Difficulty: Easy
Impact Level: Normal
Target Body Parts: quadriceps
How to do Quadricep Stretch
Back to ExercisesInstructions
Stand on your right leg and use your right arm for balance, then lift your left heal up behind you towards your hip. Reach back with your left arm to catch your left foot into your hand.
As you use your left arm to lift your heal up and in towards your hip you will start to feel a stretch down the front of your left thigh in your quadriceps muscles.
Try to keep your knees side by side and push your hips forwards during the stretch.
Repeat the stretch on other leg.
How to make Quadricep Stretch easier
If you have very tight quadriceps, it may be difficult to hold your foot behind you in your hand. If this is the case, place a step, bench or chair behind you to rest your foot on. As your flexibility improves, rest it on higher and higher surfaces until you can use your hand to hold the foot.
How to make Quadricep Stretch more challenging
To intensify this stretch you can make it an active stretch by tensing your quadriceps to kick your foot into your hand whilst keeping the foot in close to your hip using your arm strength. Try alternating between 5 seconds of tensing, and 5 seconds of relaxing and stretching the muscles. Also try our Hip Flexor Stretch to target similar muscles.
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