Quad PNF stretches done by the patient
Lying on your stomach with a firm pillow under your hips and a rolled-up towel placed under your thigh [it doesn’t matter which thigh you do first as you will do both legs unless otherwise directed]…Gently reach down and take hold of the instep of the foot on the same side as the supported thigh. You might find it more comfortable to turn your head to one side during this movement. Once you have hold of your foot, attempt to have the other hand also hold onto your foot then draw the heel toward your buttock until it reaches the resistance point.
DO NOT force the stretch .
Hold the stretch for 30 seconds. Having done so take a deep breath, hold your breath and by utilising only 25% of your strength and focusing exclusively on the muscles on the front of the thigh attempt to move the foot away from the buttock but partially resist that movement by still holding onto the foot. What you will feel is a mild tightening in the front of the thigh, which is what you want to occur. As you hold your breath for 8 seconds, allow the foot to be gradually drawn away from the buttock during the 8 seconds. As you exhale after 8 seconds draw the foot back toward the buttock. Breathe in and repeat 2 more times. At the end of the 3rd repetition hold the stretch with the heel as close to the buttock as it will allow without ever getting to seven out of ten or higher on the pain scale.
Repeat on the other leg.
In the very early stages of recovery, it is often wise to only do this combination of exercise and stretching every SECOND day. The stretch which is a variation on stretch 4 in Back For Life of course can be done every day and multiple times per day but this combination needs to be done with caution.
After a period of at least a week after which there has been no adverse reaction you can marginally increase the intensity of the exertion but never to more than 50% of your strength and never by involving other muscles of the body. It is imperative that the targeted muscles are the only muscles directly involved.
If any sudden pain is experienced it is probably because you tried to exert too much pressure or you tried to stretch too far too quickly. It is better to proceed slowly and gently. If this sort of pain has occurred, follow the ICE procedure as soon as is practical.