1. Your Basic Warm up
Wear tights and warmers over legs while stretching. Don't stretch cold muscles, because it's like taking a piece of taffy out of the freezer and trying to pull it into various shapes before letting it get warm and pliable. Your body should be warm; don't come in from a cold climate and just start stretching. Warm up the muscles and get the blood flowing before moving into a stretching routine.
2. Philosophy of Stretching
Think of your body as a whole, but tackle each part individually to make sure that you do a complete stretching routine before starting your specific ballet exercises. Improperly stretched muscles become damaged, and soreness that lasts for days (and doesn't disappear through normal daily activity) likely means muscle damage. Stretch consistently and smoothly, holding each stretching movement until tension disappears.
3. Calves, Hamstrings and Inner Thighs
Work these muscles by sitting on a bench with one leg extended and the other on the ground, with the knee slightly bent and the sole of the foot flat on the ground. Reach forward, grasp the ball of the foot in front of you and pull back slightly, to a point of tension. Hold for several seconds. For added calf pressure, push out with your foot while pulling in with your hand. Once you've got the calf muscle stretched, work the hamstrings from this same position. Grasp your foot at the heel with both hands, and bend forward, trying to touch your chest to your knee. Work your inner thigh from this position: turn toward the leg that is touching the floor, hold the bench underneath you and pull your chest toward the floor.
4. Stretch Those Quads
Pretend you're starting a race: one foot forward, knee bent under your chest; one leg extended back, taking the weight on the ball of the foot. With your right leg extended back, support yourself on your right hand, bend your right leg up and grab the instep or heel with your left hand. Pull that foot toward your buttock until you can feel the tension. Hold for several seconds or until the tension eases, and repeat.
5. Beware the Danger Zones
Watch carefully as you do your warm-up routines. Certain common stretching exercises are either dangerous in themselves, or harmful if they're done wrong. This includes the common "hurdler's stretch" where you sit on the floor with one leg extended in front of you and one leg bent back. The typical "toe touch" where you bend over from a standing position and try to touch your toes or the floor while keeping your knees straight is another potentially harmful stretch. Additionally, the complete back bend (where you reach over behind you and, keeping your feet flat on the floor, put your palms on the floor) could pose a problem. These and other common exercises compress the vertebrae or pull and stretch ligaments and tendons; these are things that can, in fact, be dangerous. The goal of warming up is to prevent injury to your body.
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