Thread: Best exercises or activities to increase your range of motion?

Hello Beautiful Dancers,

One of my dance goals this year is to try and improve the range of motion on hip and torso movements in dance. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what exercises or activities you think are the absolute best for improving range of motion for nice big clean clear expressive hip work and torso work. They can be dance exercises, warm ups, drills, stretches or cross training activities (like yoga, martial arts or ballet?), or even a great DVD or workshop. I'd love to hear whatever input or suggestions you all have. I really want to open my body up - lengthen it and increase my range.

<3

Thanks in advance!

Bikram yoga has really increased my range of motion, especially opening up my shoulders. Still lots of work to do, though!

Hot yoga. The heat is like a fast pass to flexibility.

agreed on the hot yoga (and I have awful flexibility). Another one is (and I know it's been touted to death, but that doesn't make it wrong!) aziza's practice companion has range of motion drills in every direction for hip and torso. It has worked wonders for me.

The specific drills I'm talking about are the ones where you stand in one spot, angle your hips forward (as if you were doing a flat horizontal 8) then pull in to center, out towards the side wall, then back, repeat other side. i stole this for my beginner classes to help students both improve the range and to understand where there hips were supposed to be for the 8.

You can also do it for the vertical 8, repeat with upper torso for all. Consistency is key, work for small gains to avoid injury and over stretching the muscle.

I would start w/ 2 sets of 8 half time, then quarter, then up to tempo, also works on muscle memory.

So the yoga for the flexibility and the drills (steady and slow work to avoid injury) to increase the actual range.

I don't remember what this technique is called, I saw it on a local t.v. program.

Anyway, the guest on the show, had the hosts try some stretching moves.

Then he had them stand with their eyes closed, and mentally imagine the moves they had done; then imagine what it would feel like to move deeper into the movement (see your self touching your toes, or doing a deeper backbend) they imagined this for about a minute or more; their range of motion increased!
:-)

Okay, so continue with yoga - incorporate Aziza's drills a little more diligently, and imagine myself with greater range. Well that's a start for sure. Please don't consider this thread closed (ever). I'm always open to hear what you all come across and what is working for you.

<3

Thanks!

This is something I'm working on this year, too, so I'm open to any suggestions, as well! I'll be taking notes.

Oh, a nice thing I just learned from my physical therapist. When you've reached where you think your limit is- check your breathing. If you aren't breathing there's a chance you're actually passed your limit and are "compensating" (ie "cheating") somewhere else in order to reach that far. Pull back to where you can breath.
In addition to that, what I teach - where you CAN breath- stay there and breath while visualizing the oxygen moving into the muscle group you are stretching and imagine it nice and warm. It will relax after 2 or 3 breaths and you can then take it a little deeper.
.... oh, PNF stretching is pretty amazing. You alternate isometric contractions with passive stretching. Shems- we can play around with that if you want! Call me!

if you have iPod/iPhone, there's an app: Pilates for Dancers.

Originally Posted by SamiraShuruk

Oh, a nice thing I just learned from my physical therapist. When you've reached where you think your limit is- check your breathing. If you aren't breathing there's a chance you're actually passed your limit and are "compensating" (ie "cheating") somewhere else in order to reach that far. Pull back to where you can breath.
In addition to that, what I teach - where you CAN breath- stay there and breath while visualizing the oxygen moving into the muscle group you are stretching and imagine it nice and warm. It will relax after 2 or 3 breaths and you can then take it a little deeper.
.... oh, PNF stretching is pretty amazing. You alternate isometric contractions with passive stretching. Shems- we can play around with that if you want! Call me!

calling you right now.

I am doing Callanetics for lengthening, flexability, core strength... I'll let ya'll know how it goes.