We have more interesting 'move from your core' work in this sequence that also leads to splits in another orientation to gravity.
Remember, you don't have to do the splits--try not to 'aim' for that. Try your best but don't be attached to an outcome. Most people will not be able to do the splits and what you might do is bring knee to chest as shown on the left.
You do what feels possible and comfortable for you without straining. Feel challenged but without mental or physical tension.
I have made two video versions of the sequence. One to show what you could do for splits variation. The other to show for knee to chest variation.
You will get a feel for what is possible for you.
I come into these postures actively. That means I bring my leg towards my chest without using the hands. This will require good balance and core stability, as well as good hip mobility.
Take a look at the videos so you can see the movement in action. Then take a look at how I deconstruct the postures in the pictures.
Video: Splits Variation
Video: Knee to Chest Variation
Key Actions
Below are some step by step instructions. Remember do not do anything that hurts. Be mindful of your knees. To get into the posture there are some tricky hip movements and whenever you are working with hips you need to be cautious of knees.
Move slowly so there is no strain. If you feel strain then go back to the previous position you were in.
Lunge
In this lunge bring your hand towards the ground but do not 'dump' the weight into the hand. Support yourself with your legs. The hand is more there for a bit of balance if you need but you should feel you could take your hand off the ground.
Turn feet
Both feet turn the same way. Turn the back foot 90 degrees and onto its side. Keep your ankle away from the floor.
The front foot turns as well but that is not where the movement comes from. I actually think about rolling my thigh out rather than moving the foot. I lift the ball of that front foot and as I roll the thigh out the knee will move out to the side and allow your foot to move with you. Move slowly and carefully. If this is not comfortable go back to the lunge and remain there for a while until the side lying part comes up.
Be on the outer edge of the front foot as well. Keep the ankle away from the ground.
In this position stay lifted out of the arm on the ground. You could take it away. To do this you need to ensure you are pushing your front heel down and away from you and firm in your other leg.
Lower hip to floor
Mindfully lower the hip towards the ground. Go slowly. No strain. If in any discomfort go back to the previous position.
Stay lifted out of the arm as though you are pushing that hand down and away from the side of the body and so the chest feels as though it is moving away from the ground.
Lie on your side
This bit gets fun. Take your arm under the side of your body. Find a position where it is comfortable. Feel as though you are pressing that arm into the ground.
Keep your legs and feet firm.
If possible take the top arm to the top side, as shown below.
Try to be in a straight line. Hips and shoulders stacked on top of one another. There will be a tendency to drop one hip or shoulder back.
Knee to chest
Carefully bring knee to chest. Be mindful that you do not drop a hip or shoulder back to come into this position. Feel your tummy muscles working for this. As I prepare to come into the position I feel as though I am pushing the sitting bone of that top leg forward.
You can hold there or see if you can straighten the leg, as shown below.
If you straighten the leg, keep the foot and leg away from the floor. See my foot is not on the ground.
You can then use your hand to come into an assisted posture.
Graceful exit If you are in a good split you can come out of the posture by rolling tummy to ground.
Then coming up into a split.
If you are with knee to chest or if your split is not 'split' enough then hug knee to chest. Be firm behind the knee (as though you are gripping a rolled up towel or something behind there).
If your knees are ok then carefully roll tummy towards the ground so shin is on the ground. Be mindful. If you are lolling around a bit like a beached whale then rethink your exit strategy! We want graceful exit so your exit might be to come back into a lunge (not pictured).
Then come up like an elegant swan!
In this posture I still want to feel like I am lifting away from the ground. I press my front foot down into the floor. I am also using my back foot to press down into the floor. I feel as though I am drawing the back knee towards my chest so that I am not sinking into it.
You will know if you have got good lift as it will be easy to take the arms up.
Have fun. Be safe. Feel like you are doing something but not straining. Try your best but do not be attached to an outcome. Move slowly. Tense less, stretch less, breathe less, and think less. Smile.
We will be working with this as part of our sequence for the next 5 weeks. Join us for outdoor classes, rain, wind or (we hope) sun!
In particular review the first video on supine activation (shown again below) that gives you an idea about what your tummy is doing in these postures.
Ok, so now you have reviewed (and practiced and understood) the importance of tummy activation we can have a think about some other thoughts on helping hamstrings, hips, and spine.
In these sequences I highlight the idea of bringing chest to knees. This is an active movement that we do by initially using tummy activation first and then using hip flexion.
With these postures I am using an active tummy movement then trying to lengthen my spine along the front of the thigh. A more apt description would be that I am not so much trying to bring chest to thigh but trying to bring belly button to thigh and then take my belly button to the knee along the front of the thigh.
If you are thinking of bringing chest to thigh this can create a tendency to droop or drop the chest when I actually want spinal length. In this practice if your spine will not lengthen then you are too deep in the posture.
This might require a radical rethink of your postures and movement.
While it may not immediately seem apparent, these are all fairly intense forward bends. There is a danger of over stretching. Do not attempt intense forward bends without supervision or a good understanding of your own lower spine. Best to practice with a teacher. As with all postures, you must be careful and go slowly.
Video
The video shows how I have lengthened my spine along the front of my thigh in the various incarnations of this posture. You should only straighten your leg if you can keep your spine long and do not feel strain. This will be beyond the capacity of most people.
STANDING UPRIGHT VARIATIONS Step 1: Toe and hips forward
Lengthen lower back (sitting bones to heels, top of pelvis back.
Toe forward, hips forward. This should help create postural firmness in your tummy.
Step 2: Knee raise
Lift knee forward and up. Make sure you keep hips forward.
Step 3: Spinal forward flexion
I bend forward from my spine to activate tummy muscles more (like I am doing a sit up in my tummy). I am trying to bring my chest towards the thigh without drooping the chest (keep it long).
Step 4: Push and press
Hold shin. With bent elbows pull with your hands but press with your shin.
There will be a tendency for the tummy to switch off here as the arms take over. But keep it on!
I try to wriggle my belly button up along the thigh. This is lengthening the spine and you will see that my back body is long throughout.
Step 5: Lean back
I lean back to come towards an upright position. Some people will not be able to keep their chest and thigh together and come fully upright. So, stay forward and that is where you remain for the rest of the postures (do not go on).
Step 6: Open knee angle
Keeping all previous activations, take an arm behind the thigh to keep chest and thigh connected.
Slowly start to open the knee angle. Do this actively. I am not pulling it open with my hands here. I use my hand on my heel so I can push my heel into my hand and pull back with my hand.
You might not be able to open the knee angle and keep chest and thigh together so only open so far that they stay together. This is where you stay.
Step 7: Open
If the leg will continue to open comfortably then you can take both hands and continue to straighten the leg.
In this position my hand is helping to open my leg. I am not strong enough to take my leg up this straight against gravity.
But I make active efforts to straighten the leg with my front thigh muscles, and also keep a pushing action of heel into hand and hand into heel.
Tummy stays firm. Spine stays long.
LUNGING VARIATIONS Step 1: Lunge
I transitioned to this from the previous posture, keeping chest to thighs and belly button working towards knee. I kept an active tummy. Most people will not keep active tummy as this is an easy posture to just collapse into. This means collapsing tummy and collapsing into the hip joints.
It is important to remember how I came into this posture, which is first through active spinal flexion with tummy activation and then hip flexion keeping tummy firm. Finally, I do some spinal extension but trying to wriggle my belly button up towards my knee. You can see tieback of my body is long. In fact, it is pretty straight.
In this position I keep my back leg active.
Step 2: Lengthen
I go to a split here. It is a matter of slowly straightening my legs and keeping everything else the same. that makes it sound easy. But it is not!
UPSIDE DOWN SPLIT Step 1: Short lunge
Tummy firm, I come to a short lunge. Keep standing leg active so I don't collapse into my hip. I keep sitting bones down and top of pelvis back to lengthen lower back and keep front of groin unsquashed.
Step 2: Both knees to chest
Bring the back knee to chest. Both knees are working to chest. Keep front of groins unsquashed.
Step 3: Straight standing leg
Take the raised leg out behind you. I am rolling that thigh in. Pelvis level. Got to be mindful you do not sink into the standing hip and squash the front of groin.
Step 4: Take it up
The raised leg stays rolling in, straight, and I see if I can just take the leg up. Watch that you are not rolling the pelvis out.
SUMMARY
There you go. A few more variations
These are tricky ones because they are very easy to collapse into. It is easy to sink and be passive if you are not mindful.
You might see if you can bring knee close to chest while you are lying on your back and without the hands. That would be a good indicator of whether or not these variations are going to be possible for you.
If the knee will not come to close to the chest while lying on your back you are going to find these postures impossible or difficult or else you will probably be doing the by compensating with some other movement. It might be worth thinking about trying the supine variations for a while longer first.
have fun. Happy and safe practicing!
Much metta,
Samantha
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com
I had several questions about hamstring lengthening this week and this post has three videos to demonstrate some of the ways to help! You won't see any of the usual suspects.
Hamstring stretching or lengthening?
The truth be told, most people ask me how to stretch their hamstrings. It is I who always jumps in and reminds them that I will give them tips on how to relax and lengthen their hamstrings but I won't give tips on stretching them.
The thing is, these people know how to stretch their hamstrings. They have invariably been doing stretches for a long time. The problem is the stretches generally don't help them to feel better movement.
The postures and advice I give are mainly around helping them feel better movement without feeling like they are stretching, such as I am doing in the photo below.
Standing balance with leg raised and straight
In positions like the one shown I am actively trying to keep my leg straight while drawing it towards my chest. It does not feel like stretching at all. It feels like the back of my leg and bottom is lengthened.
When I do postures like this I am cultivating a relaxation response in my hamstrings (known as reciprocal inhibition. Basically, I work the opposite muscle groups to help relax the ones that I am trying to lengthen. Have a look at this post for some cool graphics: http://www.bandhayoga.com/keys_recip.html.
It feels like a lot of work in the standing leg, front of raised leg, and tummy. Most people miss the tummy activation in this posture, which tends to cramp you in the front of groin. Which leads to the point below.
Active positioning for spinal lengthening
In postures like the one shown below I am doing very important spinal lengthening and hamstring lengthening work. It is basically the same position as the standing balance shown above, but just lying down.
Active positioning to improve hamstring lengthening
The key difference (in terms of effort) is that I am obliged to use tummy muscles in a way I am not obliged to in the standing variation.
I am using my active core to send a message to my spinal muslces to relax as well.
Importantly, I am actively bending forward in my spine using tummy museles in a way I can still breathe into the tummy. If I tighten my tummy by tightening everything and shifting to chest moving breathing then I won't get the same relaxation effect.
Many people are limited in their forward bending because their lower backs are really tight as well as their hamstrings (and their hips).
The active movement in the core that you cultivate in this position is important and will help lengthen the spine and it is why I put the lying down sequence first in the videos below.
Try to remember the feeling in your tummy that you generate in this position (of it being firm but in a way you feel you can still breathe there) when you do the postures in the other videos.
Remember, better spinal movement is more important than being able to touch your toes.
As an aside, many observers wonder why I am not holding my foot when I do postures like the one above. And it is, I suspect, because of the focus on the sensation of stretching as opposed to the sensation of lengthening.
Holding the foot, the way most people tend to (which is to just grab the foot and pull the leg) generally means the muscles do not need to work and you lose the potential benefit of a relaxation response. Pulling tends to switch you to a sort of suffering and grimacing associated with tearing yourself apart!
It would also feel like I was not doing much work if I held the foot in that way because the big muscles that were working (including the core core muscles) have switched off.
The truth is most people cannot even grab their foot with their leg straight because their hamstrings (and lower back and hips) are too stiff. And so most people would probably be using a belt or towel or rope.
And then you have to ask yourself if you cannot bring your straight leg close enough to your chest to be able to hold it without a belt then should you really try to straighten your legs in positions like paschimottanasana and all the other seated forward bends? In my classes I encourage people to come into all seated bends with bent knees to lengthen the front and back of spine first and only then to slowly lengthen the legs on the condition the spine does not distort.
Lying video and key actions
The first postures to try are in lying because they oblige tummy activation (in a way you can feel the movement of the breath).
In general:
front thigh (coming close to chest) is rolling out (your knee looks like it is turning away from midline);
press down through the grounded thigh and keep it straight. Reach through the inner thigh;
keep the front knee straight. That is one of the main points--to keep is straight. It does not matter how close to the chest it comes. That will be a good indicator of your available active movement and something for you to contemplate when trying this posture in other relations to gravity;
as you move through the variations keep the whole back of the pelvis and sacrum touching the floor.
you will be doing sit-ups here so this is a good core strengthening sequence. If you feel strain at all in your neck you are doing the sit up incorrectly and you need to learn how to do sit ups without your neck feeling strained.
First position (lying parsvottanasana)
Lying down, draw straight leg towards face. Do a sit up and reach as though you are trying to touch the toes (but don't actually get them).
You need to actively lengthen the side hip area of the raised leg down towards the heel of the leg on the ground. The pelvis and hip tends to hike up on that side and squash the side waist. If you need to, put the web of your thumb in your groin to help actively lengthen that side waist. You should feel this as an action of rolling that thigh out.
Second position (lying trikonasana variation)
To get into position I bend the knee, take the thigh out to the side, ensure my whole back pelvis is still on the floor, and then straighten the leg from there. The pelvis of opposite side will tend to raise up if you try to get to the ground so be mindful of this.
Note, to make it real trikonasana type posture I need to add spinal movement and turn from bottom of spine to top away from the leg out to the side then do a little lengthening movement (not clearly shown in this video).
Again, keep that raised thigh actively rolling out. I am still trying to straighten leg and draw it towards my face but out to the side.
Third position (lying parivrtta trikonasana)
A tricky one and tough to capture on the video.
I bring the raised leg back to midline. I really need to make sure that the hip does not hike up here. Put a thumb in your groin if that is the sort of thing that might happen to you.
Keeping your pelvis on the floor, take that raised leg across your body. It will not go very far.
From there, you are still in a sit up, you can try to do a twist from the bottom to the top of spine, turning towards that leg.
It is not shown here but you could try a little spinal extension (lengthening from the front surface of your spine.
I could have positioned my arms better in this posture but was focusing mainly on spinal movement.
By the end of these postures you should sense your tummy very active! That will have helped lengthen the lower back and help you for the next series of postures in standing!
Standing balance video and key actions
In the standing balance video you see I do take my foot (after I have done the active postures first).
However, when I take my foot I straighten the leg out slowly without distorting my spine. I also press the foot and hand into one another so that the leg is active and not being passively pulled (this triggers another relaxation response).
In general:
raised sitting bone feels like it is scooping underneath you and lengthening in the lower back;
raised thigh is rolling out;
keep standing leg foot pointing straight ahead;
remember your core activation from previous postures and find it here.
Posture one
Watch the leg stays straight. Watch the raised leg hip does not hike up. Keep trying to feel as though you are smoothing your side hip down to the ground.
If comfortable you can try the assisted posture, shown below, by bending the knee, drawing thigh to chest, holding foot and pushing foot out as you draw in with the hand, keeping thigh and chest together slowly start to straighten the leg. If you have trouble in the lying sequence with getting your leg straight and past 90 degrees then you will not be able to do this and best to work with just holding the knee to chest and pressing shin to hands and hands to shin until you can start to slowly straighten the leg without thigh coming out from the chest. Be patient.
Position two
As you did with lying, bend the knee then turn the knee out to the side but still in front of you. As you did with the lying version do not let the pelvis move with you. Keep scooping the bottom under. Then try to straighten the leg. If it will not straighten then put the toe tip on the ground. From there try to straighten the leg and raise it.
You want to keep rolling the thigh out and scooping the bottom under.
This is really much harder than it looks as you will see if you try.
If you feel ok with the active version you can try and draw knee to side-front chest. Keep scooping hip under. From there you could try to keep knee and shoulder close and then slowly start to straighten. If knee comes out from shoulder then you have gone too far. Be patient and wait with knee in shoulder until the leg is almost straight when you can let it move away from shoulder a little.
Position three
The leg comes back to the front here. I need to be particularly careful the hip does not hike up. Then I rotate the spine from bottom to top, maintaining length through both side waists.
Standing postures
You can then try these positions in their more traditional forms; parsvottanasana, trikonasana, parivrtta trikonasana.
I have linked these postures without chaining my foot position at all. The thigh positions remain the same. The pelvis position does change when you move to trikonasana, but the lower back position does not (it remains lengthened). The pelvis position is a subtle change and it is just the top side pelvis that opens lightly to the sky. This opening does not cause a shift in the leg positions.
It is really tricky to do these postures all linked together without changing the foot positions and without falling over. You will need to keep your legs and feet very active.
Watch for your bottom sitting bone trying to stick out. I keep a light feeling of it scooping under to keep the length of the lower back.
The end
Phew, this has been a long post!
We have been working on some variations of this in class. Remember these videos are intended for my students so I can position and correct and answer questions. It is better to learn from a teacher you are physically present with than the internet.
Have fun. Stay safe.
Much metta,
Samantha
www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com
Working
Towards Hanumanasana/Splits (James Brown Version—Gotta Go Up To Go Down)
Hanumanasana (henceforth to be called the
splits in this post) is a pose to work towards with caution.
It looks so impressive most people’s egos
get the better of them.
Or, perhaps it was just my ego?As I tell my students, when I first started
yoga I injured myself with over-zealous practice of the posture.
Actually, the practice was not
over-zealous.This was a case of pure
ego.I actually practiced mindfully and
diligently.The day I made it into the
pose after many months of practice I was so pleased with myself that later on
(several hours after my practice and we could almost call it the next day) I
met a friend and said ‘Look, I can do the splits!’
I proceeded to do the splits right there
and then, with no preparation.
Well, let’s say I managed the position but
did something to my butt that had me limping for a month!
These days I can do the pose almost first
thing in the morning as I have been practicing for many years. However, most people will need quite a bit of
preparation.
Hopefully my previous posts should have
lead you towards an understanding that the splits should not feel like too much
stretching.
It is not about splitting apart.
Using active movements means the pose is
actually about coming together again.
If you are working towards this posture I
recommend you work with an experienced yoga teacher to guide you.Do not confuse flexible with experienced and
also, I think it is better to make sure your teacher can do any pose they are
trying to instruct you in.
In the photos below I have shown one
progression.Watch the video above to see the movement in action. The video at the end of the post shows advanced variations of the posture
(intended for demonstration not for practice).
You remain at whatever stage you feel
comfortable in (feel like lengthening and relaxing, not stretching and
tugging).
There are two key things I am doing in each
stage.The first thing also has a
little subplot.
First, my front thigh is rolling out and my
back thigh is rolling in.
This means the thigh bone of the front leg
feels as though the side butt (near the crease) is firming slightly.What you see is that the knee might roll away
from the centre line of your body.
The back thigh is rolling in, which means
you might feel the inner thigh firming a little.If you could turn around and see your knee is
trying to move so it is more towards the centre line of your body.
The subplot here is that I am also trying
to move the side of front hip back and draw side of back hip forward.
If you are not mindful the opposite tends
to happen.That is, when you roll the
front thigh out it can often bring the side of front hip forward and when
rolling the back thigh in it can often send the side of back hip backward. So
you need to watch out for this.
The second key thing I am doing is to try
to suck my legs or feet together.
Yes.I am not actually trying to split them apart.
Sucking them together could be likened to
someone at foot trying to push your legs back together (what I am doing).
Whereas most beginners just try to let
their legs come apart, almost as though there is a person at either foot
pulling them in a tug-o-war.Actually,
they do not even do that so much as let the weight of their entire pelvis and
torso just hang and sag in the middle.
Ouch!It is obvious when put that way that it would not be a pleasant feeling.
Sucking it up is key.
This is where I put in the James Brown
analogy in class.He was a guy who sort
of did a type of a split while on-stage singing but leapt straight back up
again.It looked really cool as a dance
move.
In our yoga practice of this pose we need
to be thinking of trying to draw our feet back together again (while they move
apart).
This makes the posture active rather than
passive.
It will help make you stronger and more
mobile.
Step 1
A standing lunge. Stay here. I am trying to pull my feet together. No need to go further unless comfortable.
Step 2
Kneeling lunge. Be soft on the back knee by being active in the legs and feet. I am drawing front heel back and back knee forward. You can stay here. No need to go further.
Step 3
I start to move the front foot further away. I go slowly so I don't elicit a stretch reflex. You can see the back knee slightly raised. I try and draw my feet together as though trying to stand up. I am not sinking into my shoulders or hands at all.
Step 4
That front foot just keeps moving slowly forward.
Step 5
I have come all the way forward. I have moved my torso back while trying not to arch my lower back (tummy firm but calm). I am reaching forward and up through my armpits to lengthen my spine.
Of course, there is really no reason you
need to do this pose.It is fairly
extreme.
One of the benefits (which is not going to
make you a happier or healthier person by any means) is that if you are coming
into some other inverted postures like pincha mayurasana you can tap into the
pose with greater ease.
Below is a video of me coming into active hanumanasana with a variation.
Some additional points you might notice
from the videos:
I am not sinking into my hands or shoulders
at any point. I am trying to cultivate
lift and length and freedom in the spine through the actions of my legs. This is clearly shown in my fuller versions
of the posture where I take my hands off the ground, arms overhead, and reach
for the sky.
I am using my back foot strongly. You can do a
top of foot down version if you like.
I just prefer this one.
Most people think of this posture as
something to do with hamstrings. As soon
as you practice you should get an appreciation that the front of the thigh of
the back leg needs to be lengthened. If
it is not you can squash your lower back.
You can see that in my versions I begin to
move the whole spine back over the pelvis, trying to lengthen my spine while
coming into an upright position. This is
actually a pretty tough back bend and you need to monitor that the spine is not
squashing. I am firm in my tummy in a
way that I can still breathe into it, which helps.
I am reminding myself periodically to relax my face, my tongue, my lips.
I am breathing naturally.
I am enjoying the sun on my face, the
chirps of the birds, the call of loud children in the background playing with
their dog. I am feeling radiantly
alive! Firm but calm. Delighted with where I am and what I am
doing, whatever that is. I am connected to my body but not so inward
looking that I cannot sense others and I smile and nod as they pass by.
This is the type of thing we workshop in classes, and in our retreats in Bali and Sri Lanka. Hope to see you there. (www.artofliferetreats.com).
A yoga teacher posted a question about how to increase the flexibility of a student's calf muscles, which were feeling stretched in purvottanasana.
In this post I describe a mental checklist and framework I use when I receive similar questions from students. The video above demonstrates the how I have applied the technique in the past to assist students feel greater ease and less tension in their hamstrings.
Whether or not you are a teacher or student you have probably wondered how to increase your flexibility so that you can move in greater freedom.
There are many approaches to flexibility training.
Active Movement
The system of yoga I practice is based on active movements to help safely and effectively improve mobility while ensuring you have the strength to support the movement and posture.
This means that we encourage students to move into postures and hold them using their own muscular activation without relying on external forces or supports for assistance.
External forces or supports include things like gravity, momentum, pushing or pulling a single body part, and props.
Active movement minimises the chances of over-stretching, which is a common cause of injury and source of joint pain as the supporting structures around that joint can become lax and weak through incorrect practice.
Using active movements to take you into postures helps you to achieve a balance between strength, flexibility, and relaxation in yoga.
Simon and Bianca, amazing teachers, note that "the safest way to apply the principle of strength with flexibility is to commence a stretching posture with the muscles around the joint to be stretched already toned (i.e., in an active state).
Although a stretch initiated with muscular strength may not be as intense as a relaxed muscle stretch, the balance between strength and flexibility will be maintained, and the risk of over-stretching other structures such as ligaments and nerves will be avoided." (Borg-Olivier and Machliss, 2011, p.51).
So, what does this all mean for a student's calves or hamstrings or iliopsoas or any number of other bits that they might want to stretch? And how does this relate to the practice?
First, remember don't lose sight of the bigger picture of the practice as a whole.
While I practice a system of yoga based on active movements that safely and effectively improves strength and flexibility, my main aim is to apply this system in a way that moves circulation and energy through my body so that I can minimise suffering, increase calm and focus, and find a better connection to myself and others.
So, having reminded yourself of the bigger picture, have a think about why it is important to stretch.
While some people might say that yoga is not about stretching (and they are right), it is important not to forget that too much tension in muscles can manifest as feelings of tightness in particular postures and in daily life. And muscles that are tense can, over time, become a source of pain.
With this in mind, it might be useful to think more about our aim as promoting movement. We want firm muscles but not tense ones. We also want muscles that can be lengthened and relaxed rather than ones that are feeling stretched. Too much sensation of stretch (along with too much tension) will actually block movement.
This idea of lengthening and relaxing is really important. You are already very flexible. We are all very flexible when we are completely relaxed. Just look at the things drunk people can do and what happens to your musculoskeletal system under anaesthesia.
If you are a yogi one of your friends or family has surely sent you these sorts of pictures, showing the relaxed state drunk people can get themselves into.
Our nervous system regulates our muscle tone, and in yoga we use a variety of tips and techniques to try and regulate our nervous system to influence our muscle tone. This is an important point and can perhaps help you appreciate why a lot of 'stretching' is ineffective in the sense that you do not end up with more movement around the joint and remain just as stiff despite daily stretching.
The point is that mechanically pulling or tugging on two ends of a muscle may not have any effect on your nervous system. Using active movements will have an effect on the nervous system, which is why it is more effective at improving mobility when used correctly.
A Little Detour
Here I make a little detour and note some yoga styles and well respected yoga teachers (like the Yin Yoga approach) encourage a more passive approach to posture and I do not want to suggest it is incorrect or improper. At different times of our lives and even of our day we need to do different things.
You just need to understand what you are doing and why and appreciate the potential consequences and make sure you are working with an experienced teacher who can explain to you what they are doing and why.
I have made this little detour as I hope not to sound dogmatic. I don't wish to suggest something is always wrong (or always right) or make people fearful of practicing (or not practicing) in a particular way. I do encourage some sort of reasoned approach, which is why I take the time to write this all down and refer you to other authors so you can see my point of view (point of bias?!). I have written this here deliberately as someone recently told me I sound like I think everyone else is doing things wrong. I might have to insert this disclaimer into every post!
Reciprocal Relaxation
Anyway, thinking back to what you can do to apply active movements to promote lengthening and relaxing in an active rather than passive way.
This is a big topic and best always to come to a teacher qualified to talk to you about it.
There are many things you can do to promote active relaxation and below I talk about one particular technique that really helps to create relaxation of the muscle and ease of movement around the joint.
This technique involves activating an opposing muscle group prior to entering a posture (can also be while in the posture).
This means you activate the muscle/muscle group that is opposing the action of the muscle/muscle group that will be lengthened in a particular asana. This triggers a relaxation response known as reflex reciprocal inhibition.
It is called a reflex because it is something that will happen automatically or unconsciously. For example, and very simplistically speaking, if we want to bend our knee the muscles that cause knee bending will be activated while the muscles that straighten our knee will be inhibited (unless we consciously over-ride this). This needs to happen otherwise the knee would not bend if the muscles that straightened the knee were being told to work.
Using this principle we can suggest that activating muscles that bring the top of the foot closer to the shin (dorsiflexion) will cause relaxation of the muscles that push the sole of the foot away from the shin (plantar flexion).
The muscles commonly called 'calf muscles' work to cause plantar flexion. Some can also contribute to knee flexion (knee bending).
Therefore, if we want to create a relaxation response in the muscles of the calf to help them relax and lengthen we could activate the opposite muscles, in this case the ones that cause dorsiflexion. You can feel these muscles if you try to pull your toes towards your shin. You should feel the muscles across the front of the ankle become firm.
Because some of the calf muscles also cross the knee joint they have some influence on bending the knee. This means you could combine dorsiflexion with straightening the knee to enhance the relaxation response.
A Mental Checklist
Here is a mental checklist I follow whenever I get a question about how to stretch a particular part or help increase flexibility or give greater ease in a posture:
identify a posture where the particular discomfort, tension, or stiffness is felt. This is used as a baseline to be able to test whether the technique you use actually worked. That is, you attempt the posture immediately before using the technique and then immediately after and see if there is a difference.
identify the muscle group that feels tight or feels like it needs to be lengthened (target);
identify the main joint complexes the target muscle/muscle group crosses remembering that for some muscles/muscle groups there will be more than one;
identify the movement/s that place the target muscle/muscle group in a lengthened position;
identify the muscle group that works to position the joint so that the target muscle group is in a lengthened position (i.e., the opposing muscle group);
actively position the body so that opposing muscle group is working without the assistance of gravity, supports, or props;
hold the position in a way that is firm but not tense, and breathe naturally. Hold for at least 10-15 seconds if possible or as long as you can while not suffering or causing tension;
enter the pose that previously caused strong sensations of stretch (i.e, the baseline posture). It should now feel less like it is being stretched and more like it is being lengthened and relaxed and you should feel you can move more freely into that posture.
Application Of The Checklist
I used this type of approach and checklist successfully on students who wanted to feel greater ease in parsvottanasana so their hamstrings were not tugging and so they could have greater ease of movement.
Using the steps above I:
identified that the muscles across the back of the front leg in parsvottanaasana felt tight in the pose;
identified that it seemed to be the back of the hip joint that was the main joint that was being crossed but also the back of the knee joint;
identified that the movements that seemed to place the target muscle group in a lengthened position were hip flexion and external rotation with knee extension;
identified that the opposing muscle groups that worked to help create the above movements were the hip flexors and external rotators, as well as knee extensors;
found a position for the body that required the hip to be flexed and externally rotated with the knee extended and held this position against gravity while remaining calm. In this case the position was a one legged standing balance with a leg raised straight out in front;
had the student enter into parsvottanasana slowly with the leg that was raised acting as the front leg. In almost all cases students found that they were able to go deeper and feel more at ease in the posture. The most common reason this did not happen was when students emphasised taking the leg high rather than on straightening the knee fully. Because the hamstrings cross two joints, hip and knee, you need to make sure the knee is completely straight. You need to encourage the leg coming up only so high as is possible with the knee straight and focus on straightening the knee.
The raised leg hip is in flexion and external rotation with the knee extended. This means the muscles that cause those actions are working and the muscles that oppose those actions are given a cue to relax. In this case, the muscle that contributes to hip extension, knee flexion, and hip internal rotation is given a cue to relax.
The video at the top of this post shows how I applied this technique for the case of hamstrings in parsvottanasana.
Answer To The Original Question
Now, I do realise I have not given the yoga teacher a specific answer to her question but I think I have contributed something far more valuable, which is a tool or generic framework that you can reason with so you come up with your own answer.
This technique is not something I came up with. I learned it from master teachers Simon Borg Olivier and Bianca Machliss from Yoga Synergy. They learned it from their advanced practice and studies. The 'checklist' is something I dotted out though and I am sure it could be improved. Any errors are, of course, my own.
Hopefully this has inspired some thoughts about how you could help improve feelings of ease in the calf muscles using active movements and I am happy to discuss any ideas with anyone. I have my own ideas of what I would do and maybe you have some to share as well! Ideally it might have inspired thoughts on how you can use active movements to precede other postures as well to generate ease and freedom of movement.
A Word Of Warning On This Approach
When I first started this way of practicing I tended to over-tense. This is an example of incorrect application of the practice as it made me feel tired and sore rather than fresh and energised. You need to make sure you create firmness without tension. Over-tensing and over-stretching are both undesirable. It's a delicate balance and one best learned under the guidance of an experienced teacher.
Happy and safe practicing!
More Reading
Borg-Olivier, S., & Machliss, B. (2011). Applied anatomy and physiology of yoga. Yoga Synergy: Sydney.
http://www.dailybandha.com/2011/02/heres-tip-to-help-you-get-heels-down-in.html
http://www.bandhayoga.com/keys_recip.html
http://www.dailybandha.com/2014/05/the-gastrocnemiussoleus-complex-in-yoga.html
http://www.bandhayoga.com/keys_fire.html
http://www.yinyoga.com/newsletter12_biggest_problems.php
Remember, you don't have to do the splits--try not to 'aim' for that. Try your best but don't be attached to an outcome. Most people will not be able to do the splits and what you might do is bring knee to chest as shown on the left.
If you are in a good split you can come out of the posture by rolling tummy to ground.
Then coming up into a split. 
