trickivix
Forum Replies Created
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With regard to the Pilates and not trying to use hip flexors thing – I think I can answer that. I was teaching basic mat pilates a little while ago, and based on what I learnt (to teach it), the focus of Pilates is strengthening your stabilising muscles such as the transversus abdominals, obliques etc, and not the bigger players, such as your 6 pack, hip flexors/legs/quads for abdominal exercises. If you use your 6 pack or legs to do ab exercises, you put less focus on strengthening the stabilising muscles. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use hip flexors if you are training for other things (such as pole). It just means, for the purposes of Pilates, it should be lessened or avoided…
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I would say to concentrate on the leading leg first. Keep it straight and keep it pointed, don’t worry about the second leg until you’ve got the hang of the leading leg being straight and pointed. Try starting small again, don’t try to go straight into the cartwheel mount otherwise old habits will come back and your legs will come in again. Do small swings, keeping that leg straight. And increase to the cartwheel mount when you are used to the feeling of having a straight leading leg.
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I find that sometimes people have a different hand positioning when they do it from an invert – generally a lot further apart than if they'd done it from a handspring. This could probably put your balance off. It could also be body positioning, if your torso normally faces away from the pole from a handspring but your body if facing the pole from an invert could throw off your balance. Pictures or videos would help, hard to say without seeing you do it https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_eek.gif good luck!
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If you're only doing light resistance training, you could just do same range of motion exercises. The purpose of a warm up is to get the muscles ready for the stress you are about to put on them. Depending on the exercises you are about to do, you could just do lighter options. e.g. if you are doing sit ups, you could first start with some slow and controlled ab curls where only your head and shoulders come off the ground (rather than lifting all the way up into a sit up). If you are using weights or resistance bands for your shoulder exercises, do a warm up by moving your shoulders in the same motion without the resistance and focus on the contraction of the muscles. It is common for weight lifters to warm up by first performing the exercise with a much lighter weight, before doing their normal lifting weight. By doing so, they are heating up the muscles and making them more elastic for the same range of motion. You will be using the same concept here.
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No problem at all Pankake. Glad I could help https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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Haha I know what you mean – I accummulate fat around my belly, would love to push some of that fat to my chest and to my butt.
Yes, Kegel exercises are for the pelvic floor.
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Studio Pilates have some electronic DVDs you can buy online. The intro of each DVD explains the engagement of the TA and pelvic floor. They call it the 'T-zone'. For each exercise she will say 'T-zone' a lot so it's hard to forget about it. When I was taught, the "check" that you can do is to lightly press with two fingers just on the inside of your hip bones. When you switch on your T-zone, you'll feel it tighten under your fingers. So if you're ever not sure, just check by lightly pressing that area.
You won't need any props. They do crunches in the DVDs but you'll learn to like them https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif The key is to keep your belly flat and not let it bulge out (this is quite tricky at first). If it starts to bulge out, it generally means your T-zone has let go and you are focussing too much with your rectus abdominus (6 pack). These muscles are more powerful, but do not have the endurance so they will get worn out a lot faster and I'd say that's why you feel like you're cramping up.
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Try Pilates – I teach Pilates and the things that you have said sounds to me like Pilates is what will help. In particular, you need to find someone that can show you how to engage your transverse abdominus and pelvic floor properly. This is what "drawing your navel to your spine" is supposed to do. Unfortunately, to a lot of people, these words just means to suck in your belly, but it's not that simple. It's about tightening that whole lower ab area and making your belly flat, not hollow. As AngelVonSpin said with the tutu analogy, you may need to tuck your tailbone under slightly – but this would depend on your current posture. A lot of people tilt their pelvis too far forward (and stick their bums out) which makes it harder to activate these muscles. If you can tuck the tailbone under slightly while still have a little curve in your lower back, it'll be easier to activate these muscles.
I was exactly like you – I used to hate ab exercises, your 'vicious cycle' was exactly what I had. I ended up just refusing to do them. Until I started learning tricks where I had no choice but to strengthen it. I tried just doing ab exercises but didn't see fast results until I did the instructor course for Pilates and realised what I was doing wrong. My core is now a lot stronger and my posture is a lot better (I also work in an office all day). So my recommendation is to try Pilates 🙂 Also… don't do any Pilates classes where they do fast jerky movements, try to find one that focuses on control. A one on one is best… but usually a bit expensive…
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From what I've seen from people who are learning and people who have nailed the handsprings – there isn't a perfect formula. Everyone has different bodies with different strengths, different muscles that they favour, even different postures can influence how you do a move. Some things work for some people but won't work for others. On top of that, every move has multiple entries… so it's no wonder you are getting mixed messages. My initial suggestion would be to pick one grip and one type of entry (cartwheel or handspring), and try to get that one first, before looking at the others. Try finding a tutorial that is explained really well and always start low i.e. only raise your legs a little at first, and increase the height slowly, that way your upper body can get used to the pressure you are putting on it and your body gets used to the movement. Apart from that, the biggest thing to remember is – don't let go of the pole when your legs are in the air! Good luck!
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Not sure if you mean Southport in Queensland (on the Gold Coast)? If so, I live about a 5 minute drive from it, in Surfers Paradise. I could give you some info about it, if this is where you are headed.
Either way, good luck with your travels, I'm sure you'll have heaps of fun! 🙂
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Looks like most of the moves on your list are very much strength based. If you are poling too often, your body may not have had enough time to recover and build the muscle – not allowing you to get stronger and would actually make it worse the less you rest. I had a similar issue where moves I could always do was getting harder and I started to feel worn out and a bit frustrated. I decided to do less pole and focus on more weight training – abs, arms, back, shoulders… It helped a lot. I felt refreshed… It became easier to get new tricks and I just felt so much stronger.
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Straight edge to brass monkey 🙂
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To me EG ayesha is torso away from the pole, but everyone does everything different, as long as you're safe and stable, that's all that really matters. Having your torso against the pole does make it hard to bring the legs down far enough to become parallel to the ground unless you're pretty flexy. A lot of the time, people that do it this way will end up leaving their legs in the air somewhere… which I guess ends up being somewhere between an ayesha and a straight edge (with legs separated)…
I'm pretty sure the extended ayesha is actually like an elbow grip iron x (?)
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The safeness of the grip comes from the fact that you have an opposable thumb grip to stop you from sliding down (or falling off) when you invert. When using the cup grip, you have all the fingers on one side, and nothing on the side that's closest to your body and therefore you will risk slipping when transitioning into another move. As you've said, there are dangers to the TG, these are more related to possible shoulder injuries as opposed to falling off.
So, back to your question – it is still a safe grip if you switch arms. In fact, Jamilla Deville teaches it that way in her Art of Pole DVDs.
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There certainly is such a thing! And muscle structure also has quite a bit to do with it. Everyone's muscles are different and everyone does tricks differently or rely on different muscles based on where they are strong.
I train at the gym a lot and I focussed a lot on the upper back and the rotator cuff area due to posture issues and a shoulder injury. That training was probably why it only took me about 3 or 4 sessions to get the TG handspring. And no… I'm no handspring freak because it took me a very long time to get the split/basic grip handspring, add to that a bad case of tendonitis…
TG puts a lot of strain on the rotator cuff (upper arm). To get into it, you are in such an awkward, unnatural position… Your arm is never in that position in everyday life… so your muscles aren't in tune with dealing with the stress when you are trying to use it to lift your body weight. So if you are deadlifting into that, you first have to make sure your rotator cuff is strong and flexible enough to handle it. If you are unable to hang there/hold the position, it would have more to do with the rotator cuff than the core strength. Of course the core strength has a lot to do with it, but you should first focus on the shoulders.
And I'm with emotioncatcher – other grips are definitely more impressive 🙂
