So, you wanna learn contortion?  It takes mental and physical strength, along with perseverance and above all the belief that you can do this!  Here on these pages are some stretches that I do.

Some Rules to Follow

You shouls always warm up before you stretch.  This wakes up the muscles and lets them know that you want to move and stretch them.  I usually warm up by running for 5-10 minutes and doing various calisthenics like crunches, jumping jacks, push ups, etc.

After I have broken a sweat or feel warm, I start with simple stretching.  I usually do my shoulders first for some reason.

Shoulders

Stand up with feet hip width apart.  Bring one arm across your body and use your inner elbow of the other arm to pull it towards you.  This stretches muscles in your rotator cuff and upper arm muscles.  Do this to both arms.

Bring one arm above your head.  Bend it down your back and grab it at the elbow with your other hand.  Pull towards the opposite shoulder.  This stretches your triceps and other muscles.  Repeat with the other arm. 

Clasp your hands together behind your back.  Straighten your arms and pull them up.  I usually lean over to get more of a stretch out of it.  Some people can bring their arms all the way forward over their head doing this; gross! :D

And that’s usually what I do to warm up my shoulders.

Back Warm-Up

*An important note about backs:  whenever you do a backbend you should ALWAYS follow it with a frontbend so that your back is put in it’s normal position again.  Frontbends can be a pike stretch or standing up, leaning over and trying to get your head further back between your legs.  I like to rock out my back after backbends as well.  To do this sit on your butt, bend your legs toward your chest, grab your shins and just roll back.  I rock about 10 times or so, depending on how tight my back feels.

Stand with your legs more than hip width apart.  Bend over and put one hand on the ground and the other arm up in the air, making a straight line with your arms.  Now alternate the arm positions while keeping that straight line with your arms.  In gymnastics we used to call these windmills.  This twists your back and warms it up.  I do about 10 of these.

For a basic back stretch, lay on your stomach.  Push your chest up with your arms and lean back.  Make sure you’re bending at your upper back and not at your lower back (=problems!).  I call this the seal stretch.  You probably won’t get to your full flexible potential on the first try, so stretch for 15-20 seconds and then come down on your stomach.  You can do frontbends or rock your back out as necessary.  I usually repeat this about 5 times.

Leg Warm-Up

I usually do some squats to get my inner thigh muscles warmed up; about 20 or so.  After that I usually just rest my leg on something as high as my hips and lean forward slowly to wake the muscles up.

I then start on high kicks.  Hold on to something and basically kick your legs in every direction: side, front, and back.  I do 10 kicks in every direction on each leg, and I usually cycle through this twice.  On the last set I hold the last kick on each side and leg for about 10 seconds; this increases your leg strength.  You want to eventually be able to hold your leg really close to your head with no assistance except by your own muscles :O  I’m not there yet.

With the high kicks to the back you can warm up your back by arching into the kick.  You can also bend your back leg when you kick it back.  Try to kick it over your head, and not to your head!

I then sit on the floor with legs together and lean towards my toes; i.e. a pike stretch.  You should stretch this with pointed and flexed feet as it stretches different muscles.  Try to eventually get a flattened back and reach further than your toes.

To stretch your quads (upper front thigh), stand up, bend your leg and grab your ankle or foot and bend your leg more.  You can also do this stretch lying down.  Sit down as if going into a pike stretch.  Bend on leg and tuck it underneath you and keep the other leg extended.  Lay down on your back.  Repeat on the other leg.  Go slowly so you don’t hurt yourself!

To stretch your calves, put one leg infront of you and bend it.  Brace your arms against something and keep your back leg straight.  Lean into the stretch and feel your back calf stretching.  Repeat on the other leg.

After these stretches, sit down in a straddle position.  It doesn’t have to be a big straddle, just more than 90 degrees.  Simply reach over to one leg and stretch the back of your leg.  Repeat with the other leg.  I do this about 5 times.  You can also go down in the middle of your straddle, which I call a pancake.  Try to hold each stretch for a while; maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute.  This will get your legs used to being in that position.

You can also do this simple straddle stretch while reading, watching tv, doing homework, or even while you’re on the computer, typing away.

A butterfly stretch opens up your hip flexors and helps you have a better middle split.  Sit on the ground and put your legs in sort of a diamond shape with your feet touching each other.  Put your feet close to your body.  Try to make your knees touch the ground using your leg muscles.  You can also push your knees down with your hands but be careful to go slow!

Well I think that’s it for warm ups.  This is what I do everytime before I stretch!  Any advice or comments are welcome.