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alethea austin pure splits- felix leg stretch
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The picture was an example of a hyperextension, how much Alethea Austin hyperextends I don’t know.
I take ballet lessons since 2-3 years back and am quite used to keeping straight legs and toes pointed at the same time, but I can’t do it either, in a pike or whatever.
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yes Lina, I think she is doing the same motion but not quite as exaggerated as the picture above. You are pretty darn flexy Lina and not being able to do this exercise hasn’t held you back. so that’s good news. Ive been told in class recently to straighten my legs more in certain tricks and my legs are really as straight as I can get them. that’s one reason why I was wondering about this particular stretch.
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Robin, it usually takes years (unless you’re already a dancer or gymnast) to get everything to cooperate for good looking lines, so it will probably work out fine for you with time! Don’t worry about that particular exercise, because like you said, not being able to do it is not a show stopper. I’m often being complemented exactly for my lines as a matter of fact. You can find other ways to practise this (I still like the idea behind it). Then on the pole you’ll just need to get into the routine of always engaging the quads hard when straightening the legs. I guess it fails because there’s so much other things to keep in mind at the same time.
And something else that I’ve been thinking of is that when doing aerial front splits, we want to engage the back side of the back leg to pull the legs apart into a split AND the front side (quad) of the same leg (or both legs of course) to get that full extension of the knee. Aren’t quads and hamstrings antagonists? It seems that we want to access both simulataneously which leads to conflicts. What do you think?
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^ that pic is creeping me out! 😛
If I’m understanding this stretch correctly, I can do it and think it’s great training for a straight leg and toe point. I don’t have any hyperextension anywhere on my body. lol
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It’s very creepy, agree totally 😉
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For me, it was mostly a strength issue. When I first started the DVD, I also wasn’t able to get my heely of the ground.
Have you tried rotating your legs out? So your knees aren’t pointing up to the ceiling but sightly to the side. This helped me a lot to get my heels off the ground 🙂 -
haven’t tried that Jule, but I will next time. 🙂
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