A week or so ago, I wrote about my desire to become a ‘supple leopard’.  I did some tests and discovered that the mobility of my posterior chain, and my hamstrings in particular, is horrible.

It’s going to be a long journey, but I think improving my flexibility will benefit me tremendously down the road.  I had a two hour bike ride scheduled today, but before getting onto the trainer, I did some flexibility work.

The exercise I am doing in the photo, is called posterior chain flossing.  Essentially you use a strong band to give you assistance with stretching and working your muscles.  In this case, I can feel a stretch in this forward position, and then I move my hips backwards, to straighten out that leg on the box.

The band gives assistance with the hamstring stretch, as you move backwards.  Finally, you move forward again, to the start position.  It sounds kind of strange, but you do really feel it in your hamstrings.  It seems to go a particularly good job of stretching the upper part of the hamstring muscles.

For this exercise, the book suggests just two minutes for each leg.  I did that and it felt good; even if I really struggled with my tight muscles.  Tomorrow, I’ll be working on the range of motion in my hips.  Then by alternating between hips and hamstrings, I’m hoping I’ll see some improvement.

Like everything in Triathlon training, this flexibility improvement journey is a process, and consistency is going to be the key.