Supine Calf Stretch

Supine Calf Stretch 

2-4 sets of 8-10 reps each side

• Lay on your back, right leg down on the ground.

• Support your left leg behind the thigh with both hands, leg in the air, knee bent.

• Pull your toes back toward your shin and straighten your left knee, squeezing your quad.

• Find an angle where you can straighten your knee but also get a calf/hamstring stretch.

• Hold the stretch for a 2-count. Relax and repeat for the prescribed reps.

Tight calves can make squatting movements next to impossible and it can change your gate pattern in walking and running. Tight calves prevent the necessary dorsiflexion (a.k.a. the bending of your foot toward your shin). The Supine Calf stretch is a focussed movement that sends the signal to your body to lengthen your calves. Really think of using your quad to straighten your knee to engage that stretch. When you use your brain to fire a muscle on one side of your body, muscles on the other side need to lengthen. In this supine calf stretch you are activating your quad to lengthen your calf and hamstring. Find that sweet spot where you can fully straighten your knee but also get a stretch that is a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a lot of stretch and 1 hardly any. If your head or shoulders come up off the ground, wrap a towel around your thigh to hold onto. It will make your arms longer so you can keep your shoulders on the ground.