I'm sorry I missed last week, I've been away at an audition and couldn;t make it to a computer.

And because I've been wokring on my choreography for the audition I haven't really been working on my stretching. I did get a job though so thats one good thing.

I hope you've all be wokring harder than me.

BAllet_Baibe

Congratulations on the job!

I have been renting the Deborah Vogel videos (among others) via KineticFlix. I've found that a lot of problems can be due to a tight iliopsoas. That's a pair of very deep core muscles. One runs from about the middle of your back down and around your pelvis and anchors in front somewhere around the top of the thigh. The other is shorter and runs approximately from the top of the pelvis to the top of the thigh. You would think that if these muscles were tight it would keep your butt tucked under, but no. It has the opposite effect, making you swaybacked so that just tightening your stomach muscles isn't enough to drop the derierre toward the floor and keep your waist level. Well, I've always had to keep an absolute death grip with my butt in order to not be swaybacked; however now I'm adding more iliopsoas stretches. These consist of all sorts of variations of the runner's lunge. Interestingly, I've always liked those stretches simply because they feel sooooo goooood.

There's a great, new, variation on these stretches that I've learned. Lie on your back on the kitchen table or something of similar height with your buttocks right at the edge. (A high bed isn't as good because it is too squishy.) Pull one leg, bent, toward your chest and let the othe dangle over. Then switch legs to do this on the other side, of course. You'll feel a great stretch in the hip flexors. I find it even better than the ususal runner's stretches because I can simply relax and the muscle stretches out longer than when I'm on my feet.

Well done! I'm happy to hear you got the job!
I stretched about every second day and I don't see an improvement. Like, not at all. But I think my muscles look more bulky. :-/