Can hold a side plank but can’t take the toe? 🤔
A lot of people assume they need more flexibility, but flexibility is only one piece of the puzzle.
Taking the toe in side plank also requires:
✓ Side-body strength
✓ Active hip flexion
✓ Hamstring and inner-thigh mobility
✓ Balance and coordination
One of my favourite foundations for this pose is Triangle Pose. It helps build the shape, mobility and awareness needed before adding the challenge of supporting your body weight.
If you’re working toward this posture, start simple. The tree-pose variation is a fantastic stepping stone and helps develop the active hip flexion and external rotation needed before straightening the leg.
Remember: sometimes progress isn’t about stretching more. Sometimes it’s about improving strength, coordination and body awareness.
What pose would you like me to break down next? 👇
🎥 Full 30-minute Take The Toe flow available on YouTube. Learn to Take Your Toe in Side Plank | 30-Minute Yoga Flow
https://youtu.be/6KepSzmwEzc
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Movement rooted in clarity, anatomy, and lived experience. I help people build strength, flexibility, and skill by understanding how their body actually works.
I disappeared down a neuromechanics rabbit hole for this one, and it turns out your nervous system is far more interesting than most of us were taught.
Flexibility isn’t just about stretching your muscles. It’s also about how well your nervous system can create force and control in those positions.
Every second, your muscles, tendons, and joints are sending information to your spinal cord and brain. Your nervous system weighs up thousands of tiny “go” and “slow down” signals before deciding how much force to create.
That’s one of the reasons why someone can have the range for the splits but still feel weak, shaky, or stuck there.
Strength training helps your nervous system build confidence and control in long ranges.
Try adding these exercises to your practice:
• Loaded crescent lunge: 2–3 sets × 6–10 reps per side
• Stride stance good morning: 2–3 sets × 8–12 reps per side
Think of training as a conversation with your body.
Except instead of using words, you’re using force.
Want to get started? My at-home splits class is linked below, and the full splits program waitlist is in my bio.
We’re only just getting started. 🧠
11/06/2026
Sitting all day can leave your hips feeling stiff, tight, and uncomfortable.
One reason for this is that the hip flexors spend long periods in a shortened position and often aren’t challenged through their full range of motion.
That’s why this routine combines both mobility and strength work.
Here’s the sequence:
1️⃣ Half Kneeling Hip Flexor Rock
2–3 sets × 5–10 reps
2️⃣ Active Hip Flexor Stretch
2–3 sets × 5–10 reps
3️⃣ Hip Flexor Contract-Relax Stretch
3 sets × 3 reps
10-second hold
4️⃣ Couch Stretch
2 sets × 30–60 seconds
Strength training and mobility work can complement each other. Building strength and control through a greater range of motion may help your nervous system feel more comfortable accessing that range, which is one reason why active mobility drills can be so effective.
If you’d like to learn more about the anatomy, biomechanics, and neuromechanics behind flexibility training, check out my recent reels where I break these concepts down in more detail.
Save this routine for later and send it to someone who spends most of their day sitting.
You’ve probably heard people say that strength can build flexibility.
But have you ever wondered WHY?
A lot of people think flexibility is just about stretching muscles longer.
But movement is also influenced by mechanics, force production, leverage, and eventually… the nervous system.
That’s why I wanted to start this series.
Over the next few videos, I’m going to break down the basics of neuromechanics in a simple, practical way so you can better understand what’s actually happening inside the body during strength and flexibility training.
This first part focuses on:
• Kinematics — how the body and joints move through space
• Torque — how much rotational demand the muscles have to manage around a joint
In this drill, the moment the knee lifts and the body moves further from the hip joint, the mechanical demand at the hip increases.
Your hip flexors now have to produce more force while lengthened.
That’s one of the reasons strength work can begin improving flexibility.
And this is only the beginning of the story.
Next we’re diving into the motor system, neural control, and why the nervous system plays such a huge role in mobility.
Reference:
Enoka RM. Neuromechanics of Human Movement. 6th ed.
04/06/2026
Your hip flexors do a lot more than just “feel tight.” 👀
The main hip flexors — including the iliopsoas, re**us femoris and sartorius — help flex the hip, support pelvic position, and contribute to lumbopelvic stability when you walk, stand and move through yoga poses.
When they’re both strong and able to move through full range, they can help improve posture, support cleaner movement patterns, and share load more efficiently with the glutes and deep core. This may also help reduce unnecessary strain through the lower back over time — especially if you spend long hours sitting.
That’s why these drills focus on more than passive stretching alone. We’re building strength, control and mobility together. ✨
PhysioPedia. “Hip Flexors.” PhysioPedia, n.d. Accessed 4 June 2026.
30/05/2026
Muscle of the Week: Lower Trapezius
One thing I think we sometimes underestimate in yoga is the importance of supplementary strengthening drills.
Movements like Chaturanga can become surprisingly complex. Some people can practise them for years and still struggle with rounded shoulders, instability, or discomfort — often without fully understanding why.
The lower trapezius plays an important role in helping stabilise the shoulder blade by assisting with scapular depression (“pulling the shoulder blade down”) and upward rotation.
When this muscle doesn’t have enough strength or motor control, the body may compensate with muscles like the upper traps or pecs, which may contribute to rounded shoulders and reduced shoulder stability over time.
That’s where supplementary drills can be really helpful.
The Pronated Y Exercise is a simple bodyweight drill you can do at home to help build awareness and control around this movement pattern.
A small tip:Try pausing each repetition at the top for about 5 seconds to really challenge the stability component of the exercise.
Exercises like:• prone swimmers• wall slides• scapular control drillscan also be really helpful alongside your yoga practice.
No hyperextended elbows were harmed during the making of this carousel.
So why do some people keep practising Chaturanga for years… and still struggle with shoulder pain, rounded shoulders, or feeling unstable in the movement?
One of the biggest things I discovered when researching shoulder mechanics is that Chaturanga isn’t just a yoga pose.
It’s a loaded upper body strength skill.
And like any complex movement, the body will often compensate if certain muscles don’t yet have enough strength, motor control, or endurance to stabilise efficiently under load.
Research around scapular dyskinesis and shoulder mechanics shows altered activation patterns are commonly seen in muscles like the serratus anterior and lower trapezius — two muscles that play a huge role in stabilising the shoulder blade during movements like Chaturanga.
That’s why supplementary exercises can be so valuable.
Things like:
• Scapular push-ups
• Prone swimmers
• Serratus activation drills
• Lower trap strengthening
This isn’t about yoga being “bad.”
It’s about respecting how complex yoga actually is.
Sometimes the thing that unlocks the pose…
isn’t more of the pose.
It’s building the capacity underneath it.
I also have a full YouTube follow-along video with exercises to help build strength and stability for Chaturanga 🙏
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