How To Stretch Your Achilles

Hey. I recently received a question from a listener about the Achilles tendon and how to get that nice and flexible. I want to show you a great stretch that you don't have to be in a yoga class to do. It's called the down dog. And we're also going to do a stretch called walking the dog. These are two great stretches for your Achilles.

Down dog requires getting into this position right here, and you're simply going to roll your shoulders forward, stick your butt up in the air, lengthen your hamstrings, and lengthen your upper body. And you can tuck your head if that's more comfortable for you. Now, from position, you're already going to be stretching your hamstrings in the back of your legs. And you'll feel this in your calves a bit, especially if you drop your heels. But to get the Achilles, you do need to bend your knee. So there's two different ways to target the Achilles once you're in the down dog position. One would be to lift one foot off the ground, cross it behind the other leg, and then push that leg, specifically the knee of that leg, down into the ground. The other way that you could stretch the Achilles from this position would be to simply keep both feet planted, but do what's called walking the dog, where you pick one heel up and push the knee down, and then the other heel up and push the knee down. Now, this second move that I'm showing you is especially useful as a dynamic stretch to prepare you for.

Something like a run. So those are the two Achilles stretches that you can try out next time. Your lower calves feel tight.