Contortion & Flexibility
Flexibility and contortion go hand in hand, but contortion typically is done with an extreme level of flexibility. By itself, flexibility can be required to access and reduce the chance of injury in certain positions for example full splits, hollowback handstands, and meathooks. Flexibility can also be necessary to improve the aesthetics and fluidity of various skills. When flexibility is trained patiently and progressively, even people who could never touch their toes have potential to do full splits and touch their toes to their heads. Taking flexibility training far enough and adding key elements of geometry and style, beautiful and sometimes shocking contortion shapes can be achieved.
Contortion & Flexibility Skills
Videos
Scorpion Handstand // Some tips and exercises to learn the Scorpion Handstand
Hip Opening Sequence for Backbend Practice
Shoulder Prehab Sequence with Resistance Bands - 10 min
10 Minute Joint Rotations
Puppy Press
Core Flow - 10 min
Hip Strength and Flexibility
Hip Opening Sequence - 25 min
Full Body Mobility - 50 minutes
Shoulder Strength and Flexibility
Hamstring Stabilization
Prehab for Low Back Stability
Prehab for Ankle Stabilization
Prehab for Hip Stabilization
Hands for Handstands
Shoulders For Handstands
Full Body Flexibility Practice - 90 min
Restorative Movement - 50 minutes
Level One Splits Sequence
30 min Full Body Warmup
Level 2 Splits Sequence
Modifications for Mom - 30 min full body warmup/ workout
Restorative Movement - 50 minutes
Videos
Scorpion Handstand // Some tips and exercises to learn the Scorpion Handstand
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Hip Opening Sequence for Backbend Practice
This video contains an active flexibility sequence for opening the hips in preparation for a backbend practice. You’ll learn some of my favorite stretches and techniques for improving your backbends through the hips. Please have two yoga blocks, a strap, a cushion, and some wall space.
Shoulder Prehab Sequence with Resistance Bands - 10 min
This sequence is a fantastic way to prepare your shoulders for a rigorous handstand or acro practice. In these exercises we use resistance bands to target specific groups and ranges of motion that are under utilized by many handstand, acro, yoga and other push heavy athletes, additionally important stabilizer muscles are activated to improve stability in the shoulder and your handstand.
10 Minute Joint Rotations
In this video Sean leads you through a joint rotation series that works from head to toe and hits all the major joints of the body.
Puppy Press
In this video Sean introduces the basic approaches of puppy press to handstand. The puppy press is often the first handstand press people are able to find success with, particularly if they strong active flexibility in the legs and shoulders.
Core Flow - 10 min
In this express core sequence Sean leads you through a practice that will light up your core from every angle.
Hip Strength and Flexibility
For us at the WB studio, strength and flexibility go hand in hand. It's really challenging to access one without support from the other. In this 20 minute follow along video, Michal will guide your through some hip stabilizing drills, and stretches to support your personal movement practice. You don't need any equipment, but you may want a set of blocks. This is just a dip into the water of hips flexibility. Please feel free to see our live virtual schedule to join us for a more in depth flexibility practice - visit warriorbridge.com for more.
Hip Opening Sequence - 25 min
In this class Sean leads you through a hip opening practice that moves the hips in all directions. We start with a strong active warm up and work our way into longer deeper holds.
Full Body Mobility - 50 minutes
In this video instructor, Sean Langhaus, leads you through a full body mobility routine that draws on acrobatic conditioning, physical therapy, yoga and other movement lineages.The practice moves through a full body joint rotation routine, activation exercises, stance work and lunges before moving into longer holds in static stretches.
Shoulder Strength and Flexibility
In this 20 min video, Michal will discuss the different directions we can move our shoulders, the common issues we encounter when moving into shoulder flexibility, and ways we can strengthen our shoulder girdle so that we can move into end ranges of motion with more ease, stability, and confidence.
Hamstring Stabilization
The hamstring group of muscles can often be challenged by movement practices that involve both deep hip extension or flexion. These exercises emphasize encouraging hamstrings stability in deeper ranges of motion of both forward folds and backbends.
Prehab for Low Back Stability
In this video Emily gives a breakdown of the importance of lower back stability for different areas of your movement practice. We also explore a few options for prehab conditioning to help your lower back feel great when you practice!
Prehab for Ankle Stabilization
The ankle is versatile joint that carries almost the entire weight of the body. Depending on your movement practice your ankles may need to be able to withstand impact and force in a variety of directions. This video explores a set of prehab exercise to strengthen the ankles in all of its main directions of movement.
Prehab for Hip Stabilization
In this video Emily shares a few targeted exercises for preparing your hips to be able to strong through their full range of motion. These include targeted strengthening for the rotator muscles that stabilize the ball and socket joint of the hip. These are great exercises to prepare you for a practice that involves deeper leg flexibility like splits, acrobatics or handstands.
Hands for Handstands
When in a handstand don't overlook your hands. Your hands are the first point of connection, the first point responsible to help you balance. If your foundation is off, even the slightest bit, maintaining balance gets infinitely harder. Use this video to create good habits if you're new to handstands or to fine tune your line, if you have been practicing for a while. Balancing a handstand is a fluid process of making continual subtle adjustments with your open, active, intelligent, alighned hands. Exercise Breakdown 0:20 Wide Base of Support 0:48 Open the Palm 1:34 Weight in the Fingers 2:11 Wrist and Elbow Alignment 2:19 Hyperextension 3:14 Bent Arms 3:58 Downward Dog Walks 4:41 Arch of the Hand
Shoulders For Handstands
Handstands uniquely require shoulder strength as well as core integration with the arms in an overhead position. In this video we use elbow stand exercises to isolate the actions at the shoulder joint, break bad habits of compensating in the lower arm for shoulder weakness, and build handstand specific strength and stability in the whole chain. These techniques are great for beginners gaining confidence being upside-down or experienced hand balancers looking for new a challenge. Exercise Breakdown 0:09 Should Blade Slides 0:53 Dolphin 1:28 Single Leg Lifts 2:21 Walk Up the Wall 3:25 Single Leg Tuck Press 4:53 Elbow Stand Balancing
Full Body Flexibility Practice - 90 min
In this video Sean leads you through a full body flexibility routine that draws on acrobatic flexibility training, yoga, physical therapy and other movement lineages. The practice moves through a full body joint mobility series, active flexibility techniques, stance work and lunges before moving into longer holds in deeper positions like splits, pancakes and middle split.
Restorative Movement - 50 minutes
In this practice Emily Lesinski leads us through a fifty minute full body flow that builds heat through core work and active flexibility conditioning before releasing into long held stretches and guided relaxation.
Level One Splits Sequence
Splits Sequence is an introductory video that provides a flow of stretches, alignment cues and technical information for front and centre splits. Transitions are made with resistance and control, varying the load through contraction and release, in order to develop more active ability in what are commonly passively held positions. While props are encouraged to ease accessibility and maintain stability, no other equipment is needed. The range of motion and hold time is managed by participant. A mind-body connection is encouraged throughout to aware oneself of the adaptive changes and signals given for both protection and progression. Prerequisites: The flow sequence may be modified to match range of motion, although it is advisable that participants be able to hold a plank position and kneel on the ground. The positions used to work in and out of our splits largely make use of either hands and or knees on floor. Props: Yoga blocks, chairs and padding underneath the knee may all be required for safety and progression. Video Intro: 0:05 Warm Up: 4:35 Front Split Sequence: 7:43 Middle Split Sequence A: 44:26 Middle Split Sequence B: 48:20
30 min Full Body Warmup
30 min full body warmup to prepare you for all types of training or use as a stand alone workout. This warmup makes my body feel prepared and ready for whatever activities I continue to do throughout the day. I begin by introducing my cat Lithium who is the real star of this video. Then we start with the feet and work our way up the body with joint mobility that continues onto wrists, forearms and shoulders. This leads us into legs, working into the hamstring and mobility. I sneak in a few pushups and continue into preparing the body for splits or pigeon. We finish off with a bit of abs.
Level 2 Splits Sequence
0:00 Intro 2:44 Warm Up Standing Sequences 15:35 Variation 1: Triangle & Half Moon 20:30 Variation 2: Pyramid and Standing Split 32:50 Lunge to Floor Splits 53:43 Centre Split A: Variation 1 55:13 Centre Split A: Variation 2 Centre Split B: Straddle Sequences 56:45 Variation 1: Reclined Straddle 58:59 Variation 2: Seated Straddle 1:01:59 Variation 3: Straddle Leg Lifts 1:04:00 Variation 4: Compass Pose 1:09:00 Arabesque & Attitude: Pigeon & Kneeling 1:11:36 Tilt Kick Prep: Kneeling Kicks & Balances 1:14:38 Variation 1 Parallel 1:16:48 Variation 2 Turnout 1:19:09 Variation 3 A la Seconde (Second Position)/To the Side 1:20:47 Variation 4 Dancer's Pose 1:22:35 Variation 5 Penche 1:24:38 Cool Down
Modifications for Mom - 30 min full body warmup/ workout
My mom asked me to make a workout program for her based on things she had seen in my flex class and my 30 min full body warmup. This is the program I made for her. This program is also good for beginners and anyone who wants more cueing and go at a slightly slower pace. For some, this will be a workout and for others, it will be a warmup. Now keep in mind my mom is a very fit and active 66 year old that lives in Utah, is an avid hiker, and still teaches skiing a few days a week. In this video: We start with joint warming from the feet up and then back to the feet and wrists. From there we take it to tabletop spinal waves, hip bridge, figure 4 stretch, and abs. Hips, planks, pushups down dog are next and we end in child pose. Do what you can, modify what you need or skip what doesn't work for you.
Restorative Movement - 50 minutes
50 minutes of feel good movement for heathy joints and stable muscles.
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