Seated figure-four
Played on both sides, one round each; the app tells you when to turn round. Under a minute a side.
How to do it
- Sit side-on, toward the front of a chair
- Near ankle on your other knee
- Lean forward from your hips
Step by step
In the words the app says them, out loud, while you do it. Written for the right side; the left is the mirror of it.
- Sit tall, with the ankle nearest the phone on your other knee.
- Right ankle on your left knee, and lean forward slowly from your hips, as far as you comfortably can.
- Hold there, as still as you can, for 20 seconds. You can make it 30 or 40 in Settings.
- Then the other side.
If the position slips, the app says so: “Rest your ankle on your other knee.”
What it is for
The app files this stretch under:
- Tight glutes
- Stiff hips
Where the phone goes
Phone on the floor, angled up a bit, side-on to you, about 6 ft away. The phone sits off to one side of you, so the camera sees the leg and the trunk in profile. Every stretch shows you this picture before the clock starts, and talks you through it, because you are across the room by then.
In the game
The gap in the kelp sits at the depth you settle on yourself, and staying near that depth is the whole skill. Points come from how steadily you hold the spot you picked. Depth earns nothing, and going deeper than you can comfortably hold is the thing the app is built to avoid asking of you.
That is also what the research says: a gentle hold gains as much range over the weeks as a hard one. What regular stretching does, measured.