Exercises that help with flexibility?

[Kashmir]

here's a website you're gonna want to check out: her name's EvaMarie Pilipuf and she is the Flexibility coach highly recommend once on her site, ... snip ... if anyone has any questions or confused about the site PM me.

Again - without actually testing you she (or anyone else) is running blind. If your issues are the same as the ones she tackles and if you do the exercises correctly (I'm assuming she does know what she is doing) - then yes, you may get a benefit. This won't be everyone though.

And no, a general stretch regime won't benefit people just by doing it. Personal example. First, with less than 10 degrees of turn out in the hip due to bone configuration - there are many "standard" stretches I cannot do. With a live and knowledgeable instructor alternatives can be found. This cannot be done via DVD or the 'net.

Second, time. If I do my "basic" stretches it takes 30-45 minutes. This includes only limited lower body work and no upper body work. So unless there are (say) 6 hours of instructor available at each level there is going to be much missing.

[Maysoon]

[QUOTE=Kashmir;190403]Again - without actually testing you she (or anyone else) is running blind. If your issues are the same as the ones she tackles and if you do the exercises correctly (I'm assuming she does know what she is doing) - then yes, you may get a benefit. This won't be everyone though.

Yep, lol but it won't hurt to try!

[Amulya]

Thanks for all the feedback! I have to take my time to read that carefully again
I just got a new yoga for belly dance DVD, I have quickly looked at it and recognized a lot of exersizes my old teachers used to use Will be very useful, not only for students but also for myself! I might not look like I am stiff in the upper back when I dance because I can do all the upper body movements of belly dance, but I feel it badly, plus I have a lot of pain due to fibromyalgia. I hope to ease that a bit with gentle yoga
For the student, I think part of it too is not being used to belly dance movements, students always tell me how they feel muscles they didn't even know they existed

[Kashmir]

Yep, lol but it won't hurt to try!

Actually in some cases it could hurt - and do damage. Trying to force my body into positions I could not achieve when much younger did do damage - the side effects of which I still have to cope with today - decades later (although no pain at the time).

Even without such an extreme example, there is only so many hours in the day. Why spend an hour with something that might help when you can spend an hour doing something which will help?

[Shanazel]

Got to agree with Kashmir- it can hurt and hurt a lot. I am naturally very limber, even at 56, but the x-rays of my hips after ten years of ballet turnout in my late teens and early twenties are not pretty. Can you say "arthritis," children?

[Amulya]

Ouch that doesn't sound good Shan! Do you feel it, or is it just only visible in x-rays?
I had a bad injury from Bharath Natyam, the basic leg pose is so bad, the same: turned out. I had problems with my right hip for years, it only recently healed up. I believe people should be very careful with things that are unnatural to the body. Unfortunately ballet seems to cause a lot of harm.

[Shanazel]

It got so bad a few years ago that I seriously thought I was going to have to give up teaching dance. A sixty pound weight loss and prescription for Cymbalta gave me back my life- seriously.

[Amulya]

Good to hear, and amazing to have lost so much weigth, that's not easy, but very worth it

[Shanazel]

Thank you. I have another twenty or twenty five pounds to go, but I'm pretty pleased with the results so far.

Back to topic: I've been thinking that the original question involved a "stiff jointed" student. Is the problem with muscles or actually with her joints? Makes a big difference.

[Elfie]

Very true, Shana. Arthritis could be a factor, muscle tension... or tendonitis. Tendonitis is painful! I'm no wuss, but I have tendonitis in my ankles and sometimes the swelling and pain are nearly unbearable. My husband has it in his shoulder, and it has nearly put him out of the construction business! He has cortisone shots in the joint every so often, and is on medication for pain management. All so he can work. Building is his passion, and he refuses to give it up. But I admit, waking up with him crying and shouting for me to pull his arm off so it'll stop hurting on more nights than I can count... I dunno if it's worth it.

Amulya, I'd suggest talking with your doctor about this issue. You may have some underlying problem that any advice I could give you may aggravate.

However, if you feel it's just stiffness of muscles, any stretches cheer leaders do can help. Cheer leaders and gymnasts have to be extremely flexible.