I achieved one of my flexibility goals..

[Sierra]

..a Biellmann. I've pestered you all with countless flexibility questions and now I have a Biellmann. It's pretty too, not one of those ugly squarish ones with a 90º bend in the free leg. Can't wait to try it on the ice. Thanks to anyone who helped

I still don't have my splits, so the remaining flexibility needed for it came from my back. I used this stretch a lot:

Code Select Expand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfEMT2Jl8Nk
My back wasn't sore at all throughout the many months of stretching. I did the rocking thing gymnasts do after back stretches, plus child's pose and reaching tall. So I didn't force anything and didn't feel pain besides while actually doing the stretch.

Now I need to work on some more back flexibility (so I can look up at my foot & so I can put both hands on the blade) and my other flexibility goals- getting the splits & a prettier Y-spiral. I was beginning to think I just did not have the potential flexibility for anything but this disproves that.
:stars

[jjane45]

Congratulations, I envy you so much! Would you share a little more about the whole journey?

[Doubletoe]

Wow, very impressive! !

[Sierra]

Thanks It took me.. I don't even know how long I've been stretching. A year maybe? I was really inflexible when I started, barely had the flexibility for even a catchfoot. I usually stretch an hour a day. Whenever I got discouraged, I went on YouTube and watched clips of skaters doing Biellmanns and I-spins and such. Sometimes my flexibility wouldn't progress at all for a while. It makes me really happy because I want to be one of the skaters who has the whole arsenal- split or near-split spiral, biellmann, Y-spiral, I-spin. And I managed to do it by myself with no pain or injury The splits are close too- about 4-5 inches off the ground, though they've been like that for a while.

[isakswings]

Good for you! I am going to have my dd try some of those excercises! Hers is pretty off ice too... but lacks some luster on ice. She said it is harder to do while spinning.
:stars

[lindafmb]

Hi Sierra,

Congratulations on getting your Biellman...quite an accomplishment!

You mentioned you are still working on getting your splits. I was a gymnast well before I was a skater, and fortunately my splits never left my body, even as I grew to be an adult. However, many of the skaters I work with off-ice, even the really flexible ones, have difficulty attaining all three split positions, nevermind oversplit positions, which actually looks even better when doing split jumps. You also really need to be able to oversplit to accomplish some of the cooler looking spiral and Charlotte positions too.

Seeing that there was a need, I put together a yoga practice series on my YouTube channel that helps with both saggital and your frontal splits.

Here's part 1 of 6 parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ5HFDkGmis

Enjoy, and please let me know if you have questions 
Linda

[jjane45]

Thank you very much Linda!

[fsk8r]

I know what I'm doing tonight...
Thanks Linda!

[Sierra]

That looks like it will really help me and other skaters. Thanks Linda

[lindafmb]

Thanks, I hope you find it helpful. I love yoga because it's soooo relaxing too, in addition to helping a lot with flexibility and maintaining dynamic tension in your body, which you also need to do when you skate 

Enjoy!

Linda

[Isk8NYC]

I hated the one Yoga class I took; too slow, boring music and the woman droned on and on about meditation as a gateway to the Soul.  I'm a religious person and I was uncomfortable with her history lesson on the monks using Yoga as a form of worship.  When she handed out the contact information for her visiting Yogi's special seminar, I just tossed it in the trash.  Worst of all, there was no warmup before trying to do the various poses and I never broke a sweat.  I am totally convinced the instructor was the problem, not Yoga as a whole.  There are different types of Yoga though, so I'm open to trying a different class at some point.  But first, I want to do Pilates - I think it fits my workout style better.  (Although I couldn't straighten up for three days after the last time I did a trial class.  I'm so out of shape, lol.)

[fsk8r]

IskNYC you'll probably not break a sweat doing pilates either. Although you'll probably ache for a couple of days after. I actually like that pilates is so gentle. I do a one to one class and most of the time we are just chatting. I shut up when things get tough and than just chat when we move onto the next exercise.

[jumpingbeansmom]

Part of it is your shoulders.....my dd's coach has her use her jump rope and position her hands on it and bring it over her head around to her back...she tries to put her hands closer together each day on the rope.   Her biellman position is pretty nice now--  she is still struggling to get into that position in her spin, but she does a nice biellman in her juv program that is pretty impressive.

[lindafmb]

I hated the one Yoga class I took; too slow, boring music and the woman droned on and on about meditation as a gateway to the Soul.  I'm a religious person and I was uncomfortable with her history lesson on the monks using Yoga as a form of worship. 

I totally understand where you're coming from. There are several styles of yoga (Ashtanga, Bikram, Iyengar, Kundalini, Viniyasa, just to name a few), not to mention individual variation among instructors. When I teach group practice, I try to make my classes inclusive, so I focus on what I feel is the biggest benefits of yoga for EVERYONE; namely the physical poses (asanas) and the breathing techniques (pranayama). Although I do know Sanskrit, the chants, and about the other spiritual aspects of yoga (which are based on the Hindu religion), I do tend to steer away from them because of the alienating effect it can have on people of other faiths. The chants and some of the traditional sequencing of poses really ARE devotional practices to Hindu deities, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they are either misinformed or being ingenuine. But if we focus on the asanas and the breath and sequence and modify based on the individual body, then everyone gets what they need from class. And yoga can be more intense (power yoga = Ashtanga), make you sweaty ("hot yoga" = Bikram), or be more restorative. The key is finding the right practice and the right instructor for you.

Pilates too has a couple of different styles, most notable the "traditional" style of Joseph Pilates and the more putatively "modern" approaches (Winsor, Stott) which advocate modifying the traditional mat and equipment approaches based on their interpretations of exercise science. Again, your pilates experience is going to be largely influenced by the skills of the instructor, too.