Hello...
When stretching before my dance class,it takes me a while to stretch out my hamstrings because they always seem to be tight. Can anyone recommend any stretches for loosening out your hamstrings, or, any other muscles?
Thanks x

This probably won't be helpful at all, but this might give you some hope. Last year my hamstrings were pretty tight, even after my dance class. (I'm a beginner, so the class isn't particularly intense.) I had taken a break from ballet for my last semester of college and eventually started exercising (i.e kickboxing, etc.) mid-summer. I was surprised to find that my hamstrings weren't tight anymore before and after I did my workouts. I'm not exactly sure what this means... maybe the muscles just have to be REALLY warm in order not to be tight. Maybe someone else will have some better insight on tight hamstrings.

Good luck!

Thanks for your help...

Breathing is essential to stretching. You can learn this in Yoga class. It's essential in ballet, but is not really taught so much in the ballet class.

With proper breathing, your muscles can relax fully. And only once they're relaxed can they start to stretch.

Please remember that before doing any stretching you should warm your muscles up first do some gentle jogging or bouncing, marching, knee lifts just to get the blood flowing round the body and therefore make it warm before attempting to stretch out.