Wall Heel Slides for Tight Hamstrings
Wall Heel Slides for Tight Hamstrings
If you have tight hamstrings and trying to touch your toes in a standing forward fold feels like a laughable exercise - it’s time to switch up your stretch.
The Problem with the Standing Forward Fold
While there’s nothing “wrong” with a good ol’ forward fold, for the less flexy among us it’s honestly not an ideal exercise to start with. When we hinge at the hips and start to drop our torso towards the floor, all of the weight from our upper body is pushing us into the stretch - that’s a lot on our poor hamstrings! One adjustment would be to add a support under your hands to help take some of that weight away (yoga blocks, a chair, etc.), but you’ll still have to “police” yourself in a mirror to ensure you are keeping a flat back.
An easier (and gentler!) alternative is to take that stretch to the floor.
A Gentler Hamstring Stretch: Legs Up the Wall
“Legs up the wall” stretch is a great progressive hamstring stretch that you can make easier/harder by varying how far away from the wall you place your butt. Start with your butt several inches away from the wall, and if that doesn’t feel like much of a stretch when you straighten your legs, start to slide it closer until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings.
I love this stretch for two reasons:
It removes the stress of too much body weight “pushing” you into the stretch
Starting with your back, hips, and tailbone on the floor helps give you physical feedback when you start to break form (if your low back rounds and tailbone tucks)
My favorite way to incorporate this into practice is to add a little gentle movement to really explore the stretch
Start lying on your back, with your butt a couple of inches away from the wall and your feet resting up the wall with legs slightly bent. Feet should be about hip-width apart and legs should be relatively relaxed
Keeping your back flat and keeping contact between your tailbone and the floor, start to straighten your legs as you slide your heels up the wall
Once you start to feel a stretch in your hamstrings, relax and let your heels slide back down a couple of inches to release the stretch
Continue sliding your feet up and down the wall, straightening your legs into a stretch and relaxing out of the stretch by bending your knees (Note: you don’t have to push your legs to fully straight)
If you are not feeling a stretch in your hamstrings, scoot your butt closer to the wall
Repeat these wall heel slides 5-8 times, and on your last slide hold that stretch for 20-30 seconds
Once you are able to comfortably hold a 90 degree “L” shape with your butt right at the wall and legs straight up the wall, you can work towards starting to push your chest towards the wall by coming up on your elbows, or move on to more “traditional” seated pike (forward fold) stretches.
How To do Wall Heel Slides [Video]
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