My Contortion Warm Up Routine (An Example)
My Contortion Warm Up Routine (An Example)
Since it’s October and that usually means the start of a heavier performing season (really from Halloween-ish themed things all the way to the Holidays and NYE), I thought I’d do some more posts this month about performing as a contortionist.
I had two (!) contortion gigs last week, both using my lollipop lyra, an aerial-ish apparatus that’s basically a big hoop (lyra) that sits on top of a stage pole that I do bendy tricks in. For one of them I filmed my warm up routine so I could share what a typical contortion warm up (for me) tends to look like.
Important note: just because this is a great warm up for me doesn’t mean it’ll be a great warm up for you! Your warm up should be personalized to your unique needs, based off of your current flexibility, what tricks you’ll be performing, and what you need to warm up to safely perform. Consider this more of an “inspiration” on what a warm up could look like, not a prescription for what you should do.
Watch the Super Sped-Up Recap Video:
My Warm Up Breakdown
Like I mentioned above, your warm up should be tailored to what you’ll be performing. For this warm up I was preparing for for ambient contortion on my lollipop lyra, meaning:
ambient = no pre-choreographed routine, so I can do whatever tricks I want and feel comfortable performing that day. Typically ambient contortion involves doing multiple 10-15 minute sets, with breaks in between, which means I can continue to warm up as I perform and in between sets if needed. This would be quite different from how I’d warm up for a choreographed routine where I’d need to get warmed up enough to do all my planned tricks in that routine all at once
lollipop lyra = aerial(ish) apparatus, which skews my warm up differently than when I’m “just” doing contortion (on a stage or on the floor). For example, normally I can keep my leg warm up brief because I just need to be able to do flat splits on the floor. But for anything aerial (like the lollipop), I need to warm up my oversplits so that my active splits in the air are nice and flat! On the other hand, I generally don’t need to warm up my “most insane bendy moves” like chest stands if I’ll be doing mostly aerials - it’s just not necessary for me to be able to maximize my neck extension
Lower Body (~12 min)
I have nerve tension in my femoral nerve and my sciatic nerve in both legs, so I always do nerve glides early on in my warm up before I do my deeper stretches. This warm up included:
Back lunges with straight leg kick (x10 each leg)
Knee/hip circles (x5 each direction, each leg)
Femoral nerve glide (x10 each leg)
Low lunge knee taps (x10 each leg)
Sciatic nerve glide (x10 each leg)
Sciatic nerve tensioner (x10 each leg)
Hips Elevated Back Lying Split: Front Leg Pulses (x10 each leg)
Hips Elevated Back Lying Split: Back Leg Pulses (x10 each leg)
Back Lying Split: Passive Hold (20-30 seconds, each leg)
Fire Hydrants (x10 each leg)
Frogger with Hip Rocks (20-30 seconds)
Half Frogger Oversplit with Hip Rocks (20-30 seconds, each leg)
Over Middle Split (20-30 seconds)
Front Leg Oversplits with Hip Lifts (x10 hip lifts, each leg)
Front Leg Oversplit Forward Fold (20-30 seconds)
Back Leg Oversplits with Knee Straightens (x10 leg straightens, each leg)
Back Leg Oversplit Hold (maybe with a backbend) (20-30 seconds)
Upper Body (~10 min)
Shoulder Flossing with Cat/Cow (x5)
Booty Out Backbend with Arm Pulses (10-20 seconds)
Banded Elbow-In External Shoulder Rotation (x8-12 each arm)
Banded Elbow-In Internal Shoulder Rotation (x8-12 each arm)
Banded Robot Arms (x8-12 each arm)
Back Extensions (x10-20)
Childs Pose Arm Lifts (x10 each arm)
Cat/Cow (x5-10)
Disco Cow (x5 circles each direction)
Seated Twists (x10)
Floaty Birds (x4, normally I aim for 10 but I was feeling lazy XD)
Bridge Swoops (x4-8)
Bridge Rocks (x5-10)
Chairsit Bridge Booty Drops (x5-10)
Low Cobra Roll Ups (x5)
High Cobra Roll Ups (x3)
Drop Back From Standing (x2-10)
Hopefully this gives you a good starting point for thinking about your own pre-performance warm up! And if you have any good “must have” drills you like to include in your own warm up (for example, I almost always do some kind of contract-relax in my splits, but didn’t in this routine), let me know in the commends!
