- Hey guys, welcome back to Flexibility Friday.
If you're watching this video, I know you're somebody
who probably loves to dance,
someone who wants to work on their flexibility, of course,
and maybe somebody who's frustrated
because their flexibility is not improving
as quickly as they would like.
Maybe you're struggling with your leg hold,
your legs hold turn,
getting your splits, getting that center straddle.
Well, the good news is I have four great tips for you.
So, let's get into it.
(upbeat music)
The very first tip is alignment.
So alignment you guys,
has to do with your posture
and the way that the rest of your body
is being held while you stretch.
So I have an example for you.
When you're doing a hamstring fold over,
I'm gonna give you an example of what not to do.
This. (chuckles)
This right here is doing absolutely nothing
for your stretches.
Because if your chest is rounded,
your back is rounded and nothing is engaged.
But if you were to lengthen your spine out,
drop forward and send your hips
up to the sky
that just amplified the stretch times a million.
So here's what not to do,
and here is what you should be doing.
Let me show you on the floor in your center.
So oftentimes when I'm teaching
I have a dancer who's struggling with flexibility
and I tell them to stretch in their center
and this is what I get.
No thank you, okay?
What I want you to do from here again
is to lengthen your spine out.
And do you see how that sends my hips back?
I lengthen my spine
and I continue reaching out
in a long alignment.
Do not sink back into your stretches.
You need to lengthen forward
in order to exaggerate the stretch.
One more time.
Here's what not to do,
and here is what you want to do.
Tall lengthen alignment.
My next tip is consistency.
And I know that you hear that from teachers,
and especially me often,
consistency, consistency, consistency, but guess what?
There's two different meanings behind that word.
Consistency is just how often you're doing something.
You could be stretching, not enough.
Which means that maybe you're stretching once a week
or you stretch really intensely for two weeks
and then you don't stretch for like six months.
The other side of consistency
is that you're stretching too much
and you're overworking your muscles,
and so they're kind of just giving up on you.
So you need to find that kind of sweet spot in the middle
where you're stretching enough
but you're also taking rest and restorative days in between.
I would recommend stretching four to five times intensely
per week and taking those other days
to do restorative exercises and to rest.
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Moving onto the two different types of stretching,
static, and dynamic.
These are really different,
and one of them is a lot better
for your flexibility improvement.
So static stretching is when you stretch without movement,
you're just holding a position, okay?
Dynamic stretching
is a strategy used to improve mobility
through a range of motion.
So you're like, what are all of those words?
Let me show you an example.
A static stretch would be exactly what we did earlier.
Our hamstring fold over.
You're holding this.
You're at the peak of your range of motion
and you're holding, you're not moving, okay?
Static stretching is not as good for flexibility
as dynamic stretching is.
And I'll explain why in just a moment,
but here's an example of dynamic stretching.
You roll down into your hamstring fold over,
you walk out into your downward dog.
You pushed back,
you rock forward.
You walk back, hamstring fold over.
So I've now moved through a stretch
using a different range of motion to get that stretch going.
And the reason that dynamic stretching is better for dance
is because think about dance.
You are always moving through a range of motion.
Very rarely are you just holding something,
you're always in movement.
So dynamic stretching prepares your body better
for dance flexibility.
So when it comes to your flexibility training
you wanna work through a stretch routine
that moves, not just hold,
hold,
hold, right?
Work on the type of stretching
that will prepare you for the movement
you wanna do, which is dance.
All right, you guys have made it to our last tip.
So earlier I talked to you about those restorative exercises
and what I mean by that is TheraBand therapy,
lacrosse ball, tennis ball therapy, foam rollers
any sort of deep tissue massager, like Theragun,
it'll help break up that muscle tissue,
the fascia that's in there
and any sort of lactic acid that's built up, right?
That's what makes you sore after a workout.
So it's really good to implement those into your habits
so that your body is able to rest.
Another great thing is hydration.
Hydration allows your joints to stay moisturized
and it allows for your body to just stay limber.
So make sure you're hydrating and drinking enough water.
And the very last thing you guys
is to just believe in yourself.
This flexibility journey
is not something that comes natural and easy to everybody.
It's hard work,
there's gonna be a lot of ups and downs
but just be your biggest fan along the journey.
Listen to your body, remembers stretch, not strain.
You can do it.
Thank you much for watching today's Flexibility Friday.
I hope that those tips are helpful
and give you a little bit of inspiration.
Speaking of inspiration,
I love, love, love watching you guys talk to each other
in the comments below,
it's like this very sweet,
Miss Auti's family of inspiration, encouragement,
and support.
So leave a comment, let me know,
and all of Miss Auti's subscribers
where you're at in your flexibility journey.
are you just starting?
Are you so close to your splits?
I want to know.
I'll see you guys so very soon,
and thank you so much for watching again.
Happy stretching.
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