Bent Leg Twists
Touching the leg increases the mobility demands!
This also brings our hips into the stretch. You may feel some tight muscles in your glutes and on the side of your hips finally start to loosen up.
Standards
These numbers are provided as guidelines for advancing through this exercise. Move on to the next step, Full Twists, when you feel you are able to do so. This might take some time.
LEVEL 1: 3 Holds of 15 Seconds (Both Sides)
LEVEL 2: 3 Holds of 30 Seconds (Both Sides)
LEVEL 3: 3 Holds of 60 Seconds (Both Sides)
Rest 30 seconds between Sets. See Tutorial for more details.
Form Cues
You might feel some muscles near your hip cramp. If this happens, ease off the stretch and massage them a bit. Walk around. Then go back to your Twists.
It may help you to jog in place a bit before this exercise. This may help loosen up some lower body muscles and improve this exercise’s effectiveness.
Turn toward your BENT leg. This is helpful to align the movement. For some reason, it’s easy to get confused on this. Many people initially turned toward their straight leg - myself possibly included.
Mind-muscle connection really matters here. Feel one side of your body stretch as the other side contracts. Small adjustments can help you feel the movement a lot better over the time you practice. This is one of the reasons longer holds are preferred.
Once you are in position, slightly look down as if you are trying to touch your chin to the shoulder toward which you are turning. This will help engage and stretch the muscles in the back of your neck.
Go slowly and steadily. Under NO circumstances should you use SPEED to twist into the movement or extend your range of motion. This would be a recipe for disaster. If you use control, your own body will regulate the safety of the movement.
Tutorial
Sit on the floor with your legs straight in front of you.
Place your right foot beside your left knee and cross it over so the foot is on the other side of the knee to your left.
Bend your left knee and place your left heel on your right buttcheek.
Turn towards your bent leg and place your left hand on your right side.. Place your right hand behind you.
Continue turning to your right as hard as you safely can.
Breathe normally and hold for time.
Return to your starting position and do the exact same for the left side.
After doing both sides, rest 30 seconds before repeating again. See Standards.
Progression & Regression
To make this exercise easier: Twisting less will make this exercise easier.
To make this exercise harder: Twisting more will make this exercise harder. It may be helpful to view the next exercise - Full Twists - to see the goal and know where your body has to go. You can experiment with placing one hand underneath the raised leg. This will stretch your shoulder external rotators and prepare you for the next step!