Posts tagged backbending
Woo I’m out of shape.
Mar 18th
Well my mom bought this Reebok elliptical..man. I’m so out of shape aerobically! It sucks..I’m gonna have to work out on it more often. Anyway after I did that I stretched my back out a bit and produced this pic:
I’m not really sure what this is called…back catch? Needlescale? I get the two confused and I’m sure other people do too. Well time to take a shower and go to bed. It’s almost Friday! YESSS.
Holy crap!
Feb 23rd
I feel like I’ve improved a lot within the past week or so! One of the few exciting things in my life haha. My room smells like that stuff you lick on envelopes..yum.
Anyway…new videoooo! And some pics. I just realized I forgot to do the cobra pose in the vid because I CAN TOUCH MY FEET TO MY HEAD NOW IN IT! Haha. Oh and I GOT MY RIGHT SPLIT DOWN TODAY! I can feel that my left hip flexor is really tight from never really being good at right splits. I can still get down further but at least I felt the ground! Success 
Vid & Pics:
Tengo hambre!
Feb 2nd
Well I stretched my back today. It feels fine! I just took it slow and only stretched for about an hour. My bridge is closer and my backbend in a pigeon is better than my vid from a few days ago! Amazing. I’m gonna try to stick with this off/on routine.
Haha, for my bio 2 class we have to do this body temp experiment at home and we can’t exercise during the day we do it :/ I might do it on thursday/friday because I have a short school day friday.
Oh, I was chatting with someone from CU today and they said that the Mystic Pixies started training at the Circus Center in SF!!! That’s where I wanted to take a contortion class!!! Awesome. Three of the mystic pixies are now in the Cirque show Kooza; those amazing contortionists. I dunno I just thought that was kind of cool 
Back to studying O Chem D:
Another vid and photo before bed!
Jan 31st
I wasn’t totally satisfied with my other video today..I feel like I haven’t improved much. Hopefully with this new stretching routine I’m doing things will change. Here’s a quick vid to redeem myself:
And here’s a still:
New Backbending Vid!
Jan 30th
Here is my new backbending video showing some of the new stretches I’m doing. Enjoy!
Glass Half Full.
Jan 27th
So I was on Contortionists Unite and found a thread about back stretches. My online friend Nicole asked:
Does anyone know of any good back stretches to help my backbends/lower back flexibility???
I already know of the basic ones that I’m sure most people know of by now, but if anyone could give me any tips or anything, that would be sooo helpful!
And a woman named Jenji replied:
So by the sounds of it you need to break down your backbend. The backbend come from three main places. Shoulder..lots of kitty cat stretches and grabbing the foot behind the head. In pigeon or split. Use a strap and lengthen the side of the body reach with the arms pushing the chest forward. And the key is overhead bow. Which may take a bit. This will work the shoulders.
The next place is the mid back …the chest and belly button region. Cobra is good , but you need to find a pose or stretch the softens the tummy allowing you to sink into the stretch. So I suggest a forearm balance pulling the chest forward pushing against a wall is best. This is all upper back , shoulders, the key to beautiful backbend.
The Final part is the hips….. the hip flexors the front of the hip. Splits, splits , splits, add the backbend add the the grab of the foot….. try a camel bridge. A backbend with the knees on the floor. Gotta lengthen the hips. So three places stretch with a focus on each place and then come back to bridges, and chest stands and lengthen through the shoulders and hips softening the tummy.
Wow! I think I am around the same place as Nicole. We both need to ‘break down’ our backbend; i.e. I guess start to get our heads toward our butts. Pinch it down. I dunno how to explain it. But these seem like really great exercises! And lower back doesn’t look to be involved…in other words..I AM EXCITED!!! SO EXCITED. Maybe I can backbend after all! I don’t think I’ll stretch my back out today because it’s kind of bothering me; so next time will be tomorrow. Goodie! Today I’ll work on splits after school.
