INDIANAPOLIS — For this Friday's Fit Tip, we're looking at hamstring stretches with WTHR's Anne Marie Tiernon and Lori Hatcher from The Hot Room.
"I've got tight hamstrings," Tiernon said. "That hurts my lower back."
Hatcher's exercise that can help loosen tight hamstrings can be performed just about anywhere.
"Anywhere. Hamstring stretch...the whole backside," Hatcher said.
She showed Tiernon how to perform the stretch.
"Start with your feet hip distance, pull the abs in, lift tall out of your spine, hinge at your hips, bend your knees," Hatcher said as she placed her hands on the front side of her thighs.
"Slide your hands down on your thighs, knees to elbows to floor," Hatcher said while maintaining a continuous motion, "nice and easy."
As she placed her hands flat on the floor, she swayed side-to-side, slightly bending one knee at at time.
"Hands go to the floor, and then, you straighten one knee, bend the other, slow and steady as if you're moving through mud," she said, describing the tempo of the movement.
Then, Hatcher shifted to a different movement.
"Rock and roll front-to-back, up on the toes, knees bent, spine straight, abs in," she said.
"You can hold and just stretch and breathe. Come out the same way you went in," Hatcher said as she stood up, hands sliding up the front of her legs in a reverse of the motion she used as she bent down. "Slow and steady as if you're moving through mud with intent, with purpose. So simple but so powerful. And rest."
Watch Hatcher demonstrate the stretches in the video player.