E-News: Denise Wall's Stretches for Extension and Turnout
Denise Wall, teacher and owner of Denise Wall’s Dance Energy studio, gives her stiff students these exercises to stretch their piriformis and illiotibial bands, two muscles that, like the psoas, can inhibit the rest of the leg.
-To stretch the piriformis band, a small muscle in the buttocks, Wall tells students to lie on their backs with their knees bent and their feet on the floor. “Then pick up the right leg with the knee bent and the shin bone parallel to the floor,” she says. “Hold the right ankle with the left hand, palm up. [You should be in an attitude devant position.] Gently move the right leg to the left side, while keeping the back and hips on the floor.” Wall has her students hold the pose for two seconds, then release and repeat the exercise with the left leg.
-To work the illiotibial band, which runs along the outside of the leg, Wall has her students lie on the floor and pull the right leg with a rope to the left side keeping their hips square. She then instructs them to stretch with a turned-out leg by putting the rope on the ball of the foot, then twisting it on the outside of the leg and wrapping it around the inside of the leg. From there, they have their right leg straight on the floor, while the left leg is parallel and bent with the left foot flat on the floor. They lift their right leg by lengthening out of the hip socket and engaging the hamstring. She makes sure that the students hold the leg at the end range of their flexibility for no more than two seconds, avoiding a static stretch. While her students are stretching, Wall asks them “to think of the illiotibial band lengthening instead of just trying to get their leg to their face.” The students then repeat the exercise with the left leg.
