Best Stretches for Skating Spirals | Criss Cross Chinese Spiral || Coach Michelle Hong

Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. It's Coach Michelle Hong. I am very disheartened about all the news about the coronavirus and I just am praying for everybody and their families during this time. And I really hope that this Stretch With Me series kind of gives you something to be hopeful about, especially if you're staying at home. So I'm sending out my best wishes and let's get to our workout so we can kind of take our minds off of it and try to recharge and be thankful for our health and happiness. So we're going to be working on the Criss Cross Chinese Spiral today and I really want to strengthen our glutes, our back, and our hamstrings and obviously have flexible hips to be able to stretch that leg high. Okay, so we're going to start on our hands and knees. We're going to place them as so. And you're going to start to lift your foot parallel to the ceiling. Okay, with a bent knee and then we're going to pulse here. For 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And the other leg. Other foot. And 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We're going to open up our hip to the side. We're going to go 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Other side. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Fantastic. Okay, now we're going to go into our plank here. Press down into a chaturanga. And upward dog with a new nose. Outward dog. So the next exercise is going to be a combination of cat-cow with that leg extension that we did in the beginning. So we're going to arch our spine and lift up our free leg. And we're going to engage your core. For 10, for 9, for 8, for 7, for 6, for 5, for 4, for 3, for 2, for 1, 10, 9, hold it, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Relax. Next side. We're going to go up, breathe in, engage. So the thing that I love about these exercises is that it's an entire body workout. So stretching, I believe, has a weird way of making people feel as though it's all about flexibility. It's not just about being flexible. You have to strengthen your muscles in order to get maximum progression, especially on the ice. You can't just be flexible. You have to be strong and flexible at the same time. So all of the exercises that I provide are a combination of both muscle strengthening and flexibility strengthening. And I'm feeling it in my glutes, I'm feeling this in my back, and I'm feeling this in my lower part of my hamstring. And we're going to hold this for 8, 4, 3, 2, 1. Relax. So next we're going to do a forward fold and work our hamstrings. And we're going to place one foot in front with a flexed foot and we're going to pull our toes towards our head. Awesome. Okay. Now we're going to face the wall and you're going to use the opposite hand to grab the opposite foot. Breathe in through your nose, out your mouth, in through your nose, out your mouth. And switch. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. We're going to open up our hips with a lunge. Good. And I feel this in my inner thighs. Wow. So from all the stretches that we did for the spread ankle and the preparation for the inner bower, I have really sore inside muscles right here. Pretty tight. We're going to place our knee onto the ground and we're going to utilize our opposite hand to grab our feet. We're going to breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. And try to stand up straight right here. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. If you can, you can lock your free foot in your elbow. This is really tight for me. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Fantastic. Rock forward. Stretch out the backs of the hamstrings and the backs of the knees. Square off your hips. So you don't want to stick your hip out to the side in any way. Try to keep them square to really feel that this muscle is being the focus. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. So as you can see, I'm going to go from this position and I'm going to rock back my glutes to my heel so I can be able to push my free leg against the ground for a deeper hamstring stretch. I'm going to breathe in through my nose, out through my mouth. Head down. We're going to switch sides. Right foot in front. Breathe in through your nose. My inner thighs are being worked. Out through my mouth. Make sure that your knee doesn't go over your toes and make sure it goes beyond your ankle flexion. So you don't want it back here. You want it right. Now I'm going to take the opposite arm to grasp the opposite foot. We're going to breathe in through our nose, out through our mouth. In through our nose, out through our mouth. My quad is very tight here. Breathe in through our nose, out through our mouth. Breathe in through our nose, out through our mouth. We're going to flex our foot. Straighten our forward leg. Keep our hips square. As we feel this deep hamstring stretch, you can massage it out for extra relaxation. Breathe in through our nose. Out through our mouth. Breathe in through our nose. Lift up your hip. And draw all the way to the ground. And head down. Fantastic. Okay, now we're ready for the criss-cross Chinese spiral. So, I'm going to use a chair. So we're going to have our chair. You're going to place your right arm on the back of the chair. And then you're going to grab your right foot with your left hand. And you're going to do that quad stretch that we did against the wall earlier. And now we're going to lean our belly button forward when you're still in that quad stretch. And what you're going to do here is that you're going to lift your shoulders. You're going to use your glutes, your quads, your inner thigh muscles, your shoulder strength, and your back strength to tip forward. And you're going to breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. And relax. Fantastic. Onto the other side. We're going to put our left hand on the chair. We're going to grasp our left foot with our right hand. And we're going to tip our belly button forward. Stay in that quad stretch. And now we're going to open up our hip. And lift our free leg up to the sky. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Fantastic. You're working that hamstring. You're pushing. You're really working those quads. Because when I push my foot into my hand, I really feel that muscle. And we're going to relax. And there you have it. That is the criss-cross Chinese spiral. Thank you all so much for staying tuned for Stretch with Michelle.