20 Min Lower Body Stretch for Recovery and Flexibility is another deep stretching session from Naomi Joy. This one focuses on the lower body. Naomi takes you through a series of stretches and you hold each stretch for a quite a long time. It felt very good. Naomi gives lots of excellent form tips to get the most out of every stretch, plus she gives easier variations of some of the stretches in case you are not as flexible. This morning I did one of Naomi’s shorter rebounder workouts that I love (No Repeats HIIT Cardio), so my lower body was well warmed up before coming to this. This did an excellent job stretching out my entire lower body with a nice focus on the hips. What a wonderful recovery day workout!
20 Min Lower Body Stretch for Recovery and Flexibility is 22:04 minutes. Equipment: 6 foot dyna/theraband (or yoga strap or towel) and a fitness mat.
- Wide leg child’s pose
- Circle the spine/hips–round the spine when all 4s then circle it to the side then push hips back into child’s pose, circle to other side, rounding back when on all 4s again
- Lay band across mat then come into kneeling lunge with shin on top of band, push hips forward to stretch hip flexor; reach back and grab foot, pulling heel to glutes to stretch quad (if you cannot do this, that is the purpose of the band–use the band to pull foot up)
- Child’s pose
- Repeat #3 on other side of body
- Child’s pose
- Lay on back, legs wide, knees bent and feet on floor, arms are extended to sides on floor, bring knees side to side like windshield wipers, trying to bring knees floor (Naomi does this slowly and you hold at each side)
- Extend one straight leg to ceiling, loop band around sole of foot, pull leg toward you; hold both ends of band in opposite hand, pull leg across body
- Repeat #8 on other leg
- Happy baby pose; continue holding onto one foot and release other foot, lower bent leg to floor, opening it to side so you are in half happy baby pose; still holding the toe/foot of the other leg, straighten leg, pulling leg out to side to deepen inner thigh stretch; repeat on other leg
- Hug both knees into chest
- Seated forward fold
- Still sitting on mat, one leg is extended straight, bent other knee and place ankle over the knee of the other leg and hinge forward; Naomi also gives the option of crossing other leg so ankle is under other knee, hinge forward over crossed legs (double pigeon pose); repeat on other side of body (Naomi actually gives several different variations of this exercise but ultimately did the double pigeon)
- Sit on mat, torso leaned back and hands on floor behind you, knees are bent and feet on floor, windshield wiper knees side to side
For more info on Naomi Joy Fitness and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
