TLC. This week, it’s a way better quad stretch!
Most of us fail to give our quads the TLC they deserve. After all, these big ol’ sexy muscles do a lot, from extending the knee joint, to helping us squat (hello, derby stance!) to flexing the hip joint — in other words, bringing your thigh forward as in walking, running, or skating.
However, our standard quad stretch, where we flamingo it and pull our ankle towards our butt, is only effective in hitting three of the four “quads”.
See, the quads are really four different heads of the same muscle, hence the name.
What Your Quads are Made Of:
Rectus Femoris is the lovely one in blue, above. It attaches way up on the hip bones, as you can see, making it the only one that really acts as a hip flexor.
When we do the common standing quad stretch, we usually have an anterior pelvic tilt (regular person language, our butt sticks out and our hips and pelvis tilt forward), which means that Rectus Femoris doesn’t get any love! It’s all relaxed and floppy, because you can’t tuck your tail under to stretch the front of the hip very well in that position.
Enter the Quad Super-Stretch! It will hit all four of those sexy quads.
Here’s your way better quad stretch:
When to do this: At the end of your training and skating sessions (not the beginning!).
Sets/Reps: 20 to 30 butt-squeezes per side.
What if you can’t even get into that position? That might be a good sign that you should spend a lot more time in the near future stretching your quads!
- Make sure you’re good and warmed up to begin with. As I said above, you should be doing this at the end of a workout.
- Start yourself off with the standard quad stretch (standing on one foot, bringing heel to butt) for 30s each side. Repeat on each side if you need to.
- Then try to make your way into the super-stretch position. If this is still not possible, focus your energy on foam rolling and/or using something like The Stick.
- If you have a knee injury or knee pain, then respect your range of motion and work to increase it over time using the steps above, and/or ask your physiotherapist for the best way to stretch *for you* and your body.
Want more of these? You can get all of the #maintenancemonday videos here.
xo Booty Quake
PS: check out my manifesto about Why Your Stretching Routine is Bogus!
PPS: thanks to Neon Skates for my rad tank top that I’m wearing in this video :)