SERIOUSLY?
Eden Body started this discussion ·
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1OcmeFb1bs It' a good day when I don't have to warm up for 2 hrs just to get my forehead to my knees😕
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Eden Body started this discussion ·
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1OcmeFb1bs It' a good day when I don't have to warm up for 2 hrs just to get my forehead to my knees😕
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http://youtu.be/CSepw1nY8mY I thought I was flexible....
phedre ·
I'm fairly certain rhythmic gymnasts aren't human. They're pieces of robot rubber that are wired to do things that make humans go lol wut. Emotion catcher is simply amazing.
Emotioncatcher is seriously inspirational and the sweetest person I've talked to in a long time.
Emotioncatcher is seriously inspirational and the sweetest person I've talked to in a long time.
I feel it is really important to say that the gymnast who is featured in the first post here retired extremely young because of crippling back pain due to improper training that left her permanently injured. Please remember that it's nice to admire these professional athletes, but most of us started poling because we wanted to be healthy and strong, and professional athletes often push their training past the point of HEALTHY to the point of doing PERMANENT DAMAGE solely for the sake of getting the result of WINNING a competition. Not to scare anyone off backbending, but just remember that some of these gymnasts who start as kids, someone took them when they were five and in the span of a few weeks or months of lessons crunched their butt to their head at the cost of injury when that level of back flexibility might take years for a person to develop without injury. Just something to keep in mind!
Good to know pdr... I'd also like to point out though that the back bending in emotions vid is completely diff. than those that most of us are able to do...I don't think my back will ever be able to do a 90 bend like that! Not at that part anyway.....lower it gets almost 90 when I'm really flexible.... Bum on Head emotioncatcher! OMG! Michelle Shimmy just said she wanted to do this by summer! Holy cow!
Kobajo84 ·
Also keep in mind that some people are genetically more prone to flexibility than others. Every body is different- literally.
David Owen explained to me recently that there are kind of two schools of thought on back bending. The "gentler" way is to get the even extension all through the spine like you see in emotioncatcher's video, the other is more the Russian gymnast approach where they get the 90 degree curve where the lower back is somewhat mobile. I think it's relatively easy to see why just going for hyper mobility in one spot in the back like that has a much larger capacity for injury than a back stretching routine that tries to gradually and evenly open the whole spine.
IMO it definitely looks nicer when the flexibility of the back is balanced between lower, middle and upper part instead of an extreme bend in the lower part. Also since we're talking about supreme flexibility, contortion trainer Stephanie Abrams (kinetic theory, LA) pointed out that good contortionists work their back AS LITTLE as possible. I'm taking that as stretching hips, shoulders etc as much as one can to achieve those wanted back bend positions. Sad though that I hate stretching the shoulders but like stretching my back!
