The prevalence of old school passive stretching in circus makes it confusing when someone like me tells you it can be counterproductive.
It seemed to work for so many people, and research shows passive stretching increases flexibility. So you do what everyone else is doing.
Then you wake up the next morning, and your hips or hamstrings feel like solid concrete.
This can happen to anyone (and I’ll explain why in a later post) but aerial in particular attracts a large percentage of hypermobile movers. In a hypermobile body, passive stretching goes from I don’t feel anything to danger territory quickly.
When you sink into passive splits or hang out in your end ranges, your muscles do not kick in with the braking force to stop you. You bypass muscular support and drop straight into the joint.
Pushing past your active limits signals to your nervous system that you cannot keep the joint safe.
Your nervous system registers that lack of control as a threat, and the next day, it clamps down hard.
That stiffness you feel the morning after is protective tone. Your nervous system locked the area down because it does not trust you at that range yet.
You cannot build a sustainable training practice if you keep violating that physical boundary. When you give your nervous system active strength and control in those ranges instead of hanging on your ligaments, the rebound stiffness stops showing up.
If you want to build active, stable mobility for aerial that actually holds up, this is the core of what I coach inside The Conclave, my 1:1 coaching program for goal-oriented aerialists.
Get on the waitlist - https://courses.circusmobility.com/the-conclave-waitlist
#aerialistsofig #aerialcoach #circusmobility #hypermobility aerialtraining
It seemed to work for so many people, and research shows passive stretching increases flexibility. So you do what everyone else is doing.
Then you wake up the next morning, and your hips or hamstrings feel like solid concrete.
This can happen to anyone (and I’ll explain why in a later post) but aerial in particular attracts a large percentage of hypermobile movers. In a hypermobile body, passive stretching goes from I don’t feel anything to danger territory quickly.
When you sink into passive splits or hang out in your end ranges, your muscles do not kick in with the braking force to stop you. You bypass muscular support and drop straight into the joint.
Pushing past your active limits signals to your nervous system that you cannot keep the joint safe.
Your nervous system registers that lack of control as a threat, and the next day, it clamps down hard.
That stiffness you feel the morning after is protective tone. Your nervous system locked the area down because it does not trust you at that range yet.
You cannot build a sustainable training practice if you keep violating that physical boundary. When you give your nervous system active strength and control in those ranges instead of hanging on your ligaments, the rebound stiffness stops showing up.
If you want to build active, stable mobility for aerial that actually holds up, this is the core of what I coach inside The Conclave, my 1:1 coaching program for goal-oriented aerialists.
Get on the waitlist - https://courses.circusmobility.com/the-conclave-waitlist
#aerialistsofig #aerialcoach #circusmobility #hypermobility aerialtraining