Michelle is a personal trainer at a gym in NC and has been a personal trainer for several years. She is certified through ACE and is a certified aerobics instructor as well. Her Specialty is weight lifting and she enjoys training aspiring female body builders as she is one herself. She focuses on helping her clients stronger, healthier, and sending them out feeling better for it. The best part of her job is when she see people living a better life as a result of the physical training. She was also a Marine physical trainer before she was employed at the gym.
MICHELLE TRAPP: I'm going to show you how to stretch the hamstrings. There's a number of different ways that you can stretch them and I'm going to show you a couple of them. Really important to get a good stretch with those hamstrings, number one muscle that gets pulled and injured because it gets really tight, tends to get really tight especially if you're into a lot of climactic type sports like soccer or track or anything where you're running side to side, these are going to tighten up a lot and you're going to want to get a really good stretch. Important too is to stretch these guys when you're warm so the best time to stretch is always after your workout. Standing, you stretch your hamstrings, placing your feet together, now what you're going to do is you're going to hinge at the waist and you're going to reach for your toes. You're going to get yourself and your hands as low to the ground as you can to the point of mild discomfort, not searing pain. My knees stay straight, and I'm going to hold this stretch for 20 to 30 seconds. Another way you can stretch them, it's still standing, you can take one foot and step it over the other foot and what this is going to do is it's going to put more emphasis on my left leg here when I do this stretch. So I'm going to really feel the stretch on this back leg here. So what I would do is I would hold this for 20 to 30 seconds, coming as low down to the ground as I can, and then switching legs and doing the same on the other leg, keeping this back leg nice and straight. You can also find a raised object and place your leg on top, right on your heel. Ana again, what you're going to do is you're going to hinge forward and you're going to reach for those toes. You're going to feel a nice stretch all along the back of leg, remember, to the point of mild discomfort, only go as far as you can, hold for 20 to 30 second. You can also take these on to the ground, seated, you're going to keep your legs straight right out in front of you and you're going to reach for those toes, as far down as you can, you're going to actually feel a little stretch in your calves too, you'll probably hit two for one here, and hold for 20 to 30 seconds. Last stretch I'll show you will be on our backs and you take those legs up and again you reach for those toes, trying to pull those toes down. If you can't reach your toes, grab behind your legs and pull, be sure to keep those legs straight, and we're holding for 20 to 30 seconds. That's how you do hamstring stretches, important to keep those things limber, keep those things stretched out, no injuries is the name of the game.
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