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The Bendy Blog: Flexibility Training Articles
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How To: Wall-Supported Scorpion Forearmstands
As a follow-up to last week’s forearmstands for beginners post, here are a couple of “bendier” versions of wall-supported forearmstands that are fun to play with: a half-scorpion and full scorpion.
Forearmstands for Beginners
Been eyeing those bendy yogis and circus folk on Instagram effortlessly balancing on their hands? Lucky for you forearmstands aren’t reserved for the realm of contortionists, anybody can get started with some beginner-friendly handbalancing with a wall-supported forearmstand!
“Big C” vs. “Little c” Backbend from Standing
A lot of people struggle with being able to backbend into a bridge from standing (sometimes called a “drop back”) - and rightly so, that shit’s hard. You need a lot of core and glute strength on top of general back and shoulder flexibility to be able to lower with control. The secret to a safer (and easier) backbend from standing is all about your center of gravity…
Advanced Shoulder Warm Up for Contortion
Contortion-style backbending asks a lot of your shoulders. To make sure I’m properly warmed up before I practice deep backbending postures, there are some extra drills I like to include beyond my “regular” shoulder warm up and conditioning exercises that cater to the more difficult work shoulders will asked to help with in contortion, like extreme shoulder rotations.
How to Modify a Toy Bow for Contortion Archery
So you just bought a cheap toy bow so you can finally give this whole contortion archery thing a try - but surprise, it’s way harder than you expected! The arrow keeps falling off, you can’t even grab it with your toes… Unfortunately most children’s toy designers are not engineering these things with the budding contortionist in mind. Luckily there are couple of super easy modifications you can make to make any toy bow more foot-archery-friendly!
Protecting Your Low Back When Backbending
Does your low back always feel sore after backbending? It's extremely common for people to "dump" a lot of the bend from a backbend into their low back. Your spine has a natural curve here in your lumbar spine, so this is typically where your back “wants” to bend first! But without proper core engagement you may be relying on your bones and joints in your spine to hold the bend instead of your muscles - ouch!
Best Bows for Contortion Archery
I can’t remember what inspired me to want to start shooting things with my feet - it may have been the fever of the Hunger Games recently being released. Lo and behold my disappointment when I started researching what type of bow to use, and no amount of feverish Googling could find any resources on the subject. I mean, this is the internet, I thought EVERYTHING was on here (especially foot stuff…). So here is my own experiential research and recommendations for you, dear reader!
Trouble Breathing in a Chest Stand? Elevate Yo’ Shoulders!
Having trouble breathing in a chest stand? Is your neck upper back flexibility holding you back? Most people need to spend a lot of time training upper back (thoracic) flexibility as well as neck flexibility to get a nice round curve in a chest stand (and to be able to safely hold that pose without dumping too much pressure into the neck). But in a pinch you can use props to help adjust and progress!