 So, this session, we're going to be looking at improving our hamstring tightness and we're going to be focusing on what's going on the front of the hip rather than actually what's going on at the hamstring. And the first thing we're going to do is I just want you to test to see where you're coming like that. So, very simply, just come down as a bit of a forward fold, just come up and down a few times just so it's not like your case of you just want to work and you can actually get to that. Are you struggling? I mean, when I played rugby, 30, well, 13, you know, eight years ago, 90s, I couldn't touch my toes. It was like, the hamstrings were so tight. So me this morning without even doing anything, what's normal for me is getting like those fingers right to the floor, but nearly palm, but sort of that's where it's currently at. Okay. What we're going to focus on is a little bit around the front of the hips, the quads, the hip flexors around the pelvis, because what often happens is we get tightness of the front, pours into that anterior pelvic tilt and puts the length onto the hamstrings. So the hamstrings feel tight rather than we can actually get some mass released by actually adjusting what's going on at the front. So we're going to do a couple of things and then we're going to come back and test and see how that feels. The process we're going to go through is we're going to work on the sort of like structures in a little bit of isolation, then we're going to start to gradually build it out into some bigger moving pounds and then add in strength at the end. It's important that we do add in some strength to the tissues that we're trying to lengthen rather than just stretching, lengthen them for the sake of the brain just goes, what's the point in doing that? Like you need to give me a reason to want to maintain some of the positions. So I'm going to come into a kneeling hip flexor position and in this position we're going to understand a little bit about this relationship between the glutes and hamstrings and the hip flexors. So if I just sit relaxed in here and look, let my back like arcs through there. I can sort of always like beyond so I'll kick that booty out to the side. It's like, I'm not really feeling a stretch jacket, it just sort of feels like I didn't feel anything. So what I want you to do is I want you to tuck, I want you to put, you can put your fingers on the front of the pelvis and the back of the person, I want you to tuck the thumb, if that's at the back, I'm going to tuck that underneath and you can see me scooping and then creating a little bit to understand the front of the quad and hip flexor here. Squeeze your butt, squeeze that, make sure it's on. That's going to be able to make you feel, okay, now I can feel a little stretch through the front of here. I'd be interested to see, can we take this hip into a little bit more extension, which is the hip going back behind us, so can I lean forwards a little bit, but keep that glute on and come back. So I'm going to squeeze, come forwards, keep that bum on, you're going to feel a little bit more of a stretch in there and come back, just ease into it. Because what you might find is you're tuck underneath and squeeze, yeah, I've got my glute on and then you'll lean forward and then what will happen is you'll just get back into that booty, Beyonce type of position. So, tuck the pelvis underneath, come in and squeeze forward, find in that position and then one of the things we can use the breath to do is to help create a relaxation response. So, in through the nose, out through the nose, we're trying to extend the exhale. So a longer exhalation helps create a relaxation response, parasympathetic for those that are into the into the silent stuff, but a more of a relaxation response. So I can go into a slightly deeper position now, keep the bum squeezed on, breathe in, through the nose, breathe out and extend the exhale and sink a little bit. You're able to try that on either side. So, tuck the pelvis underneath, squeeze the bum and then lean forward a little bit, feel that stretch, come in and out of that a few times, just see what's feeling good. One side might feel a bit, but the other, this doesn't feel as tight, my left side for me. That's how I've got some stuff going on on the right that I'm working through. No one's perfect, no one's perfectly symmetrical. So tuck under, squeeze, breathe in through the nose, extend the exhale, as that hip goes more behind you, or the hip comes in front of the knee, keep the bum squeezed, don't let that back arch and you're going to feel more of a stretch coming down through the front of there. Okay. Come back to the legs, something we can do is to try to accentuate this a little bit for those that want to take it a little bit further would be can we hold on something potentially for a little bit of support, but actually pick up the back leg. So rep firm is one of the quad muscles that crosses the knee as well. So when we bend the back knee, so I can hold it with this back leg, what's probably going to want to happen is look to those that are into like their, like this is the bottom of the shroom squat effectively, but that bum wants to kick back out because now we're putting the knee into more flexion, the hips like, no, no, I don't want to stay in extension. So what I want you to do is keep yourself in a nice stable position. So hold on something if you need to hold the back leg up, chuck that bum underneath still, keep that bum squeezed. They might be saying you squeeze that bum on, it's going to be harder in this position, but squeeze that bum on, then you'll feel that in there. Then we've got two options. So when you squeeze the bump, rather than being being, I'm going to show you that, rather than being back there and push the hip forward. Now what's your options? I can in this position hold my foot, I can come forward a little bit like we were before, or in here I can try to squeeze my foot up towards a bum, keep the bum on, and I can bring in that lean as well. Those that are quite flexible will be able to hold the back leg as well. And equally we can do this type of stretch, kind of static hold it there, couch stretch. So we can do it where you're not actually holding on to make it, your bum is up against the wall. So we're really getting stretched through there, just making sure. The thing I like about holding the back leg, or swap sides, the thing I like about holding the back leg is that you can hold it wherever you want, you can actually focus on this hip, not be back there, pushing that hip forward. And equally I can push my foot into the hand a little bit as well to create a little bit of tension. And then when I use the breathing, breathe in, breathe out and relax. You might feel like on that relaxation, I can pull that leg a little bit further forward. And you're working on your shoulders a little bit as a bit of a freebie, okay? So that should hopefully loosen off a little bit. If you come back in and retest now you might find that actually we haven't done anything for that much, but just loosening off through there right now for me my palms are then flat to the floor. So I'm making some change already, but it doesn't finish there. We want to try and create some strength. So I'm going to grab something like this nice little chair where I'm going to allow myself to set up. I can use, have something to balance. Back foot is going to go flat on there. We have a Bulgarian split squat type position where rather than focusing on this front leg and trying to be strong on this front leg and almost that coming down and compromising, look at that line here, same as what we were showing before. So rather than coming into a shape here I want to focus on this back leg for me. Yes, the front leg is going to work, but I'm focusing on driving down actually feeling that stretch and then on the way up, I'm pushing through that foot, keeping that butt squeezed. And I'm actually starting to take this thing through some of that range recreated but now making it work with some strength. I'm looking for sort of like 8 to 12 controlled reps of these, keeping that hip forward, keeping the bum squeezed on, focusing on the back leg. Yes, the front leg is working, but that's not my focus for this exercise. And we've just done one set there. This is about keeping the range that we've got. So I'm coming there, starting to feel more comfortable getting down through there. Give us a bit of a thumbs up. Any questions, obviously put them in the comments or on Instagram and YouTube, but put them in the comments and equally let us know if you're starting to feel some changes. The last thing I want us to look at is just loading up these quads a little bit more. So this would be like a reverse Nordic, we call these. So feet behind this is going to be our last little one, so those three little things loosen up, straight through a bit of range, and this is going to be putting some real, a little bit more high attention through here. So the big thing with this is not coming down and going into hip flexion, I'm going to try to keep the hips forward, keep the glutes on, remember that relation, between the glutes and the hip flexors, and coming down and to start with, it's probably only going to be small little movements before you're able to work gradually going lower, lower and lower. One thing to note is how wide you're, like if you go really wide with your knees, it's going to be much easier for you to go lower compared to when they're straight, you're going to feel a little bit more through the front of the quads, but with time, building up slowly and do this over, this is quite a lot of eccentric strength, but remember eccentric is lengthening muscle tissue, and we are, by virtue of controlling ourselves through this range, we're strengthening through that eccentric range, and then can I also bring myself back up, keeping the glutes squeezed on the way up, so I'm not coming through and lifting with the chest, I'm actually from these lower positions, squeezing the glutes, and you'll feel the quads working as well as the glutes. So work through that one slowly, and progressively trying to get lower, lower, lower, gradually, but those three little things, the principle of like work on isolation, we were in here, working in isolation to try and create some length and a little bit of using the breath, extending those exhales to create a little bit of a relaxation response to create some range, feel it open up, then can we put it into some patterns, we had the back leg up, and we were actually taking it through that range, but making it, having to work a little bit harder as we were taking it through a full range, and then that last one is like adding a real strength element to the areas that we're trying to lengthen. When we add strength to lengthening, then we're giving the body a reason to keep that length, rather than stretching the length, you'll get some, but then you're not giving a reason for the brain, the body to want to keep and maintain that length. So what we want to be able to do is make long-term changes over time in your hamstring length, in your hip flex length, whatever that may be. So we'll go back in now and check how do how do hamstrings feel, have a little ball either side and then pull down. So from where I was before, it was like, oh, strength to contours and fingers getting flat, and that being the end now, palms flat, actually feeling reasonably comfortable-ish with palms flat. My job is to try to maintain that or give the body reasons to keep that positioning so that when we come back in a few weeks and a few months, like starting point before doing any warm-up and mobilization surface, palms flat, yeah? So if I think back to when I played rugby and used to pull my hamstring lots of times, like I played professional rugby for 13 years from 2000 to 2013, like I couldn't touch my toes, but it was like, that was as far as I could go down. That's not a good thing. And that's why I used to pull my hamstring a lot. Making real change over a real period of time means you're working on that scale of things, that work on the bits that you know that are tight and restricting. And just because your hamstrings feel tight doesn't mean it necessarily might be hamstring, it could be around the front of the hips, around those hip lengths, and that's what we try to prove today. So let us know in the comments, have you, did you get a change? Did you get an increased range when you're trying to go down to touch your toes? And then hopefully that process of then instilling range, control for that range and then strength through lengthening gives you a bit of a process to think about because I then apply that to any of the joints or any of the things. Cool. So hope that has been helpful. And I've got some questions on Instagram that I'll answer in a second. Have everyone else on YouTube. Thanks for watching and until next time, class dismissed.