Sensational Hamstring Stretching for programmers (and other problem solvers)
Sensational Hamstring Stretching for programmers (and other problem solvers)
Using muscle control to feel your body as well as control it for better flexibility
About the Book
Flexibility could be defined as the ability to use your muscles across a wider variety of positions and in a variety of different ways. For instance, you have greater flexibility if you can anchor your hamstrings by creating stability at either your feet/ankles, knees or hips.
You can also have greater flexibility if you can feel your hamstrings (and the muscles they work with) as well as control them, relaxing them or activating them at will.
The sensational in the title of this book refers to the sensations that muscle generates when it is active (and the lack of sensation that occurs when muscle is relaxed.) Thus muscle acts as both an actuator and a sensor. Sensational also refers to the sensation that connective tissue generates when it is stretched or otherwise under tension.
Sensational hamstring stretching teaches you how to feel and control the hamstrings and other muscles that work on your hips, knees, lower leg and torso so that you can work intelligently towards improving your hamstring flexibility.
Why is this an intelligent approach? Normally we have to rely on outside resources to tell us what to do. By building body awareness from inside and taking the time to look back on our experiences afterwards, and by learning to feel and control our body while we use it we can improve our understanding of our body and work figure out which muscle control patterns to use on any particular day to improve flexibility.
Problem solving and analysis is required. It’s a lot like learning to program. Or it’s like learning how to paint or draw or sculpt the human body. Or it’s like figuring out why a particular system isn’t working (and how to fix it). The end result isn’t just more flexible hamstrings, but a greater ability to sense and control your body and apply that in anything that you are doing.
Table of Contents
- A message to you
- What is flexibility
- Helpful knowledge
- A smart approach?
- Two types of sensation within our body
- Two types of sensation where we connect externally
- The contrast of activation and relaxation
- Defining stretch
- Relaxed stretching
- Active stretching
- Some stretching principles
- Define a foundation for movement
- Define a foundation for stretching
- Creating length
- Creating space
- Optimal operating length
- Adding (or subtracting) weight
- Eliminating dead spots
- Adjusting
- Pay attention
- Getting a feel for muscle control
- Taking out the slack, a moving intent
- Bony references
- Resisted pulling or pushing
- Joints, connective tissue, lubrication
- Joints and ligaments are active
- Joints handle a wide range of forces
- Why joint lubrication is important
- Separating joint lubrication from joint movement
- Our body’s oil pressure warning equivalents
- Noticing pressure
- Standing weight shift
- Standing weight shift with heel lift
- Weight shifting in standing forward bend
- Controlling weight shift in standing forward bend
- Weight shifting in half moon to lift the hand
- Foot and leg stability
- Standing forward bends (hamstring/glute stretches)
- Standing forward bend
- Standing forward bend foot position variations
- Pyramid pose
- Triangle Pose
- Half moon
- Standing forward bend on one leg
- Seated forward bends (hamstring/glute stretches)
- Seated leg lift hamstring stretch
- Hurdler’s stretch
- Hurdler’s stretch foot positon options
- Seated tree pose (janu sirsasana)
- Wide leg seated side bend
- Wide leg seated forward bend to one leg
- Wide leg seated forward bend
- Seated or lying down (supine) hip extension
- Reverse plank
- Bridge pose
- Straight knee hip extension (hip flexor stretches)
- Low lunge
- Upright lunge with a chair
- Upright lunge
- Upright pigeon
- Upward facing dog
- Bent knee hip extension (hip flexor and quad stretches)
- Bow pose
- Camel pose
- Couch stretch Basic
- Couch stretch easy
- Couch stretch variations
- Resting poses
- Resting at the end of a practice
- Suggestions for learning
- Suggestions for practice
- Suggestions for repetitions
- Take your time
- Labelling sensations
- 1 Bent knee forward bends and butt control
- Bent knee forward bend, Chair variant
- Bent knee forward bend, Kneeling variant
- Bent knee forward bend, square lunge variant
- Standing knee lift
- Glute control while in a lunge
- Square lunge weight shift
- Square lunge hand and elbow touch, back leg hand
- Pressing the foot
- Glute control in context
- Front leg glute control in low lunge
- Front leg glute control in upright lunge
- 2 Basic activation for hamstrings and glutes
- Seated hamstring and glute activation
- Leg lift on all fours, another exercise for feeling your hamstrings
- Feeling your glutes (and ribcage) via locust pose
- Practicing locust pose
- Improving ribcage awareness with locust pose
- Standing glute activation method 1
- Standing glute and hamstring activation method 2
- Practicing glute (and hamstring) activation in standing contexts
- Standing forward bend
- Pyramid pose
- Triangle pose
- Half moon
- Activating in upright lunge
- Standing forward bend
- Practicing glute and hamstring activation in seated contexts
- Seated heel press
- Reverse plank
- Seated hamstring stretch
- Wide leg seated side bend
- Wide leg seated forward bend to one leg
- Wide leg seated forward bend
- Hurdler’s stretch upright
- Seated tree pose (janu sirsasana)
- Hug knees
- Bridge pose
- Dead dog
- 3 Basic activation for knees and quads
- Getting a feel for your knees and quads
- Feeling your quads and hip flexors
- Noticing the lifting intent
- Practicing knee, and quad activation while standing
- Practicing knee activation in standing contexts
- Standing forward bend
- Low lunge
- Upright lunge
- Pyramid
- Triangle pose
- Half moon
- Practicing knee activation in seated contexts
- Seated hamstring stretch
- Hurdler’s stretch upright
- Seated tree pose (janu sirsasana)
- Wide leg seated side bend
- Wide leg seated forward bend to one leg
- Wide leg seated forward bend
- Hug knees
- Bridge pose
- Dead dog
- Combining knee and quadricep activation
- 4 Basic hip flexor activation
- Seated leg lift, feeling your hip flexors
- Anchoring your hip flexors
- Feeling your hip flexors while standing
- Exercising your hip flexors
- Basic hip flexor activation while standing
- Practicing hip flexor activation in standing contexts
- Standing forward bend
- Pyramid pose
- Triangle pose
- Half moon
- Activating in upright lunge
- Standing forward bend
- Practicing hip flexor activation in seated contexts
- Camel pose
- Seated hamstring stretch
- Hurdler’s stretch upright
- Seated tree pose (janu sirsasana)
- Wide leg seated side bend
- Wide leg seated forward bend to one leg
- Wide leg seated forward bend
- Hug knees
- Bridge pose
- Dead dog
- 5 Toes, heels and ankles
- Overview
- Getting a feel for the front and back of your ankles
- Improving toe and ankle control
- Toe spreading
- Noticing the edges of your feet
- More on turning your feet in and out
- Noticing your heels
- Stiffening your heels
- Practicing ankle and heel control in context
- Taking your time
- 6 Hip bone awareness and control
- Exercise overview
- Why hip bone (and sacrum) awareness is important
- Pelvic tilting while sitting then standing
- Learning to feel your hip bone corner points
- Why practice pelvic tilting
- Resisted pulling
- Resisted pulling, why opposing muscles activate
- Further resisted pulling
- Creating movement
- Resisting pulling in standing contexts part
- Standing forward bend
- Pyramid pose
- Triangle pose
- Half moon
- Activating in upright lunge
- Practicing corner point control in the context of seated poses
- Camel pose
- Hug knees
- Bridge pose
- Dead dog
- Attenuating effort
- 7 Hip joint stability
- The pubic bone resisted push
- Sitting bone resisted push
- Practicing in context
- Combining activations in context
- A note on hip joint stabilization
- 8 Resisted hip rotation
- Feeling your greater trochanter while sitting
- Feeling your greater trochanter while standing
- Practicing resisted hip rotation
- Adjusting the angle of the line of pull
- 9 Shin and knee rotation
- Seated knee rotation
- Heel pressing and feeling your hamstring tendons
- Standing shin rotation
- Shin rotation with ankle stiffening
- Stiffening the inner and outer foot
- Standing shin rotation with knees straight
- Pairing straight knee shin rotation with knee activation
- Shin rotation in context
- Adjusting the amount of rotation that you use
- 10 Straight knee shin rotation and different foot positions
- Varying foot position
- The four additional foot positions for the standing forward bend
- 11 SI joint control via the pelvic floor and lumbar multifidus
- Basic pelvic floor activation
- Accentuating pelvic floor activation
- The pelvic floor diamond
- Stretching the pelvic floor muscles
- Lifting an imaginary tail
- Practicing
- Practicing in context 1
- Bending your spine
- Integrating tail bone actions with spinal forward and back Bending
- Practicing in context 2
- 12 Pulling in on the waist
- Pulling inwards on your lower belly
- Adjusting
- Drawing in on the middle of your waist
- Creating a sideways pull on your lumbar spine
- Bending your spine forward
- Bending your spine backward
- Adjusting
- Practicing in hip flexing contexts
- Practicing in hip extending contexts
- Not activating your pelvic floor
- Pulling inwards on your lower belly
- 13 Shaping the pelvis externally
- Sitting bone focus
- ASIC focus
- Practice with hip flexed
- Practice with hip extended
- 14 Hip flexor activation with a movement intent
- Basic hip flexor activation
- Four part leg lift
- Noticing knee tension
- Muscle control options
- Hip flexor activation while standing upright
- Hip flexor activation in context
- Standing forward bends
- Standing forward bend on one leg
- Active hip flexion while seated
- Wide leg seated variations
- Asymmetric seated forward bends
- Adding pelvic shaping and SI joint control
- A different intents
- 15 Hamstring activation with a movement intent
- Hamstring and glute activation with a lifting intent
- Active hip extension in high lunge
- Pigeon, upward facing dog
- Active hip extension in pyramid
- Triangle and half moon
- Standing forward bend
- Adding pelvic floor, transverse abdominis and lumbar control
- 16 Ribcage sliding
- The basic ribcage sliding while sitting
- Ribcage sliding while standing
- Practice
- Summary of actions
- Active Dynamic Hip Flexing
- Active Hip Flexing
- Active Resisted Hip Flexing
- Relaxed Hip flexor stretching
- Hybrid active hip flexor stretching
- Active Dynamic Hip Extension
- Active hip extension
- Active resisted hip extension
- Relaxed stretching
- Anchoring your stretches
- Suggestions for working with limited available time
- Working with aspects of muscle control and flexibility
- Working on lengthened end-range strength for hip flexion and extension
- Using the arms
- Micro movements out of end range
- Micro movements deeper into end range
- Simple stability
- Various torso stabilizing options
- Hip bone or thigh stability
- Hip bone control
- About Neil Keleher
- More by Neil Keleher
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