Staying flexible.
- DanielleEastman
- Apr 5
- 8 min read
Welcome to Part 7 of our series on Cultivating Organic Fitness!
Well, friend, this past week was interesting. In 2 different classes, we had some sounds beyond our control that required a bit of… flexibility. :)
1) On Monday, a smoke detector located on a very high ceiling above us chirped very loudly approximately every 60 seconds…
2) On Wednesday night, at the start of Zoom class, my microphone was accompanied by a loud buzz that I couldn’t find the source of…
Both sounds were beyond our control, but the super cool thing was — we stayed flexible. We didn’t get annoyed or frustrated, give up, and skip having class. We simply smiled at the challenge, and we adapted.
On Monday, we turned each chirp into a reminder to soften even more into ease. Wednesday, we kept the microphone off and experimented with having only visual cues. Two totally different challenges… Not only did we accept the challenges, we leaned into them to see how they could even become a benefit. :) How awesome is that?
Both nights I found myself smiling a ton and feeling so very GRATEFUL for you all. Your grace, patience, sense of humor, and flexibility made the challenges FUN to face. One of my main takeaways: there’s a lot in life that is out of our control… but having wonderfully fun & flexible friends to surf the waves with is so very helpful.
These challenges came right in time for the next focus of our Cultivating Organic Fitness series. This week, we’re diving into: flexibility.
What is flexibility?
In the field of exercise science, flexibility’s often defined as something like “the range of motion available at a joint or group of joints, determined by the extensibility of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joint structures.”
And that’s great…. but, personally, I like the Oxford Languages definition even more… 👇
flex·i·bil·i·ty
/ˌfleksəˈbilədē/
noun
the quality of bending easily without breaking.
Yesssss! To be able to bend without breaking, baby! THAT’S what I want. :)
This week as we dance, we’ll tune in and explore:
What does flexibility feel like? What do you sense in your body?
How flexible are you feeling today? How bend-y vs break-y?
Are there areas in your body where you feel more flexible? Less flexible?
What does inflexibility feel like? Perhaps stiff, rigid, stuck, tense, tight…?
Are there areas of your body where you’d like to cultivate more flexibility?
Outside of class, we can also explore:
How flexible am I in the broader areas of my life (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually)?
Are there areas/times/situations where I would like to be more flexible (less rigid, stiff, unwavering, or stuck)?
Are there areas/times/situations where I tend to be too flexible (too bending, too giving, too flimsy)?
Opportunities for increasing our flexibility in Aya
Just like the other foci in our Cultivating Organic Fitness series (mobility, stability, anaerobic vs. aerobic, etc.) flexibility is woven right into every Aya class for us (more details below)… However, if you are ever wanting to relieve specific areas of tightness within your unique body, our “dessert” portion of class is a wonderful time for focusing on your body’s flexibility. By this time of class, your body is perfectly warmed up and primed for focused stretching, relaxing, and releasing.
And the really great news? With consistent stretching, you can create really significant changes in your flexibility in as little as 2 weeks! Isn’t that awesome?! It’s one of the fastest fitness components to be able to influence.
So then… what muscles should we stretch?
All of ‘em. :) For overall health and day-to-day resilience, it’s important to move and stretch all of our major muscle groups.
One approach could be to scan your body from top to bottom and work through stretching all of your major muscle groups individually (shoulders, chest, back, spine, hips, thighs, calves, etc.)…
Another approach is more direction-oriented. Scan and then stretch the muscles along the front of your body, followed by their opposite muscles on the back side of your body. Then, continue with the muscles along the sides of your body, etc. Finally, add in some rotation or twisting-based stretches as well.
How should we stretch them? Here are 4 ways that I love:
Dynamic Stretching
This kind of stretching we incorporate all the time throughout class. It basically just means stretching via movement (not stillness). Picture when we stand and take some deep breaths with our palms traveling up toward the sky. Through movement we’re feeding our shoulder joint flexibility. Or picture that cross-behind where our arms sweeps up and we have that beautiful stretchy side bend? It’s dynamic, but it is also nourishing our lateral flexibility through shoulder joint, torso, hip, and spine. Even more intense movements in the middle portion of class, such as kicks and leg curls, are great examples of dynamic flexibility training. With every kick we can stretchhhhhhh our hamstrings out a bit more, and then step back down into a deep stretchy lunge. With every leg curl, our quads get that delicious release. Ahhhhh… Just thinking about it makes me want to get up and MOVE!
Static Stretching
Probably the type of flexibility training one is most familiar with is static stretching. When you picture someone holding a “stretch,” this is likely what you see. For example: a very common hamstring stretch is the seated forward fold. You can picture sitting on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you, and then you slowly hinge forward at your hips in order to bring your chest down towards your thighs. Static stretches are commonly held for at least 10-30 seconds, which allows the body time to get the signal that it is ok to relax into this range of motion. When practicing this style, we want to slow down, breathe, and soften into the stretch. Dessert is a perfect time for adding more of this type of stretching in tailored to your unique body’s needs.
Ok, so those are very common, but here are two more (lesser known) styles that I really love too!
Free-form Stretching
Ok, so there are probably specific “stretches” you are familiar with… and those are great. BUT, we don’t need to perform “stretches” to be able to stretch our body. We can simply…. move… reach… twist… stretch…. fold… unfold…. We can think of specific stretches like choreography that we dance in class. They are one option available (and have great benefits). But another option is to stretch our body in more of a free-form manner. To be able to step, reach, bend, and twist in ALL of the different angles possible (and needed) in life, we want to practice moving our body in all of the different kinds of ways. The biggest challenge with this freeform approach? Getting out of our body’s way so it can move freely. We have to get over the fact that shaking, wiggling, reaching, twisting, bending, undulating, and rolling around on the floor probably all look pretty weird. :) BUT, if we CAN get over it—- moving in all of these kinds of ways is soooooooooo good for us! So go ahead… let your body yawn and stretch and roll and twist and bend and explore freely, from the inside out. Your body will be so happy to be free to move. A big part of the medicine of the Aya practice is that we are constantly practicing freeing ourselves from our inhibitions. We literally (and figuratively) are dancing our body (and self) free. So when you are down on the floor during dessert, feel free to do certain stretches… but also feel free to take some time to just move, slip, slide, roll, twist, bend, fold, unfold, and experiment. Go freeform, baby. Let the stretching and moving of your body be organic, intuitive, and deliciously medicinal.
Passive Stretching
Last but not least… let’s talk about one more beautiful form of stretching. This one is more of a practice of “non-doing.” Picture lying down on your back at the end of what we call dessert in Aya (similar to final relaxation or savasana portions of yoga, etc.). Simply lie down comfortably with your arms and legs extended (palms facing up). As you lie there for a while, simply breathe and allow your body to relax more and more into the earth. Here, what we’re really doing, is letting gravity help to stretch us. We might sense the stretch in our hip flexors if they are tight. Or we might feel our lower back release and lengthen. Perhaps we might feel the back of our neck lengthen, or our chest and shoulders soften and open. Sooooo many wonderful benefits can come from simply a minute of lying down on the floor in this way. This is one example of passive stretching, where we really just pause and let gravity do the work. We can do this in all sorts of positions, depending on where more flexibility is desired. The key for this type of stretching is stillness for a period of time, deep relaxing breaths, and giving our nervous system time and permission to soften more and more into the stretch.
Ahhhhh….. They all feel so good!
And the great news? You can work any/all of them right into your Aya practice. I’ll definitely have us performing dynamic stretches, give us time for freeform movement, and bring us together with a few static stretches… But then feel free to really personalize your dessert time with additional static stretches, freeform stretching, or passive stretching too. Whatever your body is craving on any given day….
Remember: balance is key.
To maintain balance and alignment (and not over-stretch one side), it can be helpful to balance any stretch in one direction, with a stretch in the opposite direction. For example, if we stretch our hamstrings & glutes with a seated forward fold, we’ll want to follow that up with a stretch for our quads & hip flexors too (for example, a quad stretch while we lie down on our side). This will help us keep both sides of our leg supple, bendy, and balanced.
Also: don’t skip the hard ones.
I don’t know about you, friend, but I sometimes can have a tendency in life to avoid doing things I don’t think I’m good at. Esssssssspecially in front of other people. But, lemme tell ya: we definitely don’t want to do that with flexibility training. If we do, we can get really out of balance. We might really overstretch the already super stretchy parts of our body and avoid the stretches our body really needs the most. The key is to nourish balanced, full ranges of motion throughout our entire body. This will support healthy whole-body alignment and functioning, and help us be able to bend without breaking, no matter what life brings. But this means we need to be sure to do any stretches we are currently avoiding because they feel too hard. You know— the ones we are embarrassed to do because of how ridiculously tight we are? Yep. So be sure to lean on into those harder ones, babe.
Ok, to recap:
We’ll dance dynamically, engaging all of our joints through full ranges of motion to nourish our whole-body flexibility.
During our cool-down and dessert, we’ll slowly stretch major areasof our body (especially any that feel extra tight).
We’ll feed our body all kinds of free-form movements, in all possible directions (during both dance & dessert) in order to maintain (or reclaim) our body’s functional freedom.
We’ll relax, soften, breathe, and let gravity help us open & release.
So… flexibility... Bending instead of breaking. Creating supple, soft, fluid, responsive, flexible, resilient bodies through both dynamic movement and relaxing into delicious stretches. Ahhhh…. Can’t wait! As always, looking forward to what we discover together this week. See you soon!
Much love,
💛 Dani
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