I. Who are you working with?
Heidi: Level 2 intermediate: has been inverting for six months, developed a pulled muscle near the left scapula upon conditioning and doing inverts at home, has scoliosis of the lower spine, wingspan is the same as height.
Sandi: Level 2 Beginner: has been doing it for just a couple of weeks. Wants to get inversions down and is taking two flexibility classes a week. Has tight calves from running.
Bri: Level 2 intermediate: had an inversion two years ago and lost it during pandemic, hyperextension of the elbows, short wingspan.
Lindsey: Level 2 intermediate: has a strong chopper “most of the time”, working on OLH and flow. No pain points other than skin conditioning for tricks.
· Include before/after photo/video of
· T + L spinal flossing
· Squat
· Chin-up (or attempt)
· Invert (whatever version they are closest to)
· OLH (BM+ILH optional)
· Feel free to include anything else you would like to track progress on (forward hinge, shoulder mobility etc.…)
II. What are their goals?
All: find flow in and out of inverts, become comfortable enough that the invert doesn’t take much thought and the body is conditioned to do what’s necessary to get there without injury.
III. What are your goals?
Educate them on the importance of coming in with an open mind and starting from the basics and moving up as those “basics” are accomplished. So if they already have a standing invert they will still learn the waist hold and fundamentals. Can always slow it down or give other cues to help them explore something they’ve already accomplished to see where it goes and how the pattern changes.
Conditioning and stretching: reduce risks of injury, bring awareness, awaken and strengthen dormant muscle groups. Bring a variety each week to find out what worked, what felt different and if there was anything they didn’t like or find helpful, stretch, being with waist hold inversion fundamentals and control, lunging inversion and then to standing inversions.
Practice the inversions and control of the inversions (may need props or things to help: stool, blocks, bands etc)
Find flow going into and coming out of the inversions. I will guide flow combos if I see that they are getting stuck and unable to think of where to go with cueing or feel as if they are being redundant in their movement.
IV.What is your hypothesis/strategy?
Overall that they accomplish an inversion of some sort with correct form, that their inversions begin to feel more fluid and that their form reduces risk of injury because they are knowledgeable and capable of the correct form for their body.
Also that they will become aware of muscles that need flexibility, strengthened, that don’t automatically engage, and how important it is to use cross training methods.
Lastly that they will find flow!
V. Documentation of Implementation of strategy:
What actually happened in each session?
Session 1:
What did you do?
Spinal flossing: table top with bands and w/o to feel the difference, squats, chin ups: before videos, pole conditioning with the bands.
Waist hold with cues of a long spine, low hands, looking over the inside shoulder, working on the quietness with the contact of the outside foot and using the inside foot to descend back down slowly followed by a tuck.
Posture photos: this helps me to evaluate their standard stance and what we may need to adjust or keep in mind when creating balance for central points of the body and where we need to be in the inversions.
How did it go?
T&L spinal flossing:
It went well, spinal flossing looks good on them, I see a for sure contraction in the rounded spine and am going to work on them slowly moving through and contracting for the arch. Which we did today and they said the warm up for sure generated heat, but was also conditioning and drained some energy since they are used to this much conditioning prior to getting on the pole into inverts. They all say Sundays are harder because they often have breakfast and it’s typically a Sunday pancake or heavier carb breakfast day.
Chin ups :
Lindsey: before has great form with palms away! Palms to the face she could puff the chest to break the bar a bit more to see if another ½-1 rep is possible and to slow it down
Sandi: before: shoulders shrug from the beginning in both pull ups. She wanted to try without the band to see if should could do them.
Heidi: before: overall looks good. Chest puff with the palms facing her and slowing it down will help assess the control as well.
Bri: before: uses an alternative grip for her hyperflexion in the elbows working on passive and active hangs vs chin up as this is pre conditioning.
I see a little energy dump at the end with them all wanting to do it without the band and going fast through the pullups. Will work on some active and passive hangs!
Squat:
Heidi before: has the most flexible hip flexors and the deepest squat.
Before: All three forms look good with flat backs, the hands are in towards the body for Lindsey and Heidi which help with balance for they aren’t as flexible and run tight in the hamstrings, hip flexors, and quads for doing this pre warm up. Next week we work on the chair warm up.
Bri: before: has a little sway in her squat and I see weight more in the toes with a slight lift of the heel.
Invert:
Lindsey: before: uses a bit of momentum rock for chopper on the left, right is solid and went right into her OLH. She could rotate towards the pole more to get into that knee pit for the OHL and allow for a smoother transition into something else.
Sandi: before: waist hold: chin tucks and head projects forward, use a block for the back of the head, puff the chest to reduce rounding of the back and shoulders. Standing: takes a lot of thought and a rock step to sweep which is what she was doing in the in person RCT training. We will work on control and smoothing of that, bring it down to a lunge first and revisit stand with looking over the inside shoulder.
Heidi: before: hands are high, head projecting forward and shoulders are rounded. Puffing the chest and driving the elbows back in the rowing will help, sliding the hands down to lock in a solid OLH. Will start OLH from the floor.
Bri: before: Just got her chopper on Tuesday before the class. What helped? The IRC training you hosted and looking over the inside shoulder. Will work on sliding the hands down a bit sooner with chest puff to avoid rounding of the spine. Bri does have a short wingspan and we tried various grip options of the hands and she feels most secure in the stronghold.
Session 2:
What did you do?
Assessed squats using this method: which I found extremely helpful!
chair: with squatting, bands, and wall warm up: gecko grip and shoulder mobility.
Posture wall stance assessment and activation to help reduce forward posture with the inverts.
T&L spinal flossing:
When cued to do a table top spinal floss with round and arched spine everyone does this in a relaxed form with rib flare for more of a stretch. So I had them do it a few times and then reset, with a cinched corset breathe, while slowly moving through a rounded and arched spine. Then led by a pelvic tuck and tilt and after a thoracic rounding and arching. To find any spots that may have more movement and others that may feel stiff and needed breathe to help create space or further movement.
Chin up:
They all wanted to see where they were at without a band and compare it to the first video. Then in the next class I had Bri and Lindsey slow down their chin ups with the band to assist and to help focus more on form vs speed and numbers. We focused on the chest puff and the shoulder blade gliding. I also let them know to begin the pull with the non-dominate arm and it balanced out their chin ups more as well. I will do this with Heidi and Sandi when they return as they did it without the band and both are pausing in their strongest. I see a loss of engagement upon descending so the bands will help smooth the movement and increase engagement without that loss and help train and target the areas that stop firing. We will work on inverted rows as well and face pulls to help the posterior deltoid, lats, teres minor and major kick in to gear. I see those needed most attention with this level 2 class.
Squats:
Heidi: consistent with the squat, got lower this time and controlled
Sandi: flexibility classes are paying off! Deeper squat and slow and controlled. Sandi has been coming to 4-5 classes a week (2 flex, 2 choreo, 2-3 level 2 classes which include inversions). Her progress is amazing!
Bri: has been working hard taking two flexibility classes and I see further range of controlled motion in her squat!
Lindsey: was out for two weeks due to illness. Range of motion has increased slightly in the depth of her squat and hip flexors. She feels as it gets better that her leg hangs will also improve since her hips are tight.
Invert:
Heidi: invert looks good, a bit more rotation toward the pole to lock in that outside leg hang, and then she went right into a combo of the inside leg hang (we have yet to dive into those) and pulled up to a sit. That was all her! So my next goal with Heidi is continuing to secure that OLH and then go over the difference of the invert and line of the spin for the OLH and ILH. ILH : I’ll be sure to have her go into a waisthold with her head above her hips and shoulders pulling away in more horizontal plane so the pole can contact the waist and go across the back.
Sandi: inverts are looking great, dismount: she chose the option I usually stay clear from, its not wrong, but a lot can go wrong with one false move or the release of a once contracted muscle. So plan of action is to change that up into something like a tuck or ½ fankick in slow motion out of it, then continue the movement. For her leg hang if the outside hip came a bit higher or the hands came down the pole after the chopper with her rotating the torso into the pole that outside hip has the chance to get higher, leg across and knee pit secure. She has progressed these with only guidance of finding a OLH from laying on the floor in a side lying V.
Bri: Feeling confident in her consistent choppers which have taken two years and the looking over the shoulder was a game changer. She is working on the OLH and I demonstrated the chest puff and sliding the hands down. Then from the floor had her get into the OLH by rotating towards the pole with her torso and she felt where it needed to be in order to get the outside knee pit to the pole. Will continue working on this from the floor and bring into standing inversion.
Lindsey: Chopper to OLH with right arm high is solid, chopper to OLH with left arm high: added a slight turn of the torso or looking over the inside shoulder to help that outside hip hike up a bit more (video is the before)! We went over ILH from jasmine and a flare. She got into it great from a flare, the jasmine caused her to be in the hip too much vs the waisthold and she was unable to adjust into the waist hold due to limited range of motion, flexibility of the outside leg.
What worked?
Day 1: They got warm fast. The cue looking over the inside shoulder, having them push their head into my hand as the hips come up, low hands and long spine for the waist hold. Bands and blocks for assistance with a spot.
Day 2: Slowing down the chin ups with band assistance for Bri and Lindsey improved form. Bringing leg hangs to the floor to go over form and revisit standing inverts to leg hangs.
What didn’t?
Day 1: Heidi and Lindsey felt it warmed them up fast and their muscles got tired faster during class.
Bri felt she needed more stretch of the hamstrings and is use a stretch based warm up vs heat generating.
All pull ups demonstrated without the band to see where they were at and what they would typically do and then added the band in the next time around. I may start with the band regardless in class because I’d rather see them progress by decreasing the resistance vs start out trying to do a pull up. Also beginning with passive and active hangs which they had already done in another class so we did went straight to the pullups.
[include media documentation]
Day 2 (week 4): Their muscles and backs are fatigued by the halfway point. They have been taking invert training on Monday and Sunday with 3 + other classes a week. We discussed the importance of rest days and flex and stretch only days since the muscles that are awakening can become fatigued. ILH: this has been a difficult one as we’ve been working on it for a month. It’s accessing a comfortable and secure ILH. We discussed common injuries and how to actively leg hang vs passively. Also discussed the placement of the pole for ILH being waist hold and an open vs a closed ILH. Flexibility for this one to get the pole in the proper position and finding an entry that is attainable for each of them as well. I have on next weeks plan to warm up and include a happy baby pose with the forearms coming between the legs and through the knee pit. Then the knee pits can squeeze the elbow pit and vice versa. Followed by floor leg hangs. Then go over variations of ILH entrances: apprentice, jasmine, OLH to ILH switch or sit to ILH. This will be at some point in the next month or so seeing how their placement goes from the floor, active holds from a bridge and stretching.
VI. Results of strategy: They are all excited with the progress they have made. Each of them said they feel stronger and more fluid. They would love to see it become incorporated in their combinations. Which I have the first one as dip turn, invert, OLH. They all shared with the new level 2 member how long it has taken them to get to this point: Bri: 2 years taking two classes a week and has increased to 4 (two being stretch), Sandi: (has a yoga background) two months taking 4-5 classes per week, Lindsey: 2 years taking 3 classes per week and Heidi : 1 year taking 2-3 classes per week. They have told many other members about it and now we are getting requests for invert specific classes and coaching!
VII. Concluding findings: Explain what this case study has taught you and how it can help other people.
That there is a lot of cross training off of the pole that’s necessary for it to work on the pole and awareness of where your body, strength and flexibility is at vs where it needs to be. That all bodies are capable of some type of inversion if the individual is willing to put in the time and effort.
I really like that this certification gave me so much to work with in my classes. I have an endless library of warm ups, strength training, peer videos from group meetings that I can reflect on. Plus having students go through a day training in the studio was so much fun! I have ideas on how to bring inversions into combinations in class since there are many types and placement options. I feel like it gave me the stepping stone for my new polers and modifications for my experienced polers. I have found great progress in my own inversions. I also have become hyperaware of form and am really encouraging all of our instructors to take the course or have those who took it teach the inversions because the risk and history of injury is so high otherwise.
I feel like there could for sure be levels of this: beginner inversions like we just did to an intermediate and advanced version that we didn’t really dive into. Inversion flow for beginners as there is a lot out there for more intermediate and advanced polers. So this is something I am working on with my class and letting them know that they don’t have to rush into the next level after accomplishing an invert, the fluidity of the movement will also compliment with they will be doing in the upper levels as well.
VIII. Reflection Questions: Did you invest yourself in this process? What are you proud of in this process?
I did invest myself in this process. This is an extremely important skill to learn as every instructor in our studio has had an injury of some sort and many were due from inverts. I wanted to reduce that risk of injury with our members and give them the tools to do so. I wanted this for myself as having a toddler I’ve had to learn new things about my postpartum body: in some ways I’m more flexible, where I’ve lost and gained strength, what works for my body and what doesn’t and what I need to do to have my desired, strong invert. I think having a course geared towards this milestone has helped me to realize what all is necessary to make inverts successful and the amount of time it takes to be successful varies with each individual.
I am proud that I watched all of the videos and got through it with just taking one week off ( I had a burnout week where my mind and body needed rest ). I am proud that I got my chopper back and OLH. I am so excited to bring these skills into my classes and a beginner invert specific class. I can’t believe how much is accessible after accomplishing those two inversions! Also I feel so much more confident teaching these as an instructor!