Flexibility tricks?

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caitieemae
caitieemae Posts: 25 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey guys! So I've set a pretty hard goal for myself and I was wondering if anyone could help me out. All throughout highschool, I participated in cheerleading and was extremely passionate about it. I was captain for two year and my life revolved around my squad. After being in college for a few years, I realized that I really miss having that close group of friends. So I looked into it and I'm going to try out for my schools kick line team at the beginning of next semester! Only problem is... I'm not extremely flexible. During kick line, I would have to kick my leg up high (like the rockettes). Any advise on stretches or exercises that would help me along in this process? Thanks!

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  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
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    Hamstrings, inner thigh muscles and back (like forward bends). Yoga is excellent if you really concentrate on the asanas that stretch those parts. For high kicks, you also need to kick often to get them really high. It's great fun, imho, so go on and do stretching and kicking every day. Do do the stretching before the kicking in this case. You'll be pushing your range of motion, and that can cause some ugly muscle pulls if you haven't stretched them out gently beforehand. Good luck! I was on kick team way back in the day, and I still love kicking :)

    Oh, and splits are the ultimate way to stretch for those kicks (except for inner thighs), but start with getting a certain amount of hamstring flexibility first. Splits are just a pain if you start from scratch, lol.
  • chocotofu3
    chocotofu3 Posts: 1 Member
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    Flexibility is as much about strength as it is about range of motion. Focus on strengthening your core, hamstrings, and quads in order to improve your flexibility (strong, balanced muscles cue the body that it is ok to stretch deeply, and safely support deep stretches).

    Try some bodyweight exercises like squats, sumo squats, lunges, hamstring bridges, hamstring curls, and good old fashioned planks to strengthen your kick muscles and your core.

    Strength and flexibility are actually closely related, despite what bodybuilders suggest.

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