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Backbending
Nov. 6th, 2014 11:08 pmContortion class for backbending wasn't what I expected either. Where splits day was all long, passive, timed stretches and very little active flexibility, backbend day was all repetitions and strength and almost entirely active flexibility.
The teacher said "Good!" to me in a somewhat surprised tone of voice more than once, 'cause I'm strong. :P
And I can rear myself up like a snake, using the same erector spinae that are my downfall in hollow-body handstands: yes, go for it, this is your time, you can fire and fire -- in fact, I'll tire you out. After quite a few variations of prone arching-upward, we played with classic backbends (trying to push my chest to the wall, successfully) and some static stuff. It was surprisingly unstructured and relaxed, with students who'd been in the class before basically doing their own thing.
I can almost, but not quite, get into a cheststand if I lower down from a yoga chin-and-hands stand for which I don't know the name. I get close, but right when I touch the ground I roll helplessly out.
All of this involved a lot of head craning back, and this morning the very first thing I did was lift my head in some way that angered a neck muscle. It's nothing worse than I've done before, though. Contortion will just take some getting used to.
The teacher said "Good!" to me in a somewhat surprised tone of voice more than once, 'cause I'm strong. :P
And I can rear myself up like a snake, using the same erector spinae that are my downfall in hollow-body handstands: yes, go for it, this is your time, you can fire and fire -- in fact, I'll tire you out. After quite a few variations of prone arching-upward, we played with classic backbends (trying to push my chest to the wall, successfully) and some static stuff. It was surprisingly unstructured and relaxed, with students who'd been in the class before basically doing their own thing.
I can almost, but not quite, get into a cheststand if I lower down from a yoga chin-and-hands stand for which I don't know the name. I get close, but right when I touch the ground I roll helplessly out.
All of this involved a lot of head craning back, and this morning the very first thing I did was lift my head in some way that angered a neck muscle. It's nothing worse than I've done before, though. Contortion will just take some getting used to.
