Stretch Inner Thigh and Outer Thigh

Margie Weiss: My name is Margie Weiss and this is Basic Stretching.

We are going to do two exercises right now. One is for the outer thighs, and one is for the inner thighs to balance the two.

The first one is for the outer thigh. So, we are going to put our feet together, our knees apart and we are going to make a diamond. We dont want the feet too close to the body, because then we are going to do the wrong exercise, so make a big diamond. Hands or elbows on the knees or on the thighs and you are going to gently press downwards. You can use the strength of your upper body to push down against the legs. If you are not feeling it in the outer hips you have got your feet too close to your body, so you want to extend them just a little bit more. As you breathe in you kind of relax and as you breathe out you press down with the shoulders but allow the legs to relax the whole time because we want them to easily give to a point of minor discomfort, not to sharp pains.

If we want to do the inner thighs, very simple, all we need to do is pull the legs in closer, as closer as you can get. You are going to sit up nice and tall, drop the shoulders and tuck the belly in, and again with the shoulders push them down. This time the elbows are going to go right about mid thigh. Now, we are going gently press, we have got to allow the lower body to release. The way you do that is to breathe out, because you generally release some muscle more on the exhale than you do on the inhale. So, as you inhale, try to hold the elbows, breathe in, and then as you exhale give a little more pressure downwards because that second time that second set of stretches is the one that generally takes you beyond what your normal stretch would be. So, by having two exercises, one with the feet farther out and one with the feet closer in you can work a lot of the area at the hip, and in adults, this is an area that tends to be tight. You do a lot of working out; you do a lot of running and walking and so you are going to get tight in this area. This can give you some back problems.

So, doing these simple exercises is going to help you to stay fit.