External video — Couch Stretch PAIL RAILS TUTORIAL by SJC Physiotherapy.
How to do it
- Setup
- Kneeling lunge: rear knee down, rear foot up against a wall or bench behind you. Front foot flat on the floor, well out in front. Torso tall, ribs stacked directly over your pelvis — not leaning back.
- Execution
- PAIL: squeeze the rear glute and drive that knee down into the pad, ramping the effort up over 5-10s, hold at peak, release over 5s. RAIL: immediately try to drag the same knee forward off the pad against your own resistance, hold 5-10s. That's one rep. Repeat for the prescribed reps, then switch sides.
- Common error
- Arching the lower back to lean the hips forward and fake extra range — the stretch has to come from the front of the rear hip, not from your spine. Keep the ribs stacked down over the pelvis the whole time.
- Feel
- A building stretch through the front of the rear hip/quad during the PAIL, real muscular effort during the RAIL. Dull ache is fine. A sharp pinch in the right hip means back off the depth now, don't push through it.
Rear knee down, rear foot up a wall/bench behind you, front foot flat ahead — PAIL: drive the rear knee into the pad; RAIL: draw the rear knee forward against your own resistance. Dull ache fine; sharp pinch in the right hip = back off the depth now.
Used in
- Week 1 · Mon — Legs · Reconnection
- Week 1 · Thu — Back · Reconnection
- Week 2 · Mon — Legs · Groove
- Week 2 · Thu — Back · Groove
- Week 3 · Mon — Legs · Load
- Week 3 · Thu — Back · Load
- Week 4 · Mon — Legs · Deload
- Week 4 · Thu — Back · Deload
- Week 5 · Mon — Legs · Rebuild+
- Week 5 · Thu — Back · Rebuild+
- Week 6 · Mon — Legs · Push
- Week 6 · Thu — Back · Push
- Week 7 · Mon — Legs · Peak
- Week 7 · Thu — Back · Peak
- Week 8 · Mon — Legs · Deload / Test
- Week 8 · Thu — Back · Deload / Test