Have your client slide so that their hips are at the edge of the table. It is important to have the bottom knee toward the chest as this flattens the lordotic curve in the low back. Press the side of your hips into your client’s sacrum for stability, then gently bring your client’s top knee back, bringing their hip into hyperextension. Go slowly and ask for feedback. Be sure not to flex the knee or you will stretch the quadriceps.
Draping can be a challenge when working with clients in a side-lying position, especially for the legs. A video about draping is shown here.
Facilitated Stretch: At a position of stretch have your client try to bring their knee forward against your resistance with just 10% of their strength for 10 seconds. At the end of ten seconds have your client take a deep breath, and on the exhale they bring their knee back further. You may assist the stretch, but only after they initiate the stretch. It is important that they engage their hip extensors first, so that the psoas and iliacus will be inhibited.
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