Adult Ballet Beginners - Muscle Stretching Exercises For The Lower Body

I previously wrote for adult ballet beginners, describing one of the muscles stretching exercises for the upper body, stretching the chest so you could open up and do one of those Black Swan arm moves.

(If you haven't just done a walk or some other kind of workout, warm up by walking on the spot. Add some arm movements, and move for five minutes.)

For the lower body, to get your leg up to the back, to do an arabesque, you need to get more flexible in the psoas muscle. This is a postural support muscle that runs from the top of your thigh to the spine. Attached at the front of the spine, this muscle controls the bending of the body at the hip joint. (Say you sneeze and one of your knees lifts up when your abdomen contracts. You bend at the hip joint).

If flexible, this muscle also allows your spine to bend at the waist, when you raise your leg to the back. There is a REALLY simple exercise you can do, to stretch this large, important muscle.

You do not need ballet turnout to do this, so I am going to describe this exercise with your legs in parallel. Release one leg to the beck, about a yard or meter behind you. Place the back foot on the ground. Holding onto a ballet barre or the back of a chair is a good idea.

Now straighten the back leg, without changing your spinal position. You may feel a pull up the front hip and the back leg hip. Pull up the lower abdomen muscles, and you will increase the stretch feeling.

Twist away from the back leg, a little. You will feel the stretch increase, perhaps more in the side of the hip muscle.

Twist toward the back leg, and again you will feel the stretch move somewhat in the hip joint area.

Hold each position for thirty to sixty seconds. Repeat the stretch at least three times, each position, each leg.