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The Bendy Blog: Flexibility Training Articles
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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 . .
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.
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!).
Lift That Leg! 7 Stretches for a Higher Y Scale Leg Hold
A “Y Scale” or a side leg hold is one of my favorite standing contortion shapes because it’s one of the first ones I ever learned to do. Most students tend to enjoy this shape because it looks cool (obviously!) and is typically easier to train than a “traditional” standing split or the even-more-complex needle scale.
Earlier this week I posted a quick how-to showing the basic mechanics of how to do a Y scale. Today we’ll be looking at how to make it look bendier (working on our flexibility to lift the leg higher, make it look split-ier, etc).
How to Do a Y Scale Leg Hold
A standing side leg hold, often called a “Y Scale” in the contortion world, is a fun (and impressive!) standing balance that showcases leg flexibility. Unlike a “regular” standing split, a Y Scale is an open split position that allows for both turn-out in the hips, and a tilt of the hips to maximize how high we can lift our leg.
Let’s look at two ways to do this pose: both the traditional standing variation, as well as an easier-to-balance variation lying on the floor.
How to Use Neck Engagement for a Deeper Cobra Pose
If you’re working for a backbendier cobra, especially if you’re working on your toes-to-head King Cobra, learning how to comfortably add more neck flexibility can be a big help. In this post, we’ll explore a couple of different options for “engaging” the neck to see how they affect the comfort (and depth) of your backbend.
The Importance of Rest Days in Flexibility Training
While we are often tempted to DO ALL THE THINGS when it comes to flexibility training, which may mean enthusiastically stretching every day without fail - this is actually one of the least effective ways to train. Rest days are a critical part of an effective training routine - let’s take a look at why, and how to plan them into your training. You may be pleasantly surprised to see MORE progress only “training” 3-4 days a week instead of every day.
Example Chest Stand Training Progression
A chest stand is arguably the most iconic contortion pose, requiring extreme levels of back flexibility (from the neck, upper and lower back), as well as incredible core control. It’s no wonder so many students dream to be able to one day do a chest stand! In this post we’ll take a peek into what a skill progression might look like on your journey to this magical trick.
Flat Split on the Floor but Not in the Air - What Gives?
Are you working on flatter, split-ier legs in your inversions? Being able to nail a flat split in a handstand, dangling from the top bar of a lyra, or virtually any instance where your body is upside down is a major active flexibility challenge! Let’s look at some drills that can help train our active flexibility for a flatter split in the air.
Easy Contortion Performance Makeup for People Who Are Crap at Makeup
I was never very “good” at makeup, so stage/performance makeup was a bit intimidating when I started out. Thankfully there’s a lot you can do quite easily with very minimal skill to get you circus-fabulous in less than 15 minutes (psssst the secret is RHINESTONES!)