#forearm bridge

[aerial-contortionist]

Playing around trying to put some sequences together for a performance in two weeks! Exciting!

[jo-jenova]

18.08.20 - today on #missionbumhat - this felt bendier than it looked, but I’m still quite pleased with it, especially given my back’s been feeling really stiff lately. I think I overdid it slightly the other week 😭 I still need to get that pesky upper back to work harder, but I think it’s starting to get there... maybe.

[myjarofmarbles]

These webcam photos are terribad - sorry about that! 

I was testing out a new thing where I video-record my stretching sessions. Unfortunately, this wasn't much of a session - but based on the quality of the screencaps I got, I'm okay with that.

So, parts of backbending are going really well. I learned how to do a forearm bridge - and it's really exciting for me! Normally I end up struggling and failing at new skills a lot before I even vaguely understand how they're supposed to work. The only reason I asked how to do a forearm bridge last class was because it was the last backbending class of the session, and I was feeling cocky.

So I asked. Then my instructor explained it to me. Then I followed the steps - and I did it! I started laughing manically in class when it happened, because I was not at all prepared for it to work, and ended up crushing my head really heavy into my hand, and my body was like WHAT DID YOU JUST DO, and my mind was like 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'.

There it is! My baby forearm bridge. My head is still crushing my hands really hard - I couldn't figure out why, but looking at the pictures now, I can see it's because my elbows need to go further in/more vertical to make room for my head.

My regular bridge is coming along okay - I'm having trouble with two things on the bridge. One of them is my shoulders - they feel straight to me, but as you can see in this photo, my arms are totally at 45 degree angles. This is something that feels "stuck" for me - so I've got a physio appointment tomorrow to look at it.

I'm also feeling "stuck" with my quads/hamstrings, which are the other things that are really acting up for me. I was doing a bunch of hamstring work to build them up after having a rough time trying to learn splits this year - and it's feeling now that working on my hamstrings has made my quads really upset. So, again, physio tomorrow.

I'm proud of my melting heart pose. I'm having trouble advancing the pose by raising my hands up - I can do it, but it doesn't seem to be advancing my flexibility so much as it just seems to create tennis ball sized knots in my back that my massage therapist tsk's me over. Again, physio.

Anyways, sorry for the poor photo quality - I'm going to work out a better solution.

Does anyone have any suggestions for stretches or exercises I could do to get further into these positions?

[jernalasana]