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The Bendy Blog: Flexibility Training Articles
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Stretches for Overhead Shoulder Flexibility (Shoulder “Flexion”)
There are lots of reasons you may want to work on your arms-overhead shoulder flexibility. From a practical standpoint, we want healthy shoulders to allow us to reach things overhead without pain. And many hobbies require flexible (and strong!) shoulders for being able to perform skills with “proper” form, like handstands or bridges in yoga, Biellmann spins in figure skating, needle poses in cheerleading, Eagle or other backbend-y foot grabs in pole dancing - the list goes on!. So let’s take a look at what you need to know when it comes to safely and effectively training your overhead shoulder flexibility so you can get more open shoulders.
How to Touch Your Toes to Your Head in a Cobra Pose
Being able to touch your toes to the back of your head in a backbend (like in King Cobra pose or King Pigeon pose) is a fun flexibility goal to work towards because: a) it looks cool, and b) it encourages you to work on backbending flexibility through the full backbending chain. So you can’t (usually) get away with just having a bendy lower back, you need to work on the whoooooole length of your body to build up the flexibility (and strength!) to be able to pull those feet all the way to tickle your head.
How to Sit in Full Lotus Pose
Earlier this week I wrote about working on hip flexibility for sitting cross-legged more comfortably, so it seemed only fitting to continue this topic further to the next goal some folks sometimes to aspire to: being able to sit in a “full lotus” pose. Both poses are actually quite similar in the ranges of motion required in the hips, but lotus just requires more flexibility in these areas . .
How to Sit Cross-Legged More Comfortably
Being able to comfortably sit cross-legged on the floor (aka “criss cross applesauce” as I’m told the cool kids call it these days) can be a frustrating challenge for bodies with tight hips - especially as we get older. Gone are the days of our youth, happily sitting on the floor during story time. Instead, trying to sit on the floor for any extended period of time may now result in a butt cramp or a cranky low back . . .
On the plus side, being able to sit on the floor without a) looking like a hunched over gremlin and b) not incurring nagging pain is a very achievable goal!
10-Min Post-Run Stretching Routine
For all my runner or cyclist friends out there, here’s a great short stretching routine you can do right after your run/ride that hits the major lower body muscle groups worked: quads, hip flexors, hamstrings, calves, and glutes. You can “choose your own adventure” with this one, either sticking to the more “traditional” passive stretches for a feel-good stretch-out of the areas you just spent a whole workout contracting, or you can choose a more “active flexibility” approach and opt of the variations that include a strengthen-while-you-stretch component to mor effectively work on your flexibility of these areas.
Why Do My Elbows Splay Out in Forearm Stands?
So you’re setting up for your forearm stand: you’ve got your elbows shoulder width apart, forearms firmly pressing into the ground, shoulder shrug muscles engaged! Then you kick your feet up, and oh no - your elbows are slooowly starting to slide out to the sides, no matter how much you squeeze them in! What’s going on?
The “elbow splay” is a challenge many students face, even folks with relatively flexible shoulders. The two biggest reasons this happens are…
Bend Don’t Break: Neck Flexibility for Chin & Chest Stands
A common challenge students run into when wanting to start working on more advanced contortion backbends like chin and chest stands is a lack of neck flexibility and strength. These poses in particular are incredibly demanding on our neck, requiring not only a large amount of cervical extension (aka “arching/backbending through the neck”) to begin with, but also an incredible amount of strength in these muscles to keep the neck safe in these poses when you have a large portion of your bodyweight potentially smooshing down into your neck in a precariously arched position.
Help! I Can’t Sit Up Straight with Legs Extended
Do you feel like it’s impossible to sit up straight when sitting on the floor? This is a super common challenge folks with tight hips. But what if I told you the solution isn’t just stretching your hips more? Whether we’re talking about sitting in a “pike” position (butt on the floor, legs together straight in front of you), or sitting in a “straddle” (butt on the floor, legs spread out wide), the two major things this requires are…
How’s Your Bridge (Full Wheel Pose)? 7 Most Common Mistakes
Being able to hold a bridge is a challenging, but rewarding, flexibility goal because it requires flexibility and strength through the entire backbending chain, from our hips, to our back, to our shoulders and arms (and even hands!). But specifically because it is requires coordination, strength, and flexibility through the full body, it can be easy to push too hard in one area, or forget to engage another, or simply not have the prerequisite range of motion to comfortably support the pose. At best that might mean your bridge is a less effective stretch than it could be, or at worse it could hurt and lead to potential injury.
So in today’s post we’re going to look at the 8 most common mistakes I see students make in bridges, and how to address them. And these aren’t just “beginner” mistakes, I have worked with contortion-level bendy students in private lessons who make some of these!
What Is Sciatic Nerve Tension (and How Do I Fix It?)
This is a topic I wish I had learned about WAY earlier in my flexibility training journey, because it made such a huge difference in my leg flexibility (and I see the same thing happen with many students that I work with).
For the longest time, I just thought I had tight calves when it came to forward folds . . .
10 Min Back Flexibility Routine
By popular demand (at least according to Google…) here’s a quick, basic back flexibility routine you can use when you’re crunched for time, or as a base to build a longer training routine off of. Note: this routine focuses primarily on backbending (arching) flexibility, not literally stretching the back muscles (which would involve rounding, not arching, the back).
Working Towards “Cow Face Pose” Arms Rear Hand Clasp
Being able to reach both hands behind your back and touch or clasp your fingertips is a challenging goal lots of people like to work towards. This type of flexibility can be helpful for yogis who like to work on funky arm binds (it’s the same position used in Gomukhasana or Cow Face Pose, but the flexibility can translate to other arm binds as well), for aerialists and pole dancers who need funk shoulder rotation and behind-the-back reaches to grab their apparatus, and for regular Average Joe folks who want enough shoulder mobility to scratch an itch on their back. Personally, I find having a big range of motion in this pose helpful because it allows my to put sunscreen on my own back without needing anyone else’s help (maybe not a primary motivation for most people, but certainly a plus in my book!).