Strengthen and Lengthen: Active flexibility training workshops

I am delighted to announce Autumn 2021 dates for my ever popular flexibility workshops! While not ideal, due to ongoing circumstances, all workshops are currently online.

Flexibility training requires more than just stretching. For the lucky few, extreme flexibility comes easily. But for most of us, achieving amazing range of motion takes hard work and dedication.  

The research into flexibility and our understanding of how our bodies access our available range of motion has progressed rapidly over the past 10-15 years. However, much of this scientific knowledge has been very slow to expand into real-world dance training practices. Most dancers still adhere to traditional, old-fashioned stretching techniques, which are often ineffective and even at times risky.

The Strengthen and Lengthen program is designed to bring the science of flexibility into dance schools, training centers, and to all dancers, gymnasts, and performing artist who seek to improve their range of motion.

What’s included:

• 3 live Zoom group workshops
• 1 individual Zoom appointment for personal assessment and advice
• Personal attention and individualized advice. Workshop numbers are capped at 15 to ensure plenty of time for questions, individual assessment, and specific advice
• Accompanying documentation, including mobility assessment guidelines and progress tracking to use for yourself and students
• Access to comprehensive video library of all of the assessment techniques, exercises and drills FOREVER
• Follow-up support via email FOREVER
• Access to members-only Facebook group, where you can ask questions, connect with others and get advice. I check the group daily and answer all appropriate question.

The workshops are not just another online stretch class! The strengthen and lengthen program is designed to teach you the science of flexibility, the tools to create effective and safe flexibility training routines, and how you can apply the this to you and your students. Training needs are constantly changing as flexibility improves, so if you have know the tools, you can continually progress and adapt your routine to your need, thus avoiding a dreaded plateau.

Please do not worry about your current level of flexibility, the workshops are suitable for all abilities!

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Autumn 2021 Dates

Online format – due to current restrictions, the online format for the workshops differs from previous sessions. Workshops will take place over 3 live sessions during 1 week. Workshops take place via Zoom at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of your chosen week. Sessions will last approximately 1-1.5 hours. If you are unable to attend live, all workshops are recorded and can be watched at a time that suits you.

• Workshop 1 will focus on the current research around flexilbity training, debunking many of the outdated myths, and discussing how to apply the current science to real-world training. Teacher training workshops will include discussions around the needs of younger, growing bodies.
• Workshop 2 will teach how to effectively assess both active and passive range of motion. We will then progress to the practical elements, focusing on hamstrings, hip mobility, and the splits
• Workshop 3 is a continuation of the practical session, including continuation of the splits, back bends, arabesque and anything else participants would like to discuss. We will finish with Q&A time.

Please note – Payment can be made in 3 installments. Please contact me to arrange this. Payments are made securely through Stripe Pay. If you would prefer to pay with PayPal, please also contact me.

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What determines flexibility?

Let’s clear one thing up to start with – flexibility is not about how long your muscles are. Flexibility is a complex process that depends on a range of factors. However, it is mostly dominated by the central nervous system. When you get to the end of your range of motion, you “feel a stretch”. The stretching sensation is actually your nervous system telling your muscle to contract. The contraction then stops the movement from going any further. This action is a protective mechanism, designed to protect the muscle, joints, and surrounding soft tissue from injury. Over time, our brain and nervous system develop a picture of each skeletal muscle in our bodies. Within this picture, the brain decides a ‘safe’ range of motion for each muscle. So, flexibility training is not about changing the length of your muscles.

Improving your flexibility is about training your nervous system to set a new ‘safe’ limit for each muscle.

Traditional flexibility training relies on static stretching, i.e. sitting and relaxing into a stretch to ‘reset’ the nervous system. Static stretching can work, up to a point, for most people, if done properly. However, most people will reach a plateau that they just can’t break through. Static stretching also leads to weakened, over-stretched muscles, which leaves your muscles, joints, and soft tissue unstable and injury-prone. For most of us, hours of static stretching is one of the slowest and riskiest way to improve flexibility.  

Functional vs. passive flexibility training

Furthermore, for real-world dance training, simply having a great range of motion is not enough. Consider this, which position is more likely to get you a contract with a dance company – holding your leg up by your ear with your hand or a developpé up by your ear? This is where functional flexibility comes in. Functional flexibility is the range of movement you can use during active movement. Achieving amazing functional flexibility is what sets apart a good dancer from an amazing, professional-quality dancer. 

Perhaps more importantly from my physio perspective, functional flexibility is safe flexibility. Pushing yourself, or worse yet being pushed by someone else, into a static stretch is a very common cause of injury among both amateur and professional dancers. Pushing into stretches causes torn muscles and soft tissue. Stretching injuries can range from a few days of achiness to full-blown muscle tears requiring several weeks off from training. Functional flexibility relies on unlocking your nervous system to allow your muscles to safely and effectively elongate. For example, one of the best ways to reset a determined muscle length is by strengthening the muscle. When the muscle is stronger, the nervous system registers that it is safe for the muscle to move further. A bonus side effect of this type of training is that strength is the key to injury prevention. 

So how do you achieve this amazing, and safe, functional flexibility?

In general, functional flexibility requires a combination of strength training and mobility practice. Unfortunately, there is no magic, one-size-fits-all approach. Everybody is unique, with their own strength, weaknesses, and mobility restrictions. As I mentioned earlier, flexibility is a complex process within the body, involving the nervous system, muscles, joints, and soft-tissues. The key is to figure out what structures are limiting your mobility and work on exercises that target those areas. For example, dancers very commonly complain of tight hamstrings. In fact, pretty much all dancers I have ever met want to improve their hamstring flexibility. Limited range of motion in the hamstrings can be caused by (among other thing) weakness in the hamstrings themselves, weakness in the glutes, poor range of motion in the hip, or ‘sticking’ in the sciatic nerve. 

The flexibility training intensives will teach you how to identify problem areas in your students or yourself to achieve maximum range of motion safely and effectively.

The video below is a great way you can start actively lengthening your hamstrings today. If you’ve hit a hammy plateau, then more traditional stretching is likely to be pretty ineffective. You probably need more strength! This exercise is a great way to lengthen the hamstrings with strength and resistance!

Tie a strong resistance band around your foot. Lying on your back, hold the band over your head, pulling it pretty tight. SLOWLY lift your leg, keeping it straight, resisting against the pull of the band. Then slowly lower. The key to this exercise is to resist the band at all times. DO NOT let the band snap your leg up into a relaxed stretch. Keep your leg muscles active throughout.