Pro Athlete Training - Flexibility Exercises

Donna Wilkinson: Now, we are going to move on do some flexibility building exercises. You are really going to love these. What we are going to do is work on really getting the abdominal core starting to work and building that flexibility in all aspects of your body. We are lying flat on the ground. One leg stays straight all the way up, opposite leg. We are doing alternating leg swings. You want to kick this leg parallel to the ground, we dont want it coming up in the air, we want to stay parallel to the ground, parallel back across. Opposite leg stays parallel and touches. So, the key is here, you want to touch each hand or as close to your hand as you can, keeping those legs straight. Now, if your lower back is not as flexible, dont worry at first. Just work on getting the form, here we go.

Good. We are going to get ten on each direction, keeping that leg nice and straight, keeping the bottom leg, just point it out as well. Good. Now, we are going to do something called L-overs, a little bit different, but kind of the similar. In this exercise, we are going to be lying flat on our back and like it sounds one leg is going to be straight up, and you want to move it in a direction where the leg never loses this angle, so as you come down to the floor this way, we want the leg to maintain the same angle that it has going across. So, you are really working those hips. So, arms are going to be out to the side, head is down, dont let toes point up, keep the toes flex back, or its coming across. Ten on each leg. So, you try to keep the shoulder down on the opposite arm, control it going down. Keep that leg up as high as you can, you dont want the leg to fall down toward the other leg. Then we are going to switch legs and do the same thing on the opposite side. So, we are going to keep that leg, that nice angle there all the way down, all the way over. Working as hard as you can to keep those back shoulder on. As you are coming across, you should really feel the stretch in your lower back as you are coming across. Good.