Higher Extensions
Dancing Smart Newsletter,
January 2, 2004
Happy New Year! I hope everyone’s holiday was filled with joy and the New Year filled with wonderful possibilities. Don’t be surprised if your muscles are slightly achy and sore for a few weeks as we detox from the holiday sugar blues… I’m not sure of the physiological reasons why sugar seems to make the muscles more sensitive, but I have noticed this pattern over the last 20 years bothin my practice and in my own life.
An announcement. I have an article called Soreness vs. Pain - A Dancer's Dilemma on www.danceart.com. Please check it out and while you are there check out a great discussion board called Mind over Mat, written by Anneliese Burns, on the Pilates mat work.
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Today’s question comes from Marisa in Texas. Thank you Marisa!
What are some exercises I can do to get my extensions higher, especially in arabesque?
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Whenever you are looking at increasing range of motion at a joint, you need to look at both its flexibility and its strength. In analyzing the arabesque typically there are issues between the flexibility of the hip flexors and the strength of the hamstrings with the hip flexors being tight, and the high hamstring attachment being slightly weak.
The first place I look with the arabesque is at the iliopsoas muscle. At the dancers clinic in NYC we often called stretching the iliopsoas a miracle stretch because it immediately gave 5-10 degrees more range to the arabesqueafter manually stretching it. Don’t you love immediate gratification!
The challenge is when the iliopsoas muscle is chronically tight, you need to be stretch it throughout class as there are more movements that utilize flexion than extension at the hip.
The easiest way to stretch the iliopsoas muscle is in the runner’s lunge. You can either keep the knee on the ground or turn the toes under and straighten the knee whichever is more comfortable. Personally, my favorite way of stretching the iliopsoas is lying on my back at the edge of a table, or at the top of a stairs. If I want to stretch the right iliopsoas, I would bend my left knee and hold towards my chest with my hands. This keeps my lower back from arching. The right leg hangs easily off of the edge of the table or stairs, and you will feel the stretch in front of the hip in the same place as you do when you do the runners lunge. I will often hold that stretch for three long minutesto maximize the stretch.
On the other side of the joint are the hamstrings that extend the hip. In a tendu to the back you are keeping the pelvis as upright as possible while taking the leg to the back. This focuses the contraction in the upper part of the hamstrings. An arabesque is a tendu that has been raised up in back. The look of the arabesque is partly determined by the flexibility of the lower back and how upright you can maintain the upper back while lifting your leg.
A good way to work the upper hamstring is to lie on your stomach with your head resting on your hands or your face gently turned to the side. Imagine an imaginary string attached to your belly button lifting it towards the spine, engaging and lacing the abdominals including the transversus, which if you remember from previous newsletters is the deepest layer of abdominal muscles. In this position lift your legs an inch or two off the ground and begin to do a small flutter kick as if you were swimming. The pubic bone will stay in contact with the floor with the belly button lifting away. You will feel this action high in the hamstrings, right around the ischial tuberosities, which are the sitting bones.
Now return to the standing position after having stretched the iliopsoas and strengthened the hamstrings and work on your tendu to the back. I am not a fan of over crossing the tendu to the back as it necessitates the pelvis rotating (hip opening), which then brings more of a twist into the upper back, making it harder to stay balanced on the supporting leg.
Anatomically, it is challenging enough to start in first position, and then keep the hips fairly square while going straight back into the tendu. As the leg is lifted there must be some rotation of the pelvis to accommodate the movement, it is impossible otherwise to lift the leg.
The better your alignment is in your tendu, the easier it will be to lift it into arabesque. The stronger the hamstrings are the easier it will be to maintain a connection with the pelvis when doing a promenade or balancing, and not sink into the low back.
Until next week,
Deborah
DeborahVogel@thebodyseries.com
"Education is the Key to Injury Prevention"