Week 4 and the mermaid

As mentioned week 4 focused on a dynamic warmup with lots of lying leg raises/circles and then a thorough warmup of the hips focusing on the mermaid stretch finishing in a straddle stretch. I'm due to do my second go at it today.

I have found some really good tips from this weeks lesson/ workout. Firstly with my Dynamic stretching, I am now starting with raising the knee then the leg bent at 90 degrees then straight leg. 1 set of each, each leg. By changing this in my morning routine I have noticed a huge improvement already, not in my maximal range of motion but in how relaxed my hips feel after, definitely going to keep that change in my routine. Previously I would just start with a straight leg at a low level and raise the height each swing, this way feels much better.

My thoughts on the mermaid stretch. I hadn't ever done this stretch before, didn't really know how to do it 100% and just copied what looked like the right thing to do and only did it in a half arsed kind of way, and only because it was mentioned as important somewhere in the DVD. I really have noticed less pain (if any) on the outside of the hips when attempting a straddle stretch if I perform a decent mermaid first, this is getting increased attention in my morning routine now as well.

There have been times recently where i have been getting frustrated that my maximal range hasn't increased noticeably yet but I have to keep realistic and remind myself that I'm only at week 4 and to be honest I've pretty much gone for 20 years without any regular stretching routine, certainly not a planned program. It will come in time if I am consistent.