Leg Stretching - Knee Flexion.

Muscles involved: Quadriceps

Instruction:

Standing up while leaning against a support for balance, flex a knee and hold on to the dorsum medial aspect of the foot that is raised using the ipsilateral hand, as shown in the illustration. Pressing the heel of the foot against the gluteus will stretch your quadriceps.

Commentary:

The hip should not be flexed, nor should you lean the torso, but if you extend the hip a little bit backwards on the side that is being worked, you can get a good stretch on one portion of the quadriceps, the bi-jointed rectus femoris.

On the other hand, if the hip moves in the opposite way (raising the knee in front of the body but maintaining the rest of the posture as is) you will be putting emphasis on the vastus lateralis and medialis of the quadriceps, taking some tension off the rectus femoris.