Passive and active flexibility - Training tips for pole and aerial
At the start of every year, pole dancers and aerialists set new goals for their strength, flexibility, and dance training. There are lots of great tips for evaluating your pole goals here but a little extra research could go a long way in helping you achieve your goals in less time, and with greater understanding.
It is very common for pole dance or aerial goals contain a flexibility component. Dancers are seeking flatter splits, more open shoulders, or even better toe points. But rather than just pushing yourself into different positions and hoping to get deeper, it is safer and more time efficient to approach flexibility training with an understanding of your own physiology and body mechanics.
Firstly, let’s clarify some common terms - flexibility, range of motion, and mobility. These definitions are offered by Spin City Aerial Fitness:
Flexibility is the “static maximum range of motion at a joint”
Range Of Motion is considered "how far a body part moves at a joint, which is influence by how flexible the muscles are around the joint to allow this to happen"
Mobility includes flexibility of the muscles, but also the impact of tendons, ligaments, fascia and all other factors related to the joint (including your unique skeletal structure)
Research into flexibility is still under the microscope but there are a few things experts seem to know so far.
1. "Stretching a muscle will increase its length … done frequently the overall length of the muscle can change permanently" Fascia and tendons may also be made more flexible through stretching.
2. "Warmer muscles are more pliable" and “warm muscles suffer less damage” resulting in less DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness)
It seems correct to then say that, if a person stretches regularly after a thorough warm up, muscles will lengthen but only to the point that their joints, supporting tissues, and skeletal structure will allow.
This seems fairly obvious but did you ever think that by just sitting in uncomfortable positions to stretch may not be the best way to improve flexibility. In fact, passive stretching can actually reduce flexibility and reduce the power output of the muscle, when conducted at the wrong time in your workout.
Wait what?!?!
Passive stretching is not all bad. It will support and increase your tolerance for extension, and it may support the flexibility of connective tissue., but if you are finding yourself in a plateau, you may benefit from a new approach!
There is another way!
Muscles work in partnership with other muscles, forming agonist and antagonist relationships. One contracts while one lengthens, and more accurately, the contraction of one results in the extension of another (a theory called ‘reciprocal inhibition’). Think about curling your bicep - as you raise the forearm the bicep contracts inside your upper arm. On the back of your upper arm, your tricep extends to allow the elbow to bend. Straightening the arm, the opposite happens - the tricep contracts and the bicep extends. These relationships happen all over your body, and can be used to great effect in supporting increases in length of your muscles.
Photo 1: Passive stretching
Consider the pose in the photo above. My hand can pull my leg up and out to the side creating a stretch in my glutes, hamstrings, and adductors. If I let go of my foot, however, my leg would drop. This is a passive stretch and I need my hand, or a prop to get my leg into a place to feel the stretch.
To make this more active I need to learn how to engage the muscles of my hip flexors, quads, and core to raise the leg. These muscles will contract and therefore encourage the hamstrings and adductors to lengthen.
Sounds like hard work? Yes! This may not be an example for beginners, but it does highlight how a person’s active flexibility and passive flexibility can be remarkably different.
Active flexibility exercises such as PNF and dynamic stretching, with warm muscles, can be more effective in increasing flexibility helping to correct muscle imbalance and strengthen as well as stretch. In fact, studies have shown that “somewhere between 44% and 66% of a person's static flexibility is due to their dynamic flexibility" (Spin City Aerial Fitness)
When you see dancers jump and lift their legs into a split, this power comes from training for active flexibility, not just from sitting in the splits on the floor.
Photo 2: Active stretching
Further on this point, muscles may feel “tight” not from being inflexible but because they are compensating for for joint instability or weakness in another muscle. Working on active flexibility will help in developing strong, stable joints which allow for a greater range of motion. You will also reduce your chance of injury by strengthening and stabilizing the joints, which people with hypermobility should be very aware of.
Reflect on your own approach to stretching and talk to your pole dance instructor or aerial trainer about how to include more active stretching exercises into your program. You will find your gains increase dramatically and you will have the peace of mind knowing that your training program is also supporting your safety as a dancer.
Written by Mel Nutter as Baudelaire.
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