SKATING LUNGE STRETCHES || OFF-ICE TRAINING | Coach Michelle Hong

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my channel. It's Coach Michelle Hong. Today we're going to be working on the lunge, one of the basic skills in skating that you learn in the beginner stages. And when you get more advanced, you do lunges into cool transitions such as a knee slide. And you also do turning lunges and back lunges. But the first basic skill that you have to learn is just a standard lunge where your boot is dragging behind you on the ice. So let's get started by working out our quads, our glutes, our inner thighs, our hamstrings and all that great stuff. So we're going to have our back nice and tall. We're going to place our hands on our hips and we're going to do four more lunges. We're going to go one, two, three. So I'm creating a 90 degree with my knee here and I'm trying to create a 90 degree with my knee here. And my hands are placed on my hips so I can keep my hips square and my heel is off the ground. The leg that's in front is very solid. Okay? We're going to do 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Thank goodness for squeaky shoes, right? Sorry for orthotics in my shoes. They're kind of squeaky. They keep my inner parts of my feet from pronating inward. Okay. So now we're going to go down. We're going to stretch the backs of our legs. Grab your ankles, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth and we're going to do a side lunge for one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and eight and nine and ten, eleven and twelve and thirteen and fourteen and fifteen. Right? One and two and breathe. Keep your hips forward. Good. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Great. We're going to drop down. We're going to lift our toe off the ground on our left side. We're going to reach our hands towards the middle of the floor. We're going to stretch out our calf, the backs of our legs, our inner thigh and our hamstring, all while working the right side, holding ourselves up. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, head drops. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, head drops. For ten, for nine, for eight, for ten, for six, for five, for three, for two, for one. Switch on over. Crawl in the opposite direction. We're going to lift our toe off. We're going to place our hands in the middle of the floor. We're going to stretch out our inner thigh, the backs of our knee and our calf. We're going to work the left side by balancing. We're going to breathe in through our nose and out through our mouth. Breathe in through our nose. Breathe out through our mouth. Breathe in through our nose and out through our mouth. It's really important for us to breathe. When you hold your breath on stretches, your muscles get really tight and it disengages your body. You're not able to be one with your body. When you start to breathe, you're able to flow from one movement to the next movement. You're going to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Relax. Now we're going to switch sides. We're going to crawl from right to left, from right to left, for 10, and 9, and 8, and 7, and 6, and 5, and 4, and 3, and 2, and 1. I almost fell over. Awesome. Come back to two straight legs. We're going to place our hands onto the ground. If your hands don't touch the ground, that's totally fine. Reach towards the center of your feet. If you can go all the way down to your elbows, go right ahead. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. We're going to crawl to our right side. Breathe in through your nose and really feel your hamstring being stretched. You're going to massage the backs of your legs. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, and I'm going to place my left hand on the outside of my right foot, and I'm going to reach my hand towards the sky and look up. For 10, for 10, for 8, for 7, for 6, for 5, for 3, 2, and 1. Crawl to the left. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. We're going to grab the outside of the left foot, and Now I'm gonna lift my left arm into the sky. I'm gonna count two, one, two, two, three, four, five, lift it up, one, two, three, four, five, one more, one, two, three, four, and five, fantastic. One more towards the center, hold the stretch. And now we're gonna inch our feet close together, grab the back of your knees and hug your legs together, stand with yourself, excellent. And you're gonna inch your shoulder blades up, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, one at a time, and relax. The next exercise that we're going to do is going to be a lunge, okay? We're gonna stretch out our lunge with our knee off the ground. We're gonna place our left leg in front and it is bent as we stack our weight on top of our hips. We're gonna lift here and we're gonna count to 10. Four, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, fantastic. Center, switch sides, to your right. We're gonna lift our palms up into the sky and we're gonna make sure our knee is over our toe. We're gonna count to 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, fantastic. Okay, now we're gonna open up our inner thighs before we go into the lunge. We're gonna get down onto our hands and our knees. We're gonna place our elbows onto the ground and you're gonna slide your knees out to the side. And today I'm not using my mat because I wanna be able to pull my knees together and we're gonna exercise our inner thighs. For 10, for nine, for eight, for seven, for six, for five, for four, for three, two, and one. Fantastic, okay, I think we are ready for that lunge. We're gonna bring our chair out for assistance. We're gonna place our hands on the back of the chair. We're gonna do that same lunge position that we did when we were practicing in that exercise previously. Now we're gonna turn our foot flat so that we're simulating what it'll be like on the ice. We're gonna slide down and we're gonna try to hold our chest up for 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one, fantastic. Other side, you're gonna go down into that lunge. Exercise that we just did, we're gonna flip our foot to the inside part of our foot and we're gonna count two, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Fantastic, there you have it. Those are some exercises and stretches that will help you gain strength in your inner thighs to accomplish the lunge on the ice. I hope you all enjoy and catch me on the next episode of Stretch with Michelle. Love y'all so much, bye.