Best Chinese Spiral Stretches | Stretching for Skaters || Coach Michelle Hong

Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. It's Coach Michelle Hong. We're on to day four of the Stretch With Me series, and we're going to be working towards the Chinese Spiral. So if you wanna be able to do things like this, then keep on watching. So we're gonna start on the ground, and we're gonna go into our lunge. And this time around, we're gonna lift our arms up all the way to the ceiling. We're gonna breathe in through our nose, out through our mouths. And arms go up, breathe in through our nose. Out through our mouth. Breathe in through our nose. Out through our mouths. And if you can, place your hands to the sides of the mat. And if you need some type of support, you can use blocks, you could use books. You can get creative around the house if you need pillows, go ahead, use those. And then for me, I'm gonna try to stretch back here. I'm breathing in through my nose. Out through my mouth. Breathe in through my nose. Out through my mouth. I'm getting deep into the inside of my thigh, my groin area. This has to be stretched out to have a fully extended Chinese Spiral. Breathe in through my nose. Out through my mouth. Breathe in through my nose. Out through my mouth. And then we're gonna transition into a deep side lunge. Right now, my ankle is not as strong as what it used to be because of my injury. So I'm not gonna be able to lift my body up and I'm not gonna put all the weight in my left foot. So this is a modification. So I'm breathing in through my nose. Out through my mouth. Because I still want this inner thigh stretch right here and right here. And I'm gonna flex my foot and I'm gonna point my toe. Flex my foot, point my toe. I want my arms, you don't want your arms back here. You want your arms on the inside of your inner thigh. You want your heel to be flat on the ground. And you're trying to reach your elbows towards the mat. Breathe in through my nose. Out through my mouth. Awesome. Okay, now we're gonna switch over to the lunge on the right foot. So, once again, up, out. Now we're gonna switch over to the opposite side of lunge. So, as you can see, my butt is lifted off the ground here because I could put more support in this side of my ankle. This is a strong ankle. And I'm gonna put my hands on the inner part of my thigh. You don't wanna lean back like this. You wanna be able to use your glutes. Use your muscles to push yourself up and get your glutes off from the ground. You're gonna breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Now, we're gonna lie on to our backs. And we're gonna open up our hips. I'm gonna do a four position. So, I call this a four position because I'm creating, I'll show, this way. I'm creating the number four with my legs. Four. Okay? So, we're gonna do four. You're gonna grab your calf. And if you're here, that's totally fine. If you're here, that's okay too. But you're gonna eventually lift, lift, lift, and pull your free foot closer to your chest. I'm gonna go back on to our pike. And we'll reach forward. Hands up, reach forward. And we're gonna cycle through. 10. Nine. So, now we're gonna get on to our hands and our knees. And then we're gonna do opposite arm and leg up. And we're gonna go reach up, pull in. Reach up, pull in. We're exercising our glutes, our abs, our hamstrings, our quads. We wanna be able to develop back strength and leg strength. So, one of the things about the Chinese spiral is that you have to stretch out your hips. And you also have to make sure that your knee is directly behind you. So, before we get to our chair work, I wanted to stretch out our hamstrings. So, on the Chinese spiral, when you tip forward for the stretch, for the actual spiral position, you're definitely gonna need to utilize this hamstring muscle and make sure that that's not only strong, but it's also flexible. So, I'm gonna have you guys do a forward fold. All the way down to the ground, okay? And you'll notice that I wanna hug the backs of my knees. Out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Now, I'm gonna take my two fingers and I'm gonna, oh, the chair's in the way. I'm gonna take the two fingers and I'm gonna shift them toward the mat. So, this might be crazy to some people that I'm touching the ground with my arms behind my back. If that's too hard, remember, we can always use modifications. Let me get this modification for you. So, if that's too hard, you're gonna grab your tool and then you're gonna separate your arms as far as you can possibly do it. And you're gonna try to inch your shoulders as far as you can to the ground. You might be here, you might be here. You might go all the way over here. This demonstrates how much shoulder flexibility a person has. So, if you're able to reach the ground, that means you have very normal shoulders. Okay, and you can get better at it. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. And I'm gonna inch myself up one vertebrae at a time. So, you see how I shimmy shake? And I want my neck to be the last thing that rises up. Fantastic. Okay, now, onto the Chinese Spiral on the chair. Forward. So, I'm gonna grab my foot as so. So, my hand is here and goes to the out, or actually the inside of my foot, okay? And then I'm gonna lean forward and start to bend my forward elbow. So, I can lift up. Oh, no. Off balance. So, we're gonna start over again. I'm gonna put my hand here. You want it to be arms length away from the chair. Okay, and you're gonna tip forward by bending your forward elbow. And what you'll do here, what you'll notice is that my shoulder is coming closer and closer to my ear. I do not bend my top arm at all. I keep that arm straight. So, I grab the inner part of my foot and then I tip forward. So, some people will be here. And this is painful. This might be strenuous on you. So, you'll sit here and you try to hold it for as long as you can. For others who have more mobility in their shoulder, you're gonna start to lift up. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Awesome. Okay, so, one major mistake that I would like to point out is that sometimes people make it so that their knee goes out to the side. So, this is a common mistake on a Chinese Spiral. But I love Chinese Spirals that are directly behind the head. You wanna try to keep this knee directly behind your head. Okay, so let's do the other side. So, I'm gonna put my right arm on the chair and I'm gonna make space enough for me to keep this arm straight when I begin. And then I'm gonna grab the inside of my left foot and I'm gonna tip forward. Oh, and they're going underneath. So, you gotta be careful. I think the squishy mat is keeping me off balance but I'm gonna do it anyways. I wanna just create more mobility with my ankle. So, this squishy mat forces me to strengthen my muscles down there. Okay, so I'm gonna put my hand on the chair and grab the inside of my foot and I'm starting to tip forward and I'm pulling my knee up above my head and using my shoulder to pull my two foot higher. I really feel it in the back of my legs. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Awesome. There you have it, guys. That's the Chinese Spiral. I hope that you enjoyed all these different stretches that helped you achieve this beautiful position that you could do in your programs and whenever you're just having a good time on the ice. Love you all so much and I'll see you for tomorrow for day five of the Stretch with Michelle series. Bye.